The 2015 Chrysler 200 really starts in two places: on fingertips reaching from the driver’s seat and, perhaps more importantly, a blank sheet of paper.
Both are big starts and are huge leaps for Chrysler, which hasn’t had an attractive sedan since the last time we could understand Bob Dylan.
To say that the 2015 Chrysler 200 is important is an understatement. Aside from the aging 300 sedan and the fairly nondescript Town & Country minivan, Chrysler as a brand is flagging in the blended Fiat family. There are standouts on a few sides, a few black sheep, and more interesting babies in the pipeline.
Conversely, saying the 200 is the car that will make or break Chrysler isn’t true — Chrysler needs the 200 like the Brady Bunch needed the middle children, Jan and Whatshisname.
The 200 is affirmation that Fiat wasn’t crazy with its U.S. widebody platform. The 200 has mostly the same skeleton as the Dodge Dart and Jeep Grand Cherokee, which, when you say it out loud, doesn’t sound all that bad. The 200 is 1.5 inches longer and 1 inch wider than the Dart.
This is where the blank sheet of paper comes in.
The 200 looks like it’s related to the Dodge Dart, but only in the way that you’re related to second cousins — maybe in the eyes.
It’s a cleaner, classier version of the Dart thanks to A-pillars pummeled forward and C-pillars pulled back. The resulting profile silhouette of the 200 is much sleeker and curvier despite being slightly taller than the Dart. The hip line (where the doors meet the windows) is higher here, and where the hip line meets the sloping rearward windows, the 200 actually has subtle rear haunches. There’s a moment of “Whoa” going on here.
Of course, the old Chrysler 300 — Baller Edition — was shocking in its own right, but the 200 actually has promise to carry Chrysler further. In fact, Chrysler says the 200 marks the new nose of Chrysler inasmuch as the front will be replicated on other cars for the brand. If the new Chrysler beak is as pointy everywhere else, color me surprised, but the integrated headlamps and prominent wing badge look handsome on the 200.
With the 200, designers had the chance to create their own direction for the brand. Not being restrained by tradition has all the benefits of creating something remarkable and new. (It also has all the pressure of a Mexican standoff, but that’s a different story.) The exterior looks sharp, and Chrysler knows it.
Perhaps that bravado carried over into the interior as well. Many cars start with how far a driver can comfortably reach from the driver’s seat. If you can imagine an outstretched hand, reaching toward the radio, that’s where the interior of the 200 began. The top corner Chrysler’s 5-inch touchscreen navigation system, standard on all models except the base LX, must be within reaching distance of the driver. Considering that Chrysler didn’t go with a controller for their touchscreen, the screen needed to be within reach. Boom, now you know where the dash goes.
Considering also that the 200 now uses Chrysler’s 9-speed automatic transmission that uses a rotary shifter instead of a linkage with a shifter jutting through the floor, the center console has been raised from the floor. Alongside the gear select knob, climate and radio controls are elegantly packed in. You get the feeling shifting from park to drive that you’re Captain Kirk in his chair dialing up the next space-age gear. Or at least I do, anyway.
The interior was a place that Chrysler knew it had to improve with the 200. The old knock that the previous generation Chrysler 200 was the “nicest rental car you’ll ever own” wasn’t true: I rented a semi-legal postal service truck once in Florida that was nicer.
There are softer materials all the way around the 200, and the mid-size sedan actually punches above its own weight class. If anything takes it down a peg inside, its road noise, which admittedly is mostly engine coming through the hood.
What’s coming through the hood is either a 2.4-liter four, or a 3.6-liter six (optional.) The 200 in either trim won’t take on any Porsches and I actually preferred the four in daytime cruising. You could opt for the six and shell out $1,950 for the privilege, but if you’ve opted for all-wheel drive, the choice to go bigger has already been made for you. That’s weird.
But it’s also not terrible considering that the 200 starts at $21,700 for a base model. The biggest compliment I can pay the 200 is this: You could pay $5,000 more for the Chrysler 200 and still feel good about it. I drove a fully loaded 200C for $32,465 — not $40,000 — and wondered aloud why some automakers start at that price for a competitor. Really, why do cars cost so much?
I’m not trying to persuade you that the Chrysler 200 is the end-all, be-all in the segment. In fact, it’ll probably be overlooked for cars that aren’t as well-equipped simply because those others are called “Accord” or “Camry.”
Perhaps that’s the bad news by starting from square one.
Aaron Cole is managing editor of the Aurora Sentinel. Reach him at acole@aurorasentinel.com
Nice review but the 200 based on the same CUS-W platform as the dart and Cherokee.