It was easy to suspect something was wrong when, in the much-hyped 2011 Super Bowl ad for the (supposedly) brand new Chrysler 200, the car itself isn't the star, but the gutted remains of Detroit, which used to make cars. Or to be generous, used to make more of them.The car is only hinted at behind a lot of shadows and smoke, and there's a good reason for that. It's a dud. It is far from the "luxury car" pretensions promised both in its Auto Show days and in the ad.
Note the beautiful vehicle to the right, on the bottom. That's the gorgeously wrought, curvaceous 200 America was promised in 2009. The dud on the top is what we got - a Sebring with a new grille and hood treatment. In fact, the Sebring had an arguably more beautiful grille and the creased hood brought to mind the sexy, though short-lived, Chrysler Crossfire.
The 200, by contrast, is dull, and when you first see one in the daylight, you may laugh out loud, as I did, in utter amusement that THIS is the famed "luxury car" in the famous ad.
Admittedly, few production cars will ever meet the expectations the concept raised. Though one must give Chrysler/Dodge some credit on that front, since it has brought to production more concepts than any other car maker (think: Neon, PT Cruiser, Pacifica, etc.) and sometimes, as in those examples, they even come close or exceed the concept.
Which makes it even sadder when this same car company fails so completely to "wow" after putting together such a great concept.
(As a footnote: Does anyone doubt that Hyundai would be able to translate the car in the bottom picture to market AS IS? After all, they put out the more curvaceous, gorgeous, above-expectations 2011 Sonata.)
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