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Comparison review: eight midsize sedans (Eighth place)
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The Chrysler Sebring defines mediocrity and doesn't offer any good reason to consider
buying it.
The Chrysler Sebring could be worse.
It could have a stiff and uncomfortable ride, but it doesn’t. It could get horrible gas mileage, but it doesn’t. It could have a cramped interior, but it doesn’t. It could have poor reliability ratings, but it doesn’t. It could have an extremely high price, but it doesn’t.
But it should do something better than its competitors. And it doesn’t.
While few things about the Sebring (and the near-identical Dodge Avenger) are downright awful, so it might seem all right if that’s the only midsize sedan you test-drive. In general, the Sebring isn’t bad. It just isn’t good. Take a look at the competition and you’ll find the Sebring lagging behind in every measure.
Get into the Sebring, and you’ll find narrow, hard front seats facing an attractive dashboard that’s unfortunately fashioned from decidedly low-rent materials. Hard, cheap plastics are the norm in the car’s interior, and some plastic panels don’t line up properly. Moving parts are clunky, and the armrest is poorly placed. Thick roof pillars and a high trunk encroach upon the driver’s outward visibility.
The rear seat has good space for two passengers, but the Sebring’s family-friendly practicality is marred by a relatively narrow bench seat that requires the car’s fifth occupant to be either small or accommodating. The hard, flat seat isn’t comfortable either.
The Sebring has the smallest trunk of these eight, and the small opening would make loading bulky cargo difficult.
Start the 2.4-liter 4-cylinder engine, and you’ll find a bit more noise and vibration at idle than in most other new cars. That engine is also harsh-sounding and noisy under acceleration, but the Sebring does have sufficient pep for passing and merging. The four-speed automatic transmission is generally smooth, but upshifted harshly at one point as it coasted to a stop. The Sebring isn’t noisy at highway cruising speeds, but there could be less wind, road, and engine noise.
This engine is rated for 21 miles per gallon in the city and 30 on the highway, about average among these eight sedans.
The Sebring rides well on smooth pavement, but it recovers slowly after hitting bumps. It’s not agile, but it’s small enough to avoid feeling ponderous on twisty roads, and it’s maneuverable at low speeds. Don’t push it into fast corners, though.
In general, the Sebring doesn’t feel like a big car, but not in the light-on-its-feet sense valued by car enthusiasts. Rather, it’s narrow and noisy and feels insubstantial.
The Sebring’s crash-test performance has at least been solid, however. It falls shy of the top safety ratings from the IIHS and NHTSA, but it does beat a few of these eight in that area.
But crash test results aside, the Sebring’s general feeling of cheapness gives the overarching sense that a low cost was Chrysler’s top priority in each aspect of the car’s design. Unfortunately, they didn’t think to pass those savings along to the consumer to make the Sebring nearly as inexpensive as it feels.
Although Chrysler has officially discontinued the base LX version of the Sebring, it’s all that’s available at many local dealerships, unsold inventory that’s been waiting months for buyers. With no options, it has a sticker price of under $21,000, and Chrysler will sell it to you no-haggle for just over $18,000 under its current Employee Pricing Plus promotion.
However, that’s far from the lowest price of these eight. And a mid-level Touring equipped with the sunroof, power-adjustable driver’s seat, and alloy wheels found in most of the others here would run a steeper $21,219 out the door under the employee pricing deal, which is far from a steal.
Also absent from the base LX model are Chrysler’s unique accessories that it uses to offset its products’ incompetence. You don’t get the stain-resistant seats, the heated and cooled cupholders, or the fold-flat passenger seat. You also don’t get the electronic stability control, a system that works with the antilock brakes to help prevent skids.
The Sebring could be worse. It could be flat-out awful instead of just thoroughly mediocre. But without any strengths to speak of – including a price advantage – there’s no more reason to buy it when it’s thoroughly mediocre as there would be if it were flat-out awful.
http://www.chrysler.com/en/2009/sebring/
The target for these eight was to have a power driver's seat and a sunroof. Four of them hit this accurately, one had more accessories, and three had fewer. Any discrepancies will be noted as they appear to ease comparison of the vehicles.
Photos by Brady Holt.
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