The Sebring is dead! Long live the 200!

So does part of Chrsyler's rebuilding strategy involve going European and ditching names for numbers and letters?
It's not like "Sebring" was a hallowed name, but American cars should have cool names.
It's supposed to be a lower-level 300.

Chrysler-300C.jpg
 
At least the 300 is available with a Hemi V8 and rear wheel drive. This is following in the footsteps of the Avenger and we all know how much that ended up like the Charger it is trying to be.
 
200c.jpg

200c1.jpg

200c2.jpg


Sadly, the picture of the rear still has the old shape, so I have my doubts about it being any good. Having that said, I am extremely interested in seeing the interior of this new model.
 
The Sebring has as much to do with the track as the Pontiac Le Mans GTO had to do with either Le Mans or the Ferrari GTO.
 
I was responding more to Sebring being a hallowed name then the track relating to the car.
 
Yikes, Chrysler - even under Fiat control - is obviously horribly underfunded. Instead of using a clay model in the prototyping stage, it looks like they've just moulded a piece of poo to look vaguely like a car and said "that'll do".
 
To be fair, just because it's a major refresh of the current Sebring, doesn't necessarily mean it'll be complete crap. This is a stopgap that'll only be on the market for two years before an all new car debuts. Also, if the suspension and stuff gets sorted out properly and the interior becomes class competitive (these are two major pain points of the current Sebring) then I could see it possibly doing ok in the marketplace. I'm disappointed that they didn't go "all the way" with the powertrain's like they are doing with the minivans. Why not put in the 6 speed across the board? It would certainly help produce more fuel economy out of the four cylinder, which is totally unacceptable at 30 mpg highway in the current car.
 
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To be fair, just because it's a major refresh of the current Sebring, doesn't necessarily mean it'll be complete crap. This is a stopgap that'll only be on the market for two years before an all new car debuts. Also, if the suspension and stuff gets sorted out properly and the interior becomes class competitive (these are two major pain points of the current Sebring) then I could see it possibly doing ok in the marketplace. I'm disappointed that they didn't go "all the way" with the powertrain's like they are doing with the minivans. Why not put in the 6 speed across the board? It would certainly help produce more fuel economy out of the four cylinder, which is totally unacceptable at 30 mpg highway in the current car.

Yep, my 1996 4-banger Sebring got about 30 MPG highway. Progress!
 
It's been revealed!
01-2011-chrysler-200.jpg

04-2011-chrysler-200.jpg

Interesting things: The pics seem to have been selected to hide the middle of the car, which is just the old Sebring. There's a new interior, but no pics - worrying, that - but it's not like it could be worse.
Sauce
 
I love how internet blog commenters that consider themselves "enthusiasts" are like "OMG It's a SEBRING!!", etc.

edit: realized ^^ could be misconstrued....not referring to you guys (FG people are smart cookies and know a distinction between a blog vs. a forum..but throwing in this just in case...)

What enthusiast doesn't know product lifecycles? There's absolutely no way in hell they were going to be able to produce an entirely new car in a year's time. I personally think it looks good. Not jaw-dropping gorgeous but far more tastefully styled than the previous car. It's the stuff under the skin (suspension, powertrain, etc.) that killed the current car's appeal. All of that has been reworked for the 200.
 
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From what I have heard from the Autoblog podcast the chassis itself is pretty bad. It would take far more than a couple tweaks.

I'm guessing FIAT will rebadge one of their Euro cars to speed up the arrival of a replacement.
 
I suspect people wouldn't be going "it's just a Sebring" if Chrysler wasn't so desperate to pretend it was more than a Sebring. They are renaming it after all, and trying to hide the carryover through clever camera angles.
 
I suspect people wouldn't be going "it's just a Sebring" if Chrysler wasn't so desperate to pretend it was more than a Sebring. They are renaming it after all, and trying to hide the carryover through clever camera angles.

I agree. I don't think the name's as "severly tainted" as many believe. It was only this generation that was super omg awful. They should have saved the 200 name for something truely all new. :)
 
I love how internet blog commenters that consider themselves "enthusiasts" are like "OMG It's a SEBRING!!", etc.

edit: realized ^^ could be misconstrued....not referring to you guys (FG people are smart cookies and know a distinction between a blog vs. a forum..but throwing in this just in case...)

What enthusiast doesn't know product lifecycles?

See "Internet Fuckwad Theory" and "Autoblog" and how they relate. Anonymous user on blog suddenly becomes industry genius.
 
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