Chrysler PT Cruiser Wins Design & Engineering Award
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PT Cruiser

Photo: DaimlerChrysler

Auburn Hills, Mich. - Popular Mechanics presented DaimlerChrysler with a Design & Engineering Award recognizing excellence in engineering, design and innovation for the 2001 Chrysler PT Cruiser.  

"The Chrysler PT Cruiser is just too darn cute," said Joe Oldham, Popular Mechanics Editor-in-Chief. "People like looking at it and it still draws crowds." 

"Yes, it could have won on design alone, but the engineering is there too," Oldham said. "Its happy little body is wrapped around a marvelous, innovative interior package." 

The Chrysler PT Cruiser, starting at $16,500, hit dealerships late March and has drawn unprecedented crowds to Chrysler showrooms. More than 56,000 of these segment-busting vehicles have been sold to date. Approximately 120,000 will be built for the 2001 model year and DaimlerChrysler has already added a second production site in Graz, Austria to help meet consumer demand -- bringing capacity to 230,000 vehicles for the 2002 model year. 

Although it's early in the 2001 model year, the Chrysler PT Cruiser has already won several other awards including: Business Week's "Products to Watch," Fortune's "Top Ten Pick of the Auto Show," Autoweek's "America's Best," and Wired Magazine's "Most Wired Product Design." 

(October 17, 2000)