Model years Chrysler PT Cruiser
2009 Chrysler PT Cruiser
This year drew an ordinary 97 complaints for a Chrysler PT Cruiser — the model's median is 149. What they were about is the unusual part: 16.5% of them mention dangerous, against 2.9% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 97 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 149 |
| Involving a crash | 4 |
| Involving a fire | 1 |
| Recalls | 0 |
| EPA combined | 21 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- dangerous — 16.5% of this year's complaints, against 2.9% across the model's other years (5.7×).
- gauge — 11.3% of this year's complaints, against 1.5% across the model's other years (7.8×). Owners wrote it as: gauge, hurt.
- happened again — 6.2% of this year's complaints, against 0.5% across the model's other years (11.5×).
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
What owners wrote
I WAS IN A HWY. ALL OF A SUDDEN, ALL THE GAUGES LIGHT UP AND I LOST POWER. I PUSH THE GAS PEDAL BUT NO ACCELERATION. I MANAGED TO PARK ON THE SIDE. I TURNED OFF THE ENGINE AND RESTARTED THE CAR AGAIN. THIS HAPPENED JUST 3 WEEKS AFTER I BOUGHT THE CAR. IT HAPPE…
WHILE RUNNING AT 45 MPH ALL THE WARNING LIGHTS CAME ON, THE GAUGES WENT TO ZERO, AND THE MOTOR STARTED STUMBLING. TRYING TO NURSE IT HOME, I STOPPED AT A RED LIGHT WHERE THE PREVIOUS THINGS HAPPENED AGAIN BUT ALSO THE MOTOR COMPLETELY SHUT OFF. THIS LEFT ME ST…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Chrysler PT Cruiser was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2009 Chrysler PT Cruiser? What happened to yours?
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