At $26,145 in the United States, Chrysler has priced its fully redesigned 2008 Sebring convertible $US645 below the comparable outgoing model with $2,965 more standard content. The replacement for the Florida tourist’s rental car is significant because it offers a choice of two soft tops plus a folding hardtop, and will be much more widely exported than its predecessor, now right-hand drive models are available.
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The new line reaches US dealerships in the second quarter of 2007 and exports start in the second half of 2007.
Chrysler UK would launch only the right hand drive hard top early in 2008, a spokesman told just-auto.com on Friday, noting that it was likely European markets would get the soft top options as well. The outgoing model has been sold on the left-hand-drive European continent for some years, but only a single batch of 30 (LHD) came to the UK – several years ago.
The Sebring convertible has, Chrysler claims, long been America’s favourite convertible, solidly leading the segment for the past decade, and best-selling US convertible for seven of the past 11 years.
The automaker said the new line would compete primarily in the US ‘standard specialty’ segment, with some consideration from ‘luxury specialty segment’.
“The convertible portion of the standard specialty segment has remained fairly steady over the past five calendar years, with an average of 150,000 units sold each year. The convertible segment is expected to achieve steady growth in the near future as buyers turn to more niche vehicles,” the automaker noted.
It added that it expected its new convertible to appeal to successful ‘baby boomers’ (people born since the second world war ended in 1945).
“These buyers are 40-60 years old, and 70% of them are married. They are well-educated and earn a median income of approximately $90,000. Fifty percent are male, 50% are female and 60% are college-educated,” Chrysler said.
“Sebring convertible delivers open-air freedom with elegant coupe styling and functionality of a year-round car,” the automaker added as it readied its first folding hardtop for sale. Other recent launches in the fast-growing tin-top convertible segment in the US include the Pontiac G6, BMW 3-series and Volkswagen Eos.
Ironically, despite the popularity of soft-top convertibles there, North America has been starved of hard-top convertibles – bar the Mercedes SLK and Lexus SC – until the recent arrival of the Pontiac, VW and, very soon, the 3-series.
Here in Europe, the segment was spurred as far back as 2001 by the little Peugeot 206CC, with room only for two adults and two small children, but since joined by the larger 307, French rival Renault’s Laguna, the GM Europe Opel/Vauxhall Tigra and Astra, Ford’s Focus, the Eos and others. That means that, wherever it goes world-wide, the folding tin-top Sebring is unlikely to be the first car of its type to market.
US Sebring convertible standard or optional equipment – Chrysler usually ‘specs up’ the versions it exports, by the way – includes standard side seat-mounted air bags, four-wheel disc anti-lock brakes, tyre-pressure monitoring system, automatic latching convertible top, standard hard tonneau cover, AM/FM stereo with six-disc CD player, six-way power driver and passenger seats and a tilt/telescoping steering wheel.
This completely redesigned Sebring convertible is built on the company’s new D-segment platform and is claimed to comfortably seat four adults, leaving enough room in the boot (trunk) to hold two golf bags, even when the top is down.
Said George Murphy, Chrysler’s senior vice president – global marketing: “[the Sebring] is the only retractable hard top in the segment that can pass the two-golf-bag test.”
Three automatically latching convertible top options are on offer in the US: vinyl, cloth and a body-colour painted steel retractable hard top, all of which can be retracted by a key fob remote control. A standard power hard tonneau cover is standard on all models, too.
US-market cars will come with three trim levels, each with a lengthy option list. The standard powerplant is the 2.4-litre ‘world engine’ (a product of the Chrysler/Mitsubishi/Hyundai/Kia engine alliance) that produces 173hp (129 kW) and 166lb-ft (225 Nm) of torque coupled with a four-speed automatic transmission.
Touring models get a 189hp/141kW 2.7-litre V6 ethanol-compatible flexible fuel vehicle (FFV) engine with four-speed automatic.
Limited models have a 235hp/175kW 3.5-litre V6 coupled to a new six-speed automatic transaxle that comes standard with ‘auto stick’ manual override.
Production of the new convertibles began recently at Chrysler’s newly refurbished Sterling Heights, Michigan, assembly plant. The 2.4-litre four-cylinder engine is built in the Global Engine Manufacturing Alliance plant in Dundee, also in Michigan, while the 2.7- and 3.5-litre V6s come from the Kenosha engine plant in Wisconsin.
Graeme Roberts
