Edmunds Inside Line: Sebring, Avenger Get Urgent Makeovers
If there's one thing I can't stand (which is a lie, obviously) it's a made-up quote. It's easy enough to do. First, analyze some industry trend using your informed insight and common sense. Then, make up a quote, attribute it to an unnamed source and call it news. Edmunds' Inside Line [allegedly] shows us how it's done. First, the warm-up. "Supplier sources familiar with the product cycle plans at Chrysler tell Inside Line that the automaker is 'trying to move investment up' in the effort to improve the Sebring, Avenger and Sebring Convertible even earlier than originally planned." And then, the pitch! "'The interiors are too cheap,' said one highly placed industry source. 'We call it 'the Sebring problem.' That vehicle is dying on the vine and it's only a year old. They got cheap on everybody and said 'the customer doesn't mind hard plastic and ugly grain [in the cabin].'" Anita claims these same sources say Chrysler is considering dumping the Viper to pay for the Sebring, Avenger and Sebring Convertible fix. (Which Autoblog reports as gospel.) How about either doing the hard work of proper journalism or just fess-up to your own analysis?
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I've never even sat in a Sebring, but from the pictures, the interior doesn't really look THAT bad. The ugly, giant steering wheel is pretty ugly, but these things are land yachts anyway (My mother had a circa 2002 Sebring). A friend of mine got into an accident and ended up with a brand new dodge avenger, the 4 cylinder. It wasn't really a bad car, not if you didn't pay a lot for it, but it wasn't really at all good at anything. I could think of one thing that would make it a hell of a lot better though, RWD. A rear-driver with a decent V6 and available stick shift would at least differentiate it in the market, especially with its mini-charger styling anyway.
ZCline-- I couldn't agree more on the RWD thing. It's sad that DCX didn't allow these cars to be built on the out-going w203 C-Class chassis and duplicate the success of the LX cars. I can just hear the discussions-- " ACH! ZO? VAT? YOO VANT VAT? VE AH ZEE IMPOOOOTENT VUNS HIER!! AMERICANS VON'T NUELL ZEE DIFFERENCE!!"
Putting a nicer interior in that pig is like putting a nice big fancy bow on a piece of dog poop - it still stinks.
The Sebring's interior is too cheap? After reading a Car & Driver comparison test I thought the interior was the best thing going for the car. An excerpt: We’ve been critical of Chryslers over the years for their sheeny-shiny cabins, obviously plastic. But not here. The colors are Audi subtle, surfaces are gloss-free zones, and just when we thought we’d seen every grain pattern that man could hatch, Chrysler designers went abstract, forsaking imitation leather in favor of a simulated spatter effect. It really works. In fact, the quality of the interior materials easily tops the group.