Background
I smashed up my Magnum several weeks ago by running into the back of a woman in a Liberty who cut me off and braked suddenly. The front of my car impacted the tailgate spare tire and did quite a number on my car. In my part of the world, this means I was at fault, nuff said!
Anyways I continued to drive the car with a smashed up front because there were NO repair facilities who could take the car for at least 2 weeks, and I thought my vehicle was still driveable. When I finally got it in for an evaluation, the mechanic immediately told me the car was NOT driveable and that I was lucky it had even kept running for me!
[I have never been in an smash up before and no one but me ever even looked at the car, and I am nowhere close to a mechanic, the car didn't overheat, every thing including the turn signals worked, so I just assumed the car was OK except for cosmetic damage and my injured pride. (42 years accident free).
I took the car to the police station to file an accident report immediately after the smash, no one at the police station bothered to look at the vehicle or came to the scene of the accident, even tho I phoned 911 at the time.]
Since I was now without a vehicle, the insurance company offered me a rental car which I picked up today.
To my delight it was a brand new 200 with 65 kilometers on the odometer!
It is a 2.4 automatic with a black cloth interior and I think the exterior color is 'titanium', a kind of medium silver which I love. The car came with Sirius radio, heated seats, air, CD player, cruise control, heated mirrors, (I live in central Alberta, these things are important here), and remote start.
Now, I will confess to having never driven either a Sebring/200 or an Avenger before, so I have no preconceptions about the vehicle other than what I have read and heard from others.
This is a fantastic car! It fit me perfectly, the seats were very comfortable, road noise was nearly non-existent, it steered and handled well, and the driver of the C63 AMG I passed on the freeway nearly hit his chin on his steering wheel, LOL!
I drive hard, and the car averaged about 10.6L per 100 Kms. in mixed driving around town. I'll let someone else figure the mpg's. Nice steering wheel, good driving position, excellent outward vision. This car is SO MUCH BETTER than I anticipated it would be. No wonder they are selling so well.
I can really see why Chrysler isn't hurrying to bring out the new model, if the base 200 is this good. My only minor complaint was the slightly buzzy engine noise, which could be fixed by some better audio tuning, or the Tigershark 2.4, I hope. It accelerated well and never felt stressed even at 110 kph/ 67mph.
Perhaps some members here have driven both an older and newer version of this car and could recognize the upgrades, but I REALLY don't understand how people could spend so much time dissing this car.
Were I in the market for another vehicle, I would have written a check for this one.
Comments please!