Maybe my next domestic sedan
Pros:
Like the styling, interior room, exterior size
Cons:
4 cyl just adequate, passenger footroom
The Bottom Line:
A sensible car with great styling, big interior, small exterior
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
I had to leave my 1994 Cougar at the dealer's for a while, so started looking at replacement cars. We tried out several, and found the Ford Focus too small and noisy, the new Cougar also too small, noisy and underpowered, the Taurus too bulky outside but cramped inside (I'm 6'4", wife is 5'10"), all the GMs were too ugly and old-fashioned, Grand Marquis too huge, and refuse to consider an SUV. That didn't leave much so tried the Chrysler dealer as a sort of last resort (we live in a rural area and imports are at least an hour's drive away for service.)
They first put us in a Concorde, which had lots of interior room (except I couldn't find a comfortable place for my feet on the passenger side) but was rather noisy on the road and huge in a parking lot. Then we tried a Sebring sedan. As much room for four as the Concorde, fit parking spaces a lot better, foot and a half shorter, quieter ride than the Concorde. So the dealer said to take it home for the weekend. We put several hundred miles on it, and really liked it. The seats were comfortable, fuel economy was good. I'm comparing these cars to the Cougar, which is a comfortable, quiet 2-person car, and the Sebring is the first I've found that comes close. The only drawbacks we found were a desire for more power on hills and overtaking on 2-lane hilly highways, and I still wish for more footroom on the passenger side (why do they always put the A/C evaporator below the glove compartment and not leave room to slide your shoe up behind it?
As soon as the dealer gets in a V6 LXI, I'll see what kind of deal I can cut with the dealer. I also looked at the sister Stratus, but like the Maserati-like grille enough to pay the difference.