Chrysler 200C - back on the starting blocks?

As Chrysler looks towards a more clearly defined future and prepares to flick-on the power switch at seven of its USA plants, interest rekindles in the 200C concept car that made a big first impression in Detroit at the beginning of the year.

Built off a revised version of the platform underpinning the Chrysler 300C -- which came from the previous-generation Mercedes E-Class -- the rear-drive 200C concept is seen as just what the newly restructured company needs to reignite sales in the US market's C/D segments where the likes of Toyota Camry and Honda Accord currently hold sway.

The 200C, it is suggested on the US website Autoblog, could be an effective replacement for the languishing front-drive Chrysler Sebring and Dodge Avenger that would bathe in the aura of the bigger 300C.

Looking at the show car, there are plenty of things to appeal to would-be customers: The platform has undeniable credentials -- even though it is now older Benz technology -- and the rear-drive configuration could be flogged as a worthwhile alternative to mostly front-drive competition.

The only disadvantage is packaging -- a transverse, front-drive engine arrangement, properly designed, will bring interior space benefits a rear-driver would find difficult to match... look at BMW's 1 Series compared with its small-car competition.

And, in order to work, such a ploy would have to be priced competitively in its largely Japanese target market.

If the 200C eventuates and the US market embraces it, the implications could flow on to Australia.

Both the Sebring and Avenger could be making more sales than they are. Sebring sedan and convertible figures are down on 2008 and have recorded 199 sales so far this year, while the Avenger sedan is up on 2008 results but has recorded only 214 sales so far. By contrast, Toyota Camry sales, though well down on 2008 figures, so far this year are 6600.

If the 200C was good enough, it could arguably sell into the lower end of the prestige category; somewhere between BMW/Audi/Mercedes-Benz and Honda Accord/Citroen C5/Peugeot 406/Volkswagen Passat. Conjecture is now flying about that the same platform could also form the basis for new Alfa Romeo models -- namely a new, rear-drive 166 large car and perhaps a future 159 replacement.

Whatever happens with the 200C concept, it is exactly the sort of product that should be flowing out of the Chrysler/Fiat alliance. By maximising corporate synergies and helping revitalise Chrysler both in the US and internationally, the 200C and other new models that would flow from it could represent a hopeful new beginning.

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