Intrepidation

2011 Chrysler Lineup Impressions Part II Tuesday I made a trip to the Newcomb Motors, our local Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep/Ram dealer. They had a different assortment of 2011s and were nearby, so it I decided to check them out. Up first is the 2011 Patriot. As you may recall it received some pleasant updated for this model year. I think the blacked out lower trim adds a nice touch of ruggedness to it. 2011 Chrysler Lineup Impressions Part 1 can be found here. Inside it also received some subtle but noteworthy details. Gone is the old coporate steering wheel replaced by Jeep brand's handsome new one first seen on the Grand Cherokee. It also gets more soft touch materials. Everything from the arm rest up on the front door panels is now soft to touch.These changes really make the interior a pleasant place to be. A far cry from the dark Daimler days. There was only one area where the interior felt cheap from up front, which is the center arm rest. The arm rest is soft and squishy, which is great, but the assembly felt kind of flimsy, the whole thing would rock back and forth as the plastic flexed when i moved my arm side to side on it. If you're not man handling it and just resting your arm its fine, but it was worth noting. The other thing worth noting is that the rear door panels are grained to match the fronts but are entirely hard plastic. Sucks for the rear passengers, but I doubt a small vehicle like this will rarely see more than two passengers. Just worth mentioning. Next up is the vehicle I've been eager to check out: the 2011 Compass. I'll let the photos do the talking, but wow what a difference. It's no Grand Cherokee but its a monumental improvement over its predecessor, its actually handsome now. Inside, I'm delighted to report that while this is a cloth model that forgoes the bright trim of the more expensive ones, it gets the same soft touch door panels surfaces and arm rest as the more expensive models. The last one I looked at before my camera died was a 2011 Avenger. The biggest change is at the back, where they've cleaned up the lines to the point where it's almost barren. I really like the complex tail light assemblies. Not too much else is new outside beyond the new front fascia and the wheels. Inside is by far the biggest difference. On are the acres of cheap gray plastic in place of high quality, well textured materials. As with most new Chryslers, the upper half of the dash and upper half of the door panels are all soft to touch, as well as the arm rests. I really liked the dark red and black red mesh inserts on the seats and door panels. Adds some color without being overpowering. There's also contrasting stitching in places like the gauge hood. If there's one thing to miss about the old Sebring and Avenger interiors, its that save for the switchgear, they didn't share any panels (to the best of my knowledge). now they share door panels and center consoles. Of course they are much better parts than before, just a shame some of the uniqueness was lost. However the dash and center stacks are different, I think I prefer the Avenger's slightly, and the black interior with red inserts give it a sporting feel vs the luxury themed black on tan interior of the 200. Like the 200, the one glaring flaw besides the lack of Chrysler's excellent new 8" infotainment system is that the hand brake was recycled from the old cars but was not wrapped in some soft of soft touch material like leather or even vinyl. Seems out of place in an otherwise high quality interior. The other thing worth mentioning, as red did previously, is that these midsize cars on on the small end of the segment. With the front seat all the way back my 6'1" frame could not fit in the back. I couldn't get my leg all the way in and therefore couldn't close the door. It also was a PITA to get out of. If you don't have a large family its not going to be an issue, but if your kids are older or you haul people around, its not big enough to comfortably fit more than two...unless the front people are short. Based on my overall impressions of the 2011 cars I can say that the interiors are easily up to the class stndards now and ahead of several competitors. You may not get as much bright work, I really like how you don't have to get the top trim levels to get nice materials now. And it only took 12 months to do it. What's taking other companies so long to get their interiors up to snuff? The Patriot was never the ugly duckling of the Jeep twins, but the changes they made this year give it a more rugged look befitting its more rugged position compared to the Compass. The Compass looks so much better than the outgoing model that its hard to believe they're the same car. The new face does so much to improve the vehicle that the rest of it, while mostly unchanged, looks fine now. The interior improvements now make both the Patriots' and the Compass; interiors nice places to be. No longer are they torture chambers. The Avenger is much nicer inside than the Camry and the Malibu (to be fair both are older, but its amazing how far this interior has come). Haven't sat in a Fusion yet so I can't say, but no longer is it at the bottom. The new suspension and powertrain should put this car back on the map. Click here to view the rest of the photos

And which trim you'd want...no longer is the V6 the penalty option. And base models no longer feel cheap on the inside. Even the base Compass (for example) gets soft touch door panels and arm rests.

I like how they poke of fun at pop culture, and make a stand against cars becoming more and more like appliances. Its not just about the em-pee-gees and who has the most smartphone-like infotainment system.

Well you saw how good the ZL1 photos are, they must have fired the old photographers and Honda hired them.