Chrysler to launch Sebring saloon at London show
Newswheel staff :: 22 June 2006 :: Filed under Saloon, Chrysler, Chrysler Sebring, Europe & UK, US
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Dodgy styling, interesting tech specs
Chrysler’s new Sebring saloon will get its Euro debut at the London motor show in July. Design-wise, the latest Sebring is inspired by the Airflite show car of 2003. But let’s be frank, folks. This is no Audi TT-esque concept-car-for-the-road. Indeed, it’s not a patch on Chrysler’s own fabulously funky 300C full-sized four-door, either. The reality is a conventional four-door barge plastered in fussy styling cues. More’s the pity, for if nothing else the Sebring offers a few interesting technical twists… 
Problem is, it’s awfully hard to imagine the new Sebring selling in enough numbers in the UK to justify the hassle of shipping it to our shores. After all, the Chrysler Crossfire coupe is a much more cohesive chip off the same styling block as the Sebring. The Crossfire, need we remind you, has remained stubbornly welded to UK showroom floors.
What’s more, Chrysler worryingly suggests the car’s target market in the US is the 35 to 55 year-old age group. Any time a motor manufacturer openly admits that a new car isn’t destined to be driven by fresh-faced fashionistas you know there’s only one way this thing is going to end. That’s right, travel rugs on the parcel shelf and a faint smell of urine.
What might have been: the Airflite concept of 2003
Back in Blighty, the Sebring will be duking it out for Mondeo man’s money in the mid-sized front-drive saloon market. Prices are expected to kick off at around £16,000. As ever with American metal parachuted into the UK market, the Sebring’s on-paper specifications will be strong. The petrol engine range will include a 2.4-litre 170bhp four-pot mill and a 2.7-litre 187bhp V6 (US buyers will also be offered a 235bhp 3.5-litre six, but Chrysler has judged that lump too rich for our tastes). A Euro-friendly 2.0-litre diesel engine capable of 138bhp and 236lb/ft will also be offered.
However, it’s on the inside that the Sebring makes its, admittedly modest, mark. An integrated infotainment system known as ‘My Gig’ includes voice-activated sat-nav, a 20GB hard drive complete with USB port for data and music transfer, line-in for hooking up MP3 players, a voice-activated Bluetooth interface for using your mobile phone handset in handsfree mode and video playback capabilities when the car is parked. It’s the sort of feature set that we’d like to see fitted to just about every new car. Oh, and did we mention the special chemically-treated fabrics that apparently repel stains and odours of all kinds? Should come in handy with the aforementioned customer profile…
Where would a Yank tank be without a full compliment of cup holders? But these are no ordinary cup-holding accoutrements. The Sebring’s beverage bins can heat drinks to 60 degrees centrigrade or chill them to 1.5 degrees.
Production of the new Sebring begins in August with sales rumbling into action by the end of the year. Possibly…
Posted 16 January 2007, by Jorin
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