Archive for the ‘Avenger’ Category

If you consider safety one of the top priorities in your next new-car purchase—as you should—and are carefully combing through features and occupant protection ratings, you're in for a pleasant surprise: There are a lot more models designated Top Safety Picks this year from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).

Why? Although some models have been redesigned with stronger, more crash-resistant structures, improved side protection, and other features, along with electronic stability control (a requisite for the award), in a number of other models it was as simple as redesigning the seats.

The 2010 Chrysler Sebring and 2010 Dodge...

The board of Chrysler Group met last Friday to approve the newly restructured company's five-year product plan, and although the full document won't officially be released until mid-November, a handful of the plan's details have already begun leaking out.

The most recent rumors concern two of Chrysler's low-selling sedans: the Chrysler Sebring and the Dodge Avenger. Neither of those models has done well in showrooms, and both were expected be pulled from the Chrysler Group lineup. In fact, the plant that manufactures the vehicles in Sterling Heights, Michigan, has already been scheduled for shut-down. However, it seems as if both sedans...

While we wait for Chrysler to emerge, hopefully leaner but not that much lighter, from its bankruptcy—perhaps with some fashionable Italian loafers and a rejuvenated Dolce & Gabbana wardrobe—TheCarConnection.com started thinking about the company’s product missteps in recent years. No, not the Dodge St. Regis or the TC by Maserati (shhhhh!), but the very recent past.

What’s gone wrong—this time—from a product perspective? Here are five of them:

Chrysler Sebring: No contest here. The Sebring sedan, along with its Dodge Avenger sibling and its Sebring Convertible variant, were somehow a step behind the instant they arrived, beginning for...