Anyone know anything about PT Cruisers?

Some other options for small cars with good utility:
1. Mazda Protege5. The Protege (since replaced by the 3) was a great car when redesigned in 1999, then the Protege5 small wagon came out in either 2001 or 2002. Real nice car, though a bit small. The 3 also has a wagon, but it's newer and will thus cost more.
2. Pontiac Vibe/Toyota Matrix. Same car, pretty sure they are based on the Toyota Corolla. Came out in 2003, so you can probably find an earlier one cheap. The Pontiac will likely be cheaper because of the name. I have a couple of friends who have had Vibes and they love 'em.
3. Saturn SW2. I've owned two older Saturns, one had typical oil and transmission issues but the other was great. The S-series cars are older (wagons were made from 1993-2001) so they should be cheap if you can find them. The older Saturns were pretty reliable, aside from the common oil burning (not a big deal as long as you keep checking on a regular basis) and the auto tranny's fairly common "reverse slam" issue.
With any of those options, you'll be getting far better mileage than an Exploder.

 

This was supposed to go on the 'Wedding' thread. Sorry.

 

A lot of PT Cruisers were bought by older people, who tend to not drive all that much.

 

It's a fat girl's car. Just sayin...

 

Well, my fiancee - who is a personal trainer - is very happy right now. She is by no means a fat girl and she avoided the fat girl car, which has her laughing her ass off right now.

The PT Cruiser got sold, leaving us back at square one, since we didn't get the loan for the Explorer either.

So we drove to a strip of dealers in a nearby town and just started browsing. Ended up getting a 2001 Honda Civic with 100,000 miles for $6,500, about $700 below blue book value and it's in perfect condition.

In addition, we refinanced my car loan and got it so that we're paying less now for two cars than we were for mine ($333 instead of $354) and that includes a BMW service plan on both cars that covers EVERYTHING (we bought the car at a BMW/Toyota dealership and financed through BMW). Basically, the warranty that new BMW owners get, we got on both cars for $1,000 total. If I tell them I have a stain on my seat, they'll send someone out and detail the inside of my car for free. It's that good.

I priced out an extended warranty on my car (an '05 Mustang) and it was $2,000. One that covered only the big fixes cost $1,800. We got both cars covered for half that with only a $50 deductible on everything from tire replacement to alternators to head gaskets and cylinders, so we're pretty happy.

Thanks to everyone who posted about the PT Cruiser. I was uncomfortable with it to begin with and we damn near bought it. Finally found a Civic in our price range that wasn't a piece o' crap and got some piece of mind with it for $10 more per month.

Now I'm celebrating with a Longboard Lager and my beautiful fiancee!