2011 Chrysler 200 New Car Review

2011 Chrysler 200 New Car Review By Bob Plunkett

The Blue Ridge Parkway, serpentine asphalt curling across the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, slithers around peaks like Potato Knob and Craggy Dome in a road theme of seemingly endless curves.

This twisty highway quickly reveals the taut handling characteristics and sporty attitude of a new car from Chrysler constructed on a rigid platform with the independent suspension tuned to favor a smooth ride and the five-seat passenger compartment, padded and insulated, fitted with comfortable appointments.

The vehicle, slotted in the mid-size segment of four-door sedans with front-wheel-drive traction, carries the numeric label of Chrysler 200 as one step down in size and price from Chrysler's 300 series.

It amounts to a complete make-over for year 2011 of the discontinued Sebring series.

The re-do produces a shapely body carving muscular fenders over large wheels with a sweeping front hood scored by lines strafing across the top and the raked windshield tipping to the extreme to enhance aerodynamic efficiency.

Check that chin-forward prow -- with glimmering chrome-finned grille and corner-mounted projector-beam headlamps, it's the new face of the Chrysler brand.

The 200's silhouette shows brief overhangs front and back.

A crisp character line etched into the trailing edge of each front fender stretches rearward across the doors and rises gradually to the tail deck. And a high beltline pitched parallel to the character line gains a chrome trim piece along the bottom edge of cabin windows.

To forge the 200's taut handling traits and precise manners, Chrysler engineers re-worked and reinforced the architectural structure of Sebring to make it stiffer and stronger. They revised, retuned or redesigned the suspension geometry, expanded the wheel track width by an inch and dropped the suspension -- down 12 mm at the front wheels and 6 mm for rear wheels -- for a lower and wider stance.  

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