He ain't dead, Jim. Shortly after new CEO Sergio Marchionne was quoted as saying it would live another year, Chrysler has officially announced that the original retro-wagon -- the Chrysler PT Cruiser -- will live on.
"The heritage-styled Chrysler PT Cruiser continues to be a global success story," said Peter Fong, President and CEO of the Chrysler Brand. "With more than 1.3 million PT Cruisers sold in more than 60 countries since 2000, we're excited to announce we're re-energizing the iconic and award-winning PT Cruiser."
The PT Cruiser, on the road since 2000, will continue to be built exclusively at Chrysler's plant in Toluca, Mexico. Previous plans had the car pegged for discontinuation and its tooling sold to a Russian automaker, but those plans appear to have been scrapped in favor of keeping the award-winning car on Chrysler dealership lots. When Marchionne first said that the car wouldn't die quite yet, he indicated that it would continue to be produced for one more year.
Chrysler did not say today whether or not that is still the plan, or exactly how long the PT Cruiser's stay of execution will last. What do you think? Should Chrysler continue to build the PT, or should it go away now?
Source: Chrysler