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Last year my son bought a 1996 Sebring JX for $700. I thought he was headed for disaster. One of the worst Chryslers and made during Chryslers darkest time.
It has its issues, but it is doing surprisingly well. Better than a 1996 Lincoln Mk VIII my wife bought as a spare car. The Lincoln has 103,000 miles on it. The Sebring had 178,000 in 2014 according to an invoice int he glove box. The odometer is one of the things that does not work, so we do not know how many miles it has now, but it is well over 200,000. The prior owner said he does nto know how many miles, but said he drove it a lot for several years after 2014.
It could have 300,000 on it by now. While the Sebring has more issues than the Lincoln overall, it has fewer safety/drive-ability issues.
Really a surprise to me. Sebring was one of the cheapest (as in chintzy, not necessarily lowest price) cars made in the mid 1990s. (The Lincoln by comparison was a relatively high end car). Chrysler has a generally poor reputation for quality but an especially horrible reputation for quality in the mid to late 1990s.
No serious issues with the automatic transmission (it has issues, just not really serious ones), no engine issues (excluding a small but irreparable oil leak an d one spark plug wire had corroded away at the terminal, but was easily replaced), no major suspension or brake issues. The problems he has had with it are mostly electrical (one batter terminal and one starter terminal had also corroded away), and keeping the serpentine belt from coming off (oh and a squealing pulley we cannot seem to figure out which one it is). power steering pump is screaming out its death agony, and works only sporadically (who needs power steering?) It also has a lot of rust holes (unlike the Lincoln which has only a very small hole behind one door). Also the doors have sagged a bit and he has a problem getting the interior lights to go off because the door does not properly engage the button. While annoying, those are not significant problems for a $700 car.
As far as we can tell neither the engine nor transmission were ever rebuilt.
i guess you never know when you will get a decent car, even if it has a bad reputation.
Wasn't a real fan of Chrysler to be honest. Including the Sebring. I test drove many Chrysler vehicles but wasn't impressed with the engine or way of it driving. Since their merger with Fiat, I remain respectful of their "Jeep" brand and never understand why the Jeeps drove so much better, better in snow better acceleration, etc then the "Chrysler" themselves. This could be why Chrysler themselves are now down to just a couple models being made themselves while the Jeep brand and their child company Dodge (who makes the RAM pickup trucks) are blooming. The merger is part of a reason too I believe, I've heard the Fiat Chrysler wants the "Fiat" brand to made in North America rather than in Europe. So perhaps Chrysler brand itself will seize.
What you have is a Mitsubishi Eclipse/Gallant in Chrysler design.
Only the coupe version.
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