More Convertible Fun

First the good points. As opposed to most other convertibles available for rental, the Sebring is by far the cheapest. It's still a good bit more expensive then a standard car, like an intermediate, but well, it's a ragtop, man! Wind in your hair and all that.

The auto retracting top is nice. You just press a button and the trunk opens and the top accordions into the storage compartment and you're all done. So it's a lot easier to retract the top, drive somewhere ands then put the top back up after you park. Wee!

And that's pretty much it for the good points.

The less good points. First, the car steers like a boat. No, let me amend that as boats are noticeably more responsive then the Sebring. It handles like a brick. A brick with square and under inflated tires. The Sebring is one of the least fun handling cars it's ever been my misfortune to drive. And I'm not even much of a 'car guy'. If you're going to design a sporty ragtop, it would behoove one to actually design in some fun. We drove this car up to the top of the big volcano on the island and it was a bear to wrestle around the hairpin curves. Mary hate, hate, hated, driving this beast and would offer inducements to me to drive it instead, like refraining from snarky comments about my bathing suit which might have been in fashion a couple of decades ago or so, but is still perfectly serviceable. Not for the whole vacation mind you but for a few days at least.

Second, this car is drastically underpowered. I mean, so underpowered that it was almost physically painful to push the accelerator to the floor. The engine, which I imagine was something adapted from an ATV or a golf cart, would make a noise that I likened to what one would hear if one were to poke a small quadruped, like a hamster for instance, with a cattle prod. The engine actually whined, and at a decently high pitch too, one which caused our fillings to vibrate.

Finally, the car interior was, at best, uninspired and at worst, cramped and uncomfortable. I kind of expect if you're going to design a car so that it handles like something large and most probably extinct, like a dinosaur, at least the interior and the ride would be comfortable. Not here. The front seat, always seemed cramped and slightly claustrophobic. Having the top down made the whole experience somewhat less unpleasant but anytime we went anywhere with the top up we felt like we were crouching over to peer out the too small front windshield. Kind of like driving a kiddy car.

All in all, I can see the appeal of the Sebring for those on a vacation in a sunny place who don't want to pay the price that a Mustang ragtop or a Nissan 350Z commands from our nation's automotive rental concerns. As far as we're concerned though, I doubt that we would ever consider renting another. If we absolutely must have a convertible then we'll get something that might actually be fun. Otherwise it's back to intermediate car city for us.