It's like this: the Chrysler Sebring JX convertible is not a Sebring LX coupe with its top lopped off. In fact, the Sebring JX convertible and the Sebring coupe aren't even the same car. The two share only a nameplate and powertrains. Some background: The Sebring coupe and Dodge Avenger are derived from the Mitsubishi Galant sedan platform, while the Sebring JX convertible is derived from Chrysler's Cirrus/Stratus platform. Indeed, the Sebring JX convertible shares its front structural components and instrument panel with the Chrysler Cirrus and Dodge Stratus sedans.
Confused? That's okay. All you need to know is that the Sebring JX ragtop is the successor to--and a big improvement over--the stalwart LeBaron convertible that Chrysler retired in 1996.
Despite their unremarkable styling and sleepy road manners, LeBaron convertibles flew out of Chrysler's showrooms faster than you could say bailout"--a testimonial to the resurging popularity of convertibles. It also didn't hurt that the LeBaron was designed as a convertible--unlike some of its ragtop competitors, which were essentially guillotined coupes.
Chrysler product planners deduced that if a sluggish puppy like the LeBaron could incite such enthusiasm, the company could really cash in with a sleeker, more muscular topless model.
They were right. Like the LeBaron, the '96 Sebring was a true, by-design ragtop, not a modified coupe--and buyers responded effusively to its elegantly handsome lines, its one-touch, power-operated top and its competent road manners.
Wisely, Chrysler didn't feel the need to gild the lily: Other than a few refinements and new equipment options, the '97 Sebring JX convertible is largely unchanged from the '96 model. The same is true of its two-door cousins, the Sebring and Avenger."
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