The current generation Chrysler 200 Convertible won’t get a replacement model when the redesigned 2015 Chrysler 200 sedan goes on sale in the next quarter. It looks like Chrysler made this decision because of the convertible’s poor sales. The Convertible made up only 5 percent of the 122,420 Chrysler 200s that were sold last year.
“We decided we’d be putting our best foot forward by concentrating all of our available resources into the sedan versus dividing them between the sedan and a convertible,” a Chrysler spokesperson was quoted as saying by Edmunds.
Furthermore, chief engineer of the Chrysler 200, Doug Verley, told the website that the additional cost of engineering a 200 convertible would have been substantial.
“We’d have to re-engineer the rear of the car because now we need a new deck lid… and inside the convertible, we’d have to add quite a bit of structure into the A-pillars and sills,” Verley said. Additional costs would have also gone into giving the convertible the same torsional stiffness without a roof structure in order to make it similar to drive as the sedan.
Another Chrysler Group model that will be discontinued is the Dodge Avenger, which ends production this quarter. Chrysler worries that a 2015 Avenger may steal sales from the Dodge Dart, with another reason for killing off the Avenger being that Dodge wants to move away from sister vehicles “to reduce overlapping products in dealer showrooms,” according to a company spokesperson.
We don’t know how many people are going to regret the Chrysler 200 convertible as it was a bit of an oddity anyway, since none of the 200 sedan’s direct rivals offered a drop-top model.
By Dan Mihalascu
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