2010 Chrysler Sebring Touring Sedan 4-door 2.4l on 2040-cars

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2023 Chrysler 300 gets one new option, otherwise unchanged

Chrysler dropped the goss on the 2023 Chrysler 300 sedan, a bit of whispering that took barely half a minute to read. There is one change coming to next year's 300: The entry-level Touring trim gains the option of the SafeyTec Plus Group. That bundle of features includes advanced brake assist, rain-sensing windshield wipers, LaneSense Lane Departure Warning with Lane Keep Assist, ParkSense front and rear park assist, auto high-beam headlamp control, Full-speed Forward Collision Warning with Active Braking, adaptive cruise control (ACC) with stop, an Alpine audio system with six speakers and a 276-watt amplifier, and an 80-amp alternator. The package costs $2,495 on the next model up, the Touring L, which is probably close to what Chrysler will charge on the Touring. The other new news is a special edition inbound for next year, but the automaker hasn't divulged anything about it. Mopar Insiders says Chrysler will hold a special event at the Detroit Auto Show next week, perhaps we'll find out more then. For a car old enough to have transported Walter P. Chrysler to work and gets effectively zero support in a dying segment, the 300 still looks and performs well and sells adequately. Whereas the Dodge Charger has averaged about 78,000 sales in each of the past two years in the U.S., the 300 had averaged about 17,000 sales in each of the past two years. We'd love to see Chrysler do something — anything — with it before the rumored electric successor arrives. The brand has a huge revamp in the works, though, so we'd also understand Chrysler leaving the old girl in a corner to do her best. Prices haven't been announced yet. We'd expect nominal increases over the current range, which starts at $35,140 for the entry-level rear-wheel-drive Touring and tops out at $46,945 for the 300S with the Hemi V8 before incentives. Related video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Chrysler Pacifica-based crossover SUV coming soon

Chrysler is finally going to get another vehicle to support its minuscule lineup. According to Motor Trend, Fiat-Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne said that the company has a three-row crossover based on Chrysler's Pacifica minivan ready to go in as little as 18 months. Moving past the irony that Chrysler repurposed the old Pacifica crossover's name for a minivan, only for that very van to yield a new crossover, this is a vital vehicle for Chrysler that offers some interesting possibilities. Firstly, as we just mentioned, Chrysler hardly has anything in its lineup right now. With the departure of the 200, it was left with the 300 and the Pacifica. Both are perfectly fine machines, and we especially like the Pacifica, but they didn't leave the brand with much breadth for people who wanted something that wasn't a large sedan or a minivan. Both of those segments are giving up market share to crossovers, so a Pacifica-based crossover, one with three rows, will be beneficial beyond just offering another model, but also offering one that is more broadly popular, especially as more companies including Subaru and Volkswagen expand into the large three-row segment. The Pacifica platform also offers some unique opportunities for this upcoming Chrysler crossover. Using such a space-efficient starting point could give this Chrysler class-leading passenger and cargo space. Most interesting to consider, though, is the possibility of a plug-in hybrid. With the heavy lifting done during the Pacifica's development, it shouldn't be too difficult to adapt the PHEV powertrain to the new crossover. Shockingly, plug-in crossovers have only been tried by luxury brands and Mitsubishi, the latter with the Outlander PHEV. So this Chrysler could be in a class of its own by offering a larger PHEV than Outlander, but at a better price than the luxury automakers. As such, we're quite interested to see how this crossover turns out. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Junkyard Gem: 1987 Chrysler LeBaron Coupe

For the 1989 through 1991 model years, Chrysler and Maserati teamed up to create one of the most fascinating machines of the era: the Chrysler TC by Maserati. Built in Milan, the chassis and general body lines of the TC derived from the smooth-looking 1987 Chrysler LeBaron Coupe (just as its Turin/Hamtramck-made Cadillac Allante competitor traced its ancestry to the Eldorado). After writing about a few discarded TCs, I decided that I'd keep my junkyard eye open for an example of its LeBaron Coupe sibling. Here's an '87, customized in proper mid-2000s-style Fast & Furious Mode, found in a self-service yard in northeastern Colorado. The LeBaron name came from a 1930s coachbuilder, ultimately bought by Chrysler, and spent many decades being applied to super-luxe Imperial models. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Chrysler glued LeBaron badges and lots of bling on the Dodge Diplomat; the famous Iacocca-era K-Car LeBarons followed in the 1982 model year. The original K-based LeBaron Coupe seemed boxy and stodgy, so a slicker design went on a modified K chassis for the 1987 through 1995 model years. This car got some serious interior modifications at some point, including aftermarket seats, purple-and-white paint on the dash, and fiberglass door panels. The original door controls now live in diamond-plate panels. The gauge faces have faded in the harsh Colorado sun, but they appear to be custom-made. The engine is long gone from the yellow-wire-loom-decorated compartment, but the emissions sticker on the hood underside indicates that it was the 2.2-liter turbocharged four, rated at 146 horsepower. That was a big number for a 2,731-pound car in 1987. More LeBarons than you might have expected came with manual transmissions around this time, but this one has the three-speed automatic. The big-bore tailpipe got stuffed with dirt at some point during this car's journey here. The hood scoop must have been so good that a junkyard shopper grabbed it. I hope it stood at least a foot tall. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. James Earl Jones did the narration on these heart-pounding advertisements. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Even though the earlier LeBarons were very different cars, we need to get Ricardo Montalban in here. Here's Ricardo after being seduced by the '84 LeBaron convertible.