KEY POINTS:
DaimlerChrysler will kick off the New Zealand advertising campaign for its Sebring sedan with the catchline: "Enough technology to be geeky - enough style to avoid it."
It's the first time the word "geeky" has been used by Chrysler. It has had more to do with "muscle" from the 1960s, when its Mopar models ushered in the muscle car era and kicked sand in the face of rival badges.
Mopar isn't as evocative. It is a contraction of "motor" and "parts", the two words in the middle of the Chrysler Motor Parts Corporation, a company formed after Chrysler bought Dodge in 1928.
It was trademarked for a line of antifreeze products in 1937 and used as a moniker for CMPC until it found high-performance fame in the 1960s, when geeky and muscle were at opposite ends of a California beach.
"Style" sits better with things Chrysler than geeky. Style was part of Chrysler's lexicon many years before muscle came along.
General Motors might have been the first of America's Big Three to introduce a concept of advanced styling, where GM buyers became part of a progressive "family face", but Chrysler used style as a trademark.
The brand has since become synonymous with bold and daring designs, such as the hot rod-inspired Pt Cruiser and the muscular 300C sedan in recent years.
Current design chief Trevor Creed says the new Sebring sustains that momentum, with its drooping nose, long bonnet and short rear deck.
He says the design is inspired inside and out by the Chrysler uplifted winged badge motif and brings the brand's expressive design style to the mid-sized right-hand drive segment for the first time.
"Its overall surfacing and details reflect the Chrysler brand's four design attributes: expressive, refined, agile and passionate," he says. "Sebring's elegant styling provides a clear alternative to European and Japanese competition."
The Sebring was inspired by the Chrysler Airflite concept unveiled at the 2003 Geneva motor show. The Airflite was in turn inspired by the 1934 Airflow "streamliner", a sedan tested in a wind tunnel and built with advice from aviation pioneer Orville Wright.
Chrysler is to run three versions of the Sebring in New Zealand. The first has just appeared and is powered by a 2.4-litre four-cylinder petrol engine. A 2-litre turbodiesel and a 2.7-litre V6 petrol will arrive early next year.
A run through to the Coromandel and back revealed good and bad. The $42,990 Sebring is predictable, rides well on its independent front and rear suspension, handles okay but it is not as accurate dynamically as a rival like the Mazda6.
The 2.4-litre engine develops 125kW and 220Nm of torque and is mated to a four-speed automatic gearbox with manual mode. A five-speed box would make better use of the power. The four-speeder often falls into a hole in its hunt for a suitable ratio going into the hills.
You sit "on" the leather seats rather than "in" them. Okay on most roads but unsettling when the corners start to get tight. Build quality is a bit scratchy, too. The shutline of the glovebox in one of the cars was as bad as we've seen.
But there are some clever touches, like the front cupholder which can heat drinks to 60C or chill them to just 2C, a first for Chrysler. The front passenger seatback also folds flat for convenience. LED lighting in the cabin is easier on the eyes.
The Sebring comes with pretty much everything that opens and shuts. It has a five-star safety crash rating, six airbags, electronic stability, traction control and ABS anti-lock braking with electronic brake distribution.
All this stuff helps careless drivers from sticking the car in the trees. The Americans say stability control on every car in the United States would cut the country's road toll by 25 per cent overnight. That's a saving of more than 10,000 lives a year.
