With all of the hype behind Chrysler’s Super Bowl ad, the pressure is on for the company to deliver on their promise that they know luxury. The company’s showing at the Chicago Auto Show suggests that a turnaround may be on the cards, but also that the company has a ways to go.

At the center of the company’s ad campaign was the new 200, the replacement model for the miserable Sebring. In this week’s podcast, we talked briefly about the interiors of the two cars, and when I said that “it’s definitely better than the Sebring, but that’s like saying that it’s better than a plate of vomit,” the comparison was apt. The Sebring’s cabin was a miserable place to spend time, and so it’s great to see that there have been some marked improvements over the old model.

However, there’s still work to be done. While the interior was stylish, there were some hard moldings in places there shouldn’t have been, such as a corner of the dash at knee height (ouch!). Similarly, the glossy hard plastic surround for the nav screen on the top-of-the-line S model looked nice, but gave way easily to touch and screeched like rusty bedsprings when I applied any pressure. The new model looks far nicer, though, and is apparently a far better drive than the previous model, too. However, its interior still falls short of the Kia Optima and even the Suzuki Kizashi, among others.



Elsewhere on the Chrysler stand, we got a chance to see the new Dodge lineup, starting with the new Durango. It seems as if there has been a marked improvement in the overall quality of the car, as the last Durango was poorly-built and poorly-equipped. It was also a handful to drive, somehow feeling too light and floaty, and too heavy and crashy over bumps at the same time. The new Durango, however, features a revised interior, an all-new body style, and a new platform thanks to the Jeep Grand Cherokee. Having driven the Cherokee, it seems safe to assume that the Durango’s ride and handling will be greatly improved. In addition, the new interior is a huge step up from the old car, with much nicer materials.

Also on the Dodge stand, the new Charger SRT-8 was unveiled, and it’s immediately apparent that the car has been designed to address the previous model’s shortcomings. A more aggressive grille, a more raked front section, redesigned taillights and a redesigned interior are the hallmarks of the new model and they combine to make the new SRT-8 look a good deal more aggressive. The new interior also finally matches what you would expect for the car’s price tag, a problem with the last iteration of the SRT-8.

Across the way from the massive Charger and Durango, Chrysler’s tiniest car was getting lots of attention. The Fiat section of Chrysler’s display was constantly mobbed with people curious about the new 500, and looking to take a picture with the genuine article: a 1970 500 that Fiat brought in especially for the show. The 500 has been a long-time weird car crush of mine, and it was great to see the car in the flesh on US soil. While the Abarth or Abarth Esseesse would be more my speed, I was told that we’d have to wait until 2012 for those models to make it to US shores. In the meantime, though, the 500 will use Fiat’s 1.4 liter Multiair four-cylinder with either a five-speed manual or a six-speed auto.


Finally, Jeep had little in the way of announcements at the show, but brought their newly-facelifted Compass along with them. The Compass, which now has front styling pinched from the Grand Cherokee, is largely unchanged otherwise. The new face looks significantly better than the ungainly old version, but the model’s life will likely be short, as it’s slated to be killed off in 2012 in favor of a new Fiat-based small SUV.

In short, Chrysler is making progress back towards viability, but there’s still a long way to go. After all, cheap-feeling, hard plastic moldings are generally not considered luxury goods. It seems that they’re headed in the right direction, though.