2011 Chrysler 200 - First Drive Review

Chrysler 200 puts a better face on the Sebring.

BY AARON ROBINSON, PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEFF ALLEN AND THE MANUFACTURER
November 2010 

As with almost every 2011 Dodge and Chrysler product, the 200 has an all-new interior with a one-piece soft-touch dash accented by a gated shifter, fine chrome filigrees, and low-gloss plastics. Two big dials give speed and tach info under a sculpted hood. Cheapness is now banished?or at least much better disguised. Not only is this interior classier, but it should wear better, says lead interior designer Klaus Busse.

Dashboards made from hard plastic tend to have a cheap, fractured look and large seams. That?s because fitting parts, such as a speedometer bezel or an air-vent frame, to a hard dash requires at least a 1-mm gap so the pieces don?t rub together and squeak. And that?s a tight tolerance to maintain in mass production, where error?and subsequent squeaking?is always possible. With the 200?s soft dashboard skin, says Busse, a hard piece such as that speedo bezel can be squeezed into the skin so that it bites into the soft material, making the tolerance effectively zero and eliminating potential squeak points.

The carry-over 173-hp, 2.4-liter four-cylinder mates to a six-speed automatic in the Touring and Limited trims, and it pairs with a four-speed auto in the rental-fleet LX, which starts at $19,995. (A twin-clutch automated manual comes later in 2011.) The 3.6-liter Pentastar V-6 is optional in the $21,995 Touring and $24,495 Limited; it?s the standard engine in the S, the top-of-the-line model, for which pricing isn?t yet available.

The old Sebring drove with the enthusiasm of a 10-year-old Buick LeSabre. The 200 darts through corners with far more liveliness, less wallow, and less need for correction. The 2.4-liter engine?s mounting was changed from a four-point system to a three-pointer to reduce the pathways for vibration. This and increased sound deadening help further isolate the cabin, say engineers. When the engine spins toward its 6000-rpm redline, there?s less thrum and accessory whine and more of the surprisingly keen exhaust note.

The six-speed auto is a busy bee in the 2.4, downshifting quickly so the 200 can keep the pace up grades and when merging with freeway traffic. Fortunately, the shifts are quick and smoothed over by electronic finessing. The 283-hp V-6 launches the 200 hard and pulls with much more gusto. We expected more torque steer than was actually demonstrated under vigorous acceleration, and the transmission hangs onto the higher gears more insistently to aid fuel economy.