For the past 15 years, I have been driving "Snowball", a 1988 Volkswagen Fox. Snowball has been a good friend, taking me everywhere I wanted to go without compaint, trying her hardest to keep up with the more powerful vehicles now on the roads and giving me good performance with low operation and maintenance costs. So, it was with great difficulty that I decided to retire her.

I had fallen in love with the PT Cruiser styling on first glimpse in 1999, but never thought I would ever own one! Each year, I would collect another brochure...2001, 2002 and 2003. But it was purely on impulse that I drove Snowball over to Parkway Chrysler to take another look.

All it took was a test drive and I was pretty sure this was the vehicle for me! But, being the researcher that I am, I felt I owed it to myself to look at a variety of other cars before committing to the PT Cruiser. I looked at Pontiacs, Saturns, Toyotas, Chevrolets and Volkswagens; I went to nearby dealerships and did test drives; and, finally, sat down at my computer to compare features.

I went online to view automobile comparisons on a variety of sites (US and Canadian); into forums to see what kinds of problems people were having; to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety sites in the USA, as well as, Transport Canada; and finally to automobile publications, both online and at the book store.

After all that, I came to the conclusion that the PT Cruiser, my original choice, was the car for me!

When I told my salesman, James, what model I wanted, he assured me he could find it. However, what we both didn't realize is that manual transmission PT Cruisers are more difficult to find than one would think! I was to the point of resigning myself to waiting another year before getting a new vehicle when James told me that he had located two - a Patriot Blue Limited Edition in Quebec, and an Onyx Green Classic Edition in Ontario. Ironically, my impulsive, last-minute color choice was Onyx Green!

Not wanting to wait any longer, I gave him the okay to get me the 2003 Onyx Green PT Cruiser...and am I happy that I did! Even the base model has more bells and whistles than the Snowball. And, it's all beautifully put together, handles well in inclement weather and gives me decent gas mileage. What more could I ask?

Like most PT Cruiser owners, I'm proud of her beauty and want to share photos of her with everyone. So, the photos that follow on this page are of Esmerelda!