2015 Chrysler 200 First Drive: A True Competitor
Chrysler Gets Serious At Last In America's Biggest-Selling Class
Let's face it, Chrysler has kinda been phoning in its midsize car entries since, when, maybe the original cloud cars, Cirrus, Stratus and Breeze? This chagrinned the new boss in the black sweaters, who asked his team to explain why the company offered three great entries in the miniscule large-car segment, while two crappy ones (then Sebring and Avenger) were being slaughtered by the Camry and Accord in the mighty midsize segment. The answer amounted to shrugged shoulders and finger-pointing at a Daimler organization model that gave cost-driven engineers full authority over the product with no responsibility for its sales. Marchionne's edict: enough phoning it in; hang up and drive.
The 2011 200 was a rush patch-it-up job funded by loose change scrounged from bankruptcy-courtroom couches. Whatever sales that car has garnered are testaments to the power of Chrysler's advertising efforts, like the "Imported from Detroit" campaign. The resources allotted to this 2015, however, car will leave no room for excuses. A Carl Sagen-esque $1 billion was spent just on upgrading the Sterling Heights (suburban Detroit) assembly plant that builds it, for example.
The strategy is stupid simple: Make people genuinely want this car by giving it more/better/different qualities than the competition offers. Efficiency is important, so the company's thrifty 2.4-liter Tigershark engine (with MultiAir II) is hitched to a segment-first nine-speed automatic with an impressive 9.8 gear ratio spread (most competitors' six-speeds span just 6.0). This means you can get a shorter first gear for quick launches and a super-tall ratio for highway cruising.
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