Well the name, not the carriage
The Volkswagen Polo Variant of generation ‘6N’ and the first generation of the Chrysler Sebring Coupé share their year of birth in 1995, but are otherwise completely different. However, there is one important similarity that we would like to reveal.
A compact, practical Volkswagen for the European market and a relatively large, expansive coupé intended solely for the North American public: many more cars from the same year can not differ from each other. The Polo is equipped with modest four-cylinder engines with a maximum of 100 hp, the Sebring in many cases received a 2.5-liter V6 with more than 160 hp. Even as a station wagon, the Polo was only 4.20 long, the two-door Sebring stretches over about 4.80 meters.
The year in question is 1995. Volkswagen then expands the range of the third generation of the Polo launched a year earlier with a sedan and a station wagon. Both body variants have now completely disappeared from this segment. Even in the 1990s, station wagons and sedans in the B-segment of Western Europe were no longer really common. Major competitor Opel delivered such variants of the Corsa elsewhere, but not with us. With other brands too, it mostly stayed with hatchbacks, but Volkswagen still saw bread in the extra variants. Not entirely unjustified, as it turned out later, because especially the station wagon still attracted quite a few buyers.
Cordoba
The biggest competitor of this model came from our own house, in the form of the Seat Cordoba Vario. There is also the most remarkable feature of the Polo Variant, because this was in fact also a Seat Cordoba Vario. With a different grille, its own front bumper and cleverly adapted rear lights, Volkswagen topped it with some Polo looks, but in fact no body part of the Polo Variant is interchangeable with the Polo hatchback. The same was true of the Polo Classic, a sedan, which was a ‘far-Polo-de’ regular Cordoba. The Caddy, a van on a (then) Polo basis, also participated: a Seat Inca with a Volkswagen grille.
Volkswagen Polo Classic
Stratus, Cirrus or Sebring
You can already feel it coming: this is also the similarity between the aforementioned Polos and the Sebring. The Chrysler Sebring was initially always a two-door model in the US, namely a coupe or a convertible. We knew the convertible in Europe as Chrysler Stratus and with its appearance it was clearly recognizable as the open version of the sedan of the same name, even though the two did not share any body parts. In the US it apparently had to be more complicated and the sedan was given the name Chrysler Cirrus. ‘Our’ four-door Stratus was a slightly modified version of its twin brother Dodge Stratus, but that aside.
Mitsubishi
The Cirrus and the open Sebring Convertible were not linked by name in the US, but they did share all the technology and the necessary design elements. However, the Chrysler Sebring Coupé was completely separate from this and had nothing to do with the other Chryslers in this segment except for its name. You read that right: this coupé, a niche product, was different from the other Sebrings down to the last screw. The closed Sebring was actually not a Chrysler, but a Mitsubishi. The car shared its base with, among others, the Mitsubishi Galant and Eclipse, and therefore also with Eclipse brother Eagle Talon. It especially shared a lot with the Dodge Avenger, which was basically the same model with a different nose.
The Sebring Coupé and the convertible introduced at the same time. Except for the name and the Mitsubishi V6, they share nothing with each other.
The body of the Sebring Coupe was therefore a bit tighter than that of the convertible, but above all completely different down to the smallest detail. A remarkable choice, which seems to defend even less than the Volkswagen Polos with rational arguments. Looking back, however, that makes these cars all the more interesting in our opinion. Do you know examples of similar practices? Let us know in the comments!
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– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl