Chrysler Sebring - Heavyweight Contender?
Chrysler Sebring
Here in the UK, we're fairly comfortable with the notion of importing our automobiles. We're quite happy to drive German, Italian, Japanese, even Spanish cars (just so long as we don't have to drive French ones...). This is partly because we've forgotten how to make a decent car domestically. Fortunately however, when we realised this, we quickly entrusted our most precious marques to the most expert hands we could get our...hands...on.
The Germans.
We left Mini and Rolls Royce with BMW, and Volkswagen is looking after Bently for us. Thanks chaps.*
The result of all this is that now, even when we think we're driving British, we're most definitely not (unless you're sat in a Caterham, a Lotus or a TVR, which you're probably not). And we know this. So, when we're not, not driving British cars, we're not driving British cars. Do you follow? Basically, we never drive British cars. And we're happy with that.
And yet while we're clearly fine driving vehicles manufactured abroad, we've always had about us an air of caution and distrust when it comes to The Americans. While in global politics we're quick to hop into bed with the Yanks, when it comes to hopping into their cars... we're somewhat more coy.
This is not necessarily a bad thing, nor is it necessarily without good reason. Cars built for the American market have had a tendency to be ill-mannered when confronted with all the tricky technical sections found on British roads. Such as bends.
However, in recent years the offerings from our cousins across the pond have ably stepped up to the challenge of competing against cars from the continent, going so far as to test many on the notoriously bendy Nordschleife section of the Nurburgring! Yet not even THAT has been enough to dispel the intangible stigma that still surrounds the American Car.
Which is puzzling, because Vauxhall is American, and goodness knows we drive enough of those.
Chrysler has worked very hard for a number of years to gain a foothold in the British auto market, and that hard work, combined with signs that the tide of suspicion has started to ebb, will likely translate (from American to English) into there being a lot more Chryslers in drives and carports up and down the country.
And if the Chrysler Sebring is anything to go by, rightly so too!
Stylish and modern, the Sebring defies our collective dim national perception of American autos, bringing instead some classic Yankee good looks to our shores. Priced to compete in the mid-sized saloon class, against such heavy hitting stalwarts as the Ford Mondeo, the Vauxhall Vectra and the Renault Laguna, the Sebring will certainly have to fight hard to capture any sizeable chunk of its target market, so expect to see an extensive advertising campaign soon!
Oh and if you still had your reservations, you needn't worry, at the heart of this spacious and sumptuous sedan lies a 2.0l turbocharged common-rail diesel power-plant. Manufactured by Volkswagen. Clever Americans.
*we left Rover to fend for itself.
Jon Barlow is a writer and motoring enthusiast, he currently writes for the automotive industry. Here he considers the Chrysler Sebring
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