There are some days when you just want to look your best. It may not matter how you feel on the inside, but you want to look great to those around you. Now that my 10 year high school reunion is creeping up on me, I am beginning to know what that's like. The added weight, the laugh-lines around the eyes, and plain old age is starting to show up on this body of mine. I still have time to get in shape before it's time to face all of my old high school chums, but every passing day brings me a little closer to having to invest in that ab roller.
People often feel the same way about their cars as they do about their bodies. As long as it looks nice they are happy and content. Nevermind that it may occasionally leave a pool of oil in the garage, or burst a hose while 15 miles from anywhere; the most important thing is that the car looks good when the valet parks it. In recent years, manufacturers have been shying away from this approach to marketing their cars. Even Jaguar, notorious for building pretty faces around horrifying machinery, has updated their line enough to include cars that run nearly as well as they look. If you search hard enough, however, you can still come across a car or two that looks much, much better than it really is.
Take the Chrysler Sebring Convertible, for example. The car's exterior shape is as attractive as anything else on the road. The elegant yet slightly overdone grille flows nicely into the muscular flanks of the car. The broad shoulders sweep back into the tidy back end that looks a little bit like a Chevrolet Camaro. Nice wheels, bright red paint, and a tasteful camel top made our test car one hell of a looker for those on the outside looking in.
Those spending much time on the inside, however, will have a different story to tell. The shiny plastic surfaces covering much of the center console and dashboard have a cheap, clickety feel. We found the front seats highly uncomfortable due to a lack of seat travel, a short cushion, and a low level of adjustability. The air vents are nearly impossible to adjust properly and they provide a constant stream of air whether you want them to or not. The leather upholstery on the chairs looks like it was borrowed from the Barcaloungers-R-Us factory warehouse. The switchgear for the power windows and door locks is low rent, and the turn signal stalk felt flimsier than the ones found on many of the GM vehicles that we have complained about for so long. The stereo controls are the same ones found in the Jeep Cherokee and Grand Cherokee, and while they work well in there, they look dated and out of place in the Sebring's sweeping dash. To give some credit to Chrysler's interior designers, we liked the two-tone dashboard and the seat-integrated front seatbelts. We do want to know, though, who in the heck designed those cupholders? They are about as useful as oars on an airplane.
Since our tester was equipped with the optional V-6 engine and Chrysler's AutoStick auto-manual transmission, we were hoping to spend some carefree, top down days zipping through the foothills outside of Denver. Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate and we ended up spending more than half of our time in the car with the top up. This is probably not a bad thing, since Chrysler has positioned the car as a practical convertible, and we otherwise not have driven it like most people do in their day-to-day activities. The fully lined cloth top is easy to operate; release two latches and press a button to make it go down, reverse the operation to make it go back up. A glass rear window with defroster was appreciated on a few of those frosty late-April mornings, and rearward visibility was much better than most convertibles when the top was up. Top up wind noise was louder than expected, though, and we noticed a few leaks that let in an annoying wind whistle at freeway speeds, and a trickle of water when run through the car wash.
Driving the Sebring turned out to be more fun than we expected. While it's engine is not particularly strong, it pulls well enough at low speeds. The AutoStick transmission is an interesting piece of equipment, designed to appeal to the practical enthusiast in all of us. With two modes to choose from, the AutoStick-equipped Sebring could be driven as a traditional automatic or as a semi-manual. When in the manual mode, the gears are controlled directly by the driver who selects which gear he wants by flicking the gear lever to the left or the right. Gear changes are sequential, as in a motorcycle, so it's impossible to shift from 2nd to 4th gear without first passing through 3rd. We had fun with this system for a few hours, but ultimately decided that it didn't give us any sort of performance advantage over the regular automatic mode. A problem that accompanied the AutoStick was the minuscule gear indicator on the dashboard. Since the gears are sequential, it is easy to forget which one you're in; we would have preferred something a little larger to remind us. As expected, the Sebring proved not to be a good candidate for high speed comparison test. Its acceleration capabilities bog down at about 80 mph; if you have to pass at speeds higher than that pray for a strong tail wind. Other than these gripes, we were won over by the car's handling. Its suspension is well damped, but not so much as to eliminate road feel. The tires hang onto the pavement pretty well, and the back end can be coaxed out of line with easy-to-master throttle inputs. Understeer is the dominant handling characteristic at the Sebring's limits of adhesion, but until you get there it is amazingly easy to live with.
So why you ask, do we not recommend this attractive, fairly fun to drive convertible? Well, it has to do with unrefined interior materials and an exorbitant asking price. Costing more than $27,000 dollars, the Sebring JXi's price tag is steeper than other convertibles like the Mustang GT, Camaro Z28, Pontiac Sunfire, or Toyota Celica. We sincerely doubt that a slightly larger rear seat and trunk is worth the price premium of this car, especially when you take the flimsiness of the materials and lethargic engine into consideration.
The Sebring is not the worst car on the market, but we feel that it is one of the most misleading. Its size implies that it can hold four adults comfortably when in reality it is not any more practical than most 2+2 convertibles. Its price would lead you to believe that it is luxurious, but things like a boot with Velcro attachments suggest otherwise. Its styling would lead you to believe it's a sporty performer, and while this is true of the outstanding suspension, the powertrain doesn't pass muster. This car is about image, style, and looking good. We agree, if your idea of looking good runs toward wearing fake-n-bake tans, silicone-enhanced body parts, and lots of makeup. What looks good on the outside may prove disappointing in the long run. We think that's the case with the Sebring convertible.
