I found a 2008 2dr convertible Chrysler Seabring and I want to make sure it’s a good dependable car.
A 2008 car is almost an 8 year old car. The condition is more important than the make. A convertible has more upkeep expense than a sedan or coupe. I am not sure that the Sebring convertible is the best car for daily transportation. If you are dead set on a convertible, pay a mechanic to give the car a good, thorough inspection.
Not what I’d call super reliable, but Consumer Reports shows it as average. At 7 years old a lot depends on how it’s been maintained. Most were in rental fleets when new. Absolutely get a pre-purchase inspection, the top in particular.
My neighbor had one that was left to her by her daughter while she left for. NYC and didn’t need a car. She drove by to show us the car and said she loved it. 8 months later she dumped it. She said the only thing she like about it was, the top went down and winter was coming on. So there was no reason to keep it. If it were a second car and you really want a convertible cheap, maybe. Otherwise " I would not give a Sebring anything driveway space" …her husband’s words, not mine.
I would just leave the top up to give myself max trunk space.
If this is the original top it will need to be replaced soon. Have you even thought about how much that will cost ? You state you will leave top up for trunk space so why even look at a convertible ? The 3 convertibles we had were because we could put the top down and did not concern ourselves with trunk space. I still miss the 89 Corvette conv. and it did not even have a trunk.
My wife has several friends who bought Sebrings and all were disasters. Based on that I would be hesitant to recommend one to anybody.
If you are going to keep the top up for trunk space, then why buy a convertible? I thought you were.considering the Sebring because you wanted a convertible. For day in and day out transportation this isn’t a good choice. I have always wanted a convertible, but it wouldn’t be my primary transportation. You can bet that if I did own a convertible, I would have the top down as often as possible. About 10 years ago I found a nice Geo Metro convertible I thought would be fun to own. I didn’t want it for the mileage–I thought.it would be great to have the open air ride. Even though Mrs. Triedaq,tried to talk me into it, I couldn’t justify having another vehicle for a toy.
I know Lt. Columbo used his Puegot convertible for his transportation and never put the top down, I still don’t think a convertible is basic transportation.
I had a bad experience finding the right parts for one I worked on and even at the Used parts places they are considered evil.
Yosemite
I sometimes work with a very large vehicle auction company and the Sebring is on their “avoid” list. The Ford Fusion and Edge are the hot sellers at the moment.
It was good enough for Michael Scott on “The Office”.
Yosemite, The parts places are very confused about these cars. The 2 doors (including convertibles) use completely different chassis and engines than the 4 doors. The 2 doors use a Mitsubishi Gallant chassis and a 2.4 Mitsu engine. The 4 doors use a Chrysler chassis and a Chrysler 2.4 engine, Although the engines are the same size and power there are no interchangeable parts.
Any 8 year old car is a gamble no matter the make or mileage. A lot could depend upon the miles, how much they’re asking for it, and the always present question of whether the timing belt has been replaced.
Personally, I’m a Mopar nut but mostly on the older stuff. The Chrysler stuff over the last 3 decades or so has been somewhat dubious to me. A dealer I used to do side work for was always a bit nervous about Chrysler trade-ins or auction buys due to issues and/or resale values.
Every time he took one in he would always sweat out whether he was actually going to break even much less make any money on it.
I too used to be a Dodge/Chrysler nut. I owned many of them and worked as a mechanic in a Chrysler-Plymouth dealership. That began to change when Daimler-Benz bought Chrysler, and the finally selling it to a capital management company (forming an LLC) back in the mid 2000s. Vehicle quality, which began to slide in the late 90s, suffered even more.
Exactly @ Oldtimer 11; both the parts store that I normally use and the used parts place had the same reaction about this car. Both knew what questions to ask to order the right parts, but maybe a new counter person may not.
I needed a instrument cluster and first had to have the Dealer run the VIN to be sure the car was not assembled in Canada. It seems the Canadian plant was supplied with different clusters and not all the door labels were marked as “Assembled in Canada”.
Though the owner was the one who insisted that the problem was the cluster, it never did fix the problem. As I kept telling him it was the VSS that was causing the problem.
Just a hard car to find the right parts counter person to order parts from.
Yosemite
Please excuse my grossly long answer. Well, on the other hand sometimes being brief is best.
NO THEY ARE NOT
If I’m not mistaken, there was an equivalent Dodge model to the Chrysler Sebring. We had a,rental Dodge that was the disguised Mitsubishi. It was terrible. We had reserved a Ford Taurus, but we would have had to delay,our siteseeing for half a day while,the Taurus was delivered from another location. We were in the Glacier National, Park area. We were offered the 2 door Dodge. This,was in 2009. If the Sebring convertible is on the same platform as the Dodge with the 4 cylinder engine, I don’t think it offers a very enjoyable driving experience.
No