<VV> Couple of A/C questions - PT Cruiser

[Vairtec Corporation]

Grant Young wrote:

> As an aside, if you own one of these or are thinking about buying one, be sure to purchase an extended warranty that covers electrical and air conditioning. It comes with a 70K one that only covers the drive train. I had to remove the grill, radiator support, weather stripping, electric fan assembly, air cleaner, battery and tray, cruise control, power steering reservoir (with resulting loss of fluid) etc. just to get access. I should remove the radiator for better access, but it's just too much trouble with all the connections for the cooling of the turbocharger.

I own a 2003 PT Cruiser, purchased new.  At the time that I bought it, a 
friend in the Corvair club who owns a body shop said, "if you crash it, 
don't bring it here!"  He said it tongue in cheek, but his point was 
just how crowded everything is under that hood.  He is right!

I bought the 7-year, 100,000-mile extended warranty with my car.  It was 
not expensive ($800-some dollars, as I recall), covered everything, and 
was financed along with the car at the then-current zero percent.  The 
car is now, of course, over seven years old and has 101,000 miles on it, 
so the warranty is now history.  I suffered a handful of minor failures 
during that time, and one big one:  The automatic transmission blew up.  
Everything was repaired under the warranty.  You can be sure that I 
liked that warranty when the transmission blew!

Generally speaking, I am not a fan of extended warranties, but in this 
case, when I saw what was covered and what it cost, I grabbed it.

Corvair content:  The Cruiser has had Corvair content -- I have carried 
entire Corvair engines in the car.

Unfortunately, I am not in a financial position to buy a new car at this 
point, so even though the warranty is now only a memory, the PT Cruiser 
and I cruise onward.

--Bob Marlow