Chrysler Sebring - 2001 Review

I loved this car for the first year or so that I had it.  For a convertable sports car, it's fairly roomy.  The top is easy to put down and raise.  It has a computer display to show direction/temperature; trip odometer; engine hours; distance to empy (LOVE this feature!); overall mpg; and current mpg.  The stereo is decent.  The cloth top has remained in good shape despite the AZ sun.

Now for the drawbacks.  I went a little too long w/o changing the oil and the price for that was a blown head gasket.  It's a Mitsubishi engine that Mitsubishi didn't use because it's known to run hot.  My temperature gauge never went beyond the halfway point of normal, even though it was frequently overheated.  After paying about $1500 to replace the gasket and do the other needed repairs, something blew out on the bottom of the engine.  Having no money left for repairs I was at the mercy of a very kind hearted friend who worked on it in his spare time.  That took forever because of the lousy design and engineering of the whole engine/engine compartment/and other under the hood craziness.

The battery is located NOT under the hood as expected, but in the left fender area.  the whole fender has to be removed to replace the battery.  The labor to do that is twice the cost of the battery!

Not sure what caused this, but the cable for the driver side rear window frayed and the window is not operable until that cable gets changed-and that's pricey!

I heard that the newer models have a different engine.  I'd buy this make and model again if that's true.