Chrysler 200 Luxury Sedan and Soft Ride
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| Chrysler 200 |
Situated as Chrysler’s mid-size auto offering, the Chrysler 200 takes on the Toyota Camry, Honda Accord, Nissan Altima, Ford Fusion, Chevrolet Malibu, Hyundai Sonata and Kia Optima. Working with limited funds and even more limited time, Chrysler couldn’t change the sheet metal.
Chrysler was able to more substantially revise the Sebring’s interior, and the 200’s is more attractive than those in the Camry, Accord, and Fusion. The sedan’s cleanly-styled instrument panel, many padded surfaces, and classy piano black trim with chrome highlights suggest that it should be considered a premium car. The Hyundai Sonata might pose the largest challenge by combining style with above-average materials and workmanship.
The Chrysler 200’s minimally bolstered seats, though certainly more comfortable than the Sebring’s hard slabs, recall domestic iron from years past. The thick A-pillars, tall instrument panel, and overly distant windshield conspire with these seats to thwart any meaningful connection with the car.
There’s some torque steer under hard acceleration, but the real problem is posed by curves. Some cars ask to be driven aggressively. The Regal has the opposite problem: well-tuned chassis, merely adequate engine. No doubt the other journalist lacked Jack’s mad driving skills, but it also happens that the minivan steers and handles much better than the sedan. My earlier suspicion that Chrysler cribbed from VW’s work for the Routan?
One thing the Chrysler 200 definitely has going for it: a low price. With the V6, leather, sunroof (not on the tested car), navy, and premium audio it lists for $28,505. A comparably equipped Toyota Camry XLE lists for $3,700 more, and adjusting for remaining feature differences using True Delta’s car price comparison tool narrows the gap by only about $300. Unlike the revised minivans, the revised sedan doesn’t contain any pleasant surprises.
The good: When equipped with the Pentastar V-6 engine, the 2011 Chrysler 200 Touring offers respectable performance and economy at a reasonable price.
The bottom line: The Chrysler 200 Touring improves quite a bit on its predecessor, the Sebring, but its cabin quality and tech options still fall short of what wed consider entry-level luxury .
Chrysler has emerged from the land of recession and bailouts with a new model, the Chrysler 200. The engines 260 pound-feet of torque is transmitted through a six-speed automatic transmission with Auto Stick manual shift mode. With six speeds, you can accelerate fairly well from a stop and hum along happily at highway speeds. Chrysler has softened the ride of the already mushy Sebring in an attempt to give the Chrysler 200 a luxury sedans soft ride. Louder still, the cabin electronics package of our Touring model shouts, "Im a rental!" with its lack of standard features and options
