My wife’s Merc SLK has gone to the garage for a few days and my loan car is a Chrysler Sebring 2.0 Limited, with EVERY optional extra from the list............sounds promising, but it is ages since I have driven a car this appalling.

Chrysler target this car bang in the middle of 3 series country, for the aspiring executive. No executives I know would touch this with a barge pole, favoring a poverty spec 318i without hesitation.

From the 'leather' interior than came from a vinyl cow to the 5 speed tractor gearbox, everything about this car screams tat. Why on earth would anyone sell a car this bad, let alone part with the thick end of £20k for one.

Today I drove my Octavia vRS for the first time in a couple of weeks (wife uses it during the week) and it was a revelation. This is a so-called budget car, yet the interior fit and finish are light-years ahead of the Chrysler. It's road manners are sublime in comparison to the Yank and I yearn to have my Octavia (or even the SLK) again.

Please let this be a warning, no matter how cheap or how well-spec’ed you think this car is, it is not the bargain you think it will be. The residuals tell you this alone - £20k car new, about £8k from a dealer 18 months later !!!

Just Imagine the automotive greatness now that Fiat are involved. The Horror. The Horror.

They had dreadful reviews when first introduced over here, and even with the initial discounts they were not worth a bean, so why did people buy them?

It's not a car I would even look at, and I have bought some rubbish in my time......

This makes for some funny reading, Clarkson with the Cabrio version:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/driving/jeremy_clarkson/article4873574.ece

That is quite amusing, I think he found it as disagreeable as me ! I had the misfortune of driving a 2.0 and not the 2.7, so you can imagine how painfully slow it was. Thankfully I have the SLK back now (joy) never been so pleased to drive a not particularly dynamic car. Even better when baby moves up to the next child seat and I can finally have my Octy back - it's been a long 6 months......

I had a 2.4 version the other week when I was in the USA, it was horrible and badly built. the centre console trim came off when I tried to remove the sat nav plug from the cigarette lighter.

Yep, I had the joy of using one in the States too. Laughable - the whole thing! The way it looked, drove, handled, the interior....

The only possible benefit is that you realise to not take good cars for granted

Sounds like it has much in common with the 2 (yes, 2, which is a story in itself) Dodge Calibers we had on hire on holiday in California...in fact, I may put a wee writeup on here about them.

Wasn't the sebring massively discounted from new? That might explain a few sales.

I had the old shape 2.7 V6 back in 2004 when i was in America. It was also - Made a nice noise but was slower than my then mk3 1.4 golf! It was plastic fantastic inside and the boot was very ill designed having to sit 2 suitcases on the spare back seat....oh and 21MPG!! Good job it was only $1 a gallon when I was there!

Wasn't the sebring massively discounted from new? That might explain a few sales.

For a time, it was BOGOF - I kid you not!

Oh no, that was the Dodge Avenger - easy mistake to make... :p

http://www.autocar.co.uk/News/NewsArticle/AllCars/235924/

I had the old shape 2.7 V6 back in 2004 when i was in America. It was also - Made a nice noise but was slower than my then mk3 1.4 golf! It was plastic fantastic inside and the boot was very ill designed having to sit 2 suitcases on the spare back seat....oh and 21MPG!! Good job it was only $1 a gallon when I was there!

21MPG thats economical for a yank

Bearing in mind a BMW 2.5l 6 cyl is huge, fast and gets 22mpg, most euro V6s get above 21mpg :p unless they get caned

Thats US gallons which are smaller iirc. Thinking about it it may have been 17mpg (US)

And this beast has just been facelifted with a new name: the Chrysler 200C. A new nose, tail and interior will fool no-one I think. And the best bit? In Europe they are going to sell it as a LANCIA!!!!!!!!!!!! I kid not. I think even fewer people will fall for that one!

http://carscoop.blogspot.com/2010/10/new-chrysler-200-may-be-rebadged-as.html