And the Chrysler Sebring spy shots continue to flood in…

Christopher got the sharpest, clearest spy shots I think I’ve ever seen, capturing the 2007 Chrysler Sebring, albeit in camo. We posted them in our 2007 Chrysler Sebring / Dodge Avenger page at http://www.allpar.com/cars/dodge/avenger.html page, with our heartfelt thanks.

At the same time, more par-for-the-course spy shots have been posted at Ray Wert’s blog, but these are of the next generation Sebring Convertible, “with some clear Crossfire-styling that the pictures don’t do justice.” It’s a shame he didn’t tell us whether the ragtop will be, um, a ragtop or a hardtop.

The name changes for the Sebring and Avenger are interesting. We do expect the Sebring to continue, since Sebring is currently the top-selling convertible in the country, and we doubt even Chrysler would be crazy enough to let that go by the wayside (you know, like Plymouth Voyager, Dodge Spirit, Plymouth Valiant, or Dodge Dart…). As for Stratus, well, we were never especially fond of the name, though the first generation Stratus was a great car with many of the Neon’s fun characteristics but more room and a more family-oriented sitting position (oh, yes, and a nice big trunk). It’s the name we weren’t too happy with; they might as well have stuck with Spirit - the Dodge Spirit, by the way, sold better than the Stratus, and while we realize they wanted to distance themselves from the dated-when-created technology of the Spirit, they should probably have thought about those hundreds of thousands of existing Spirit owners. Not that Chrysler has thought about existing owners, at least since Walter P. died, but you know, they’re out there. Not for long in many cases, but they’re out there. Still, we digress.

Stratus is to be replaced, according to all rumors, by Avenger, altogether a more fun name and one which does go back in Chrylser history - to the Mitsubishi-designed-and-built coupe, and before that to the innovative Hillman cars. We do hope they go with Avenger, because if the Rebel/Caliber is any indication, it’ll end up being called Trigger or Wesson or Bullet or Gunpowder or something like that. (It’s the new Dodge Way. First there was the Colt, then the Magnum, then the Caliber.)

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the new 2007 Chrysler Sebring spy shots, as well as the brother-car 2007 Dodge Avenger - those cars are shown rather nicely on the same page, with new semi-spy-shots. Happy viewing!