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28 - The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday April 23, 2008 www.oakvillebeaver.com FAMILY OWNED & OPERATED You'll Love Our Service! 905-335-4080 BURLINGTON LINE Summer crusin' in a convertible! Chrysler Sebring is the perfect summer roadtrip car By Lorne Drury METROLAND MEDIA GROUP California and convertibles go together like pancakes and syrup and like.... well, you get the picture. So for a recent week-long March trip to the sunny climes of Palm Springs, a 2008 Chrysler Sebring convertible was the perfect vehicle to provide transportation during the vacation. We needed something that would handle four adults at times, as well as carry a week's worth of luggage to and from the airport in Los Angeles, a couple of hours away by car. Palm Springs gets well over 300 days of sunshine a year and the warm, dry desert air is perfect for open air cruising. In March the early mornings are cool, but by mid-day the sun will have heated things up nicely. It seems almost every second car is a roadster with an interesting mixture of new and old, pricey and affordable dominating the landscape. If you're a car lover, this is the place to be. A few car lots specialize in classics and exotics, while the area Bentley dealership is reported to be one of that marque's biggest in the world in terms of volume. Our arrival in Palm Springs just happened to be a day before the first annual Desert Classic Concours d'Elegance that brought more than 100 gorgeous vehicles to the equally gorgeous O'Donnell Golf Club. It proved to be a wonderful show and well worth the price of admission. With Los Angeles only a short commute away, Palm Springs attracts many of the movie and music glitterati for weekend getaways. And with the beautiful people come beautiful cars. Our hotel for much of our time in Palm Springs was the Viceroy, a small boutique resort and spa that is one of the original local landmarks dating back to the 1930s. The hotel has been luxuriously restored and designed in what the Viceroy calls a "modern interpretation of the Hollywood Regency style." The hotel today offers luxury rooms, studios, suites and private villas and boasts three swimming pools and an onsite spa, called the Estrella. The Citron restaurant gets top rating from local food critics and attracts much of its clientele from the local population-- the sure sign of a good hotel restaurant. And the Viceroy's management and staff go out of their way to make all their guests feel special. Over the years, the Viceroy has hosted such Hollywood luminaries as Clark Gable, Tyrone Power, Carole Lombard, Joan Crawford and Bing Crosby and even the 32nd president of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. In February, an Oscar Night Academy Award party was presented by the Palm Springs Women of Film and Television at the Viceroy and attracted 220 people including singer Andy Williams, actress Britt Ekland and former Dodger baseball great Steve Garvey. Today, many Hollywood types still head to the Viceroy on weekends and a quick glance at the parking lot reveals a lot of high-end machinery. On one Saturday night alone, I spotted Porsches, BMWs, Cadillacs, an Aston Martin, a Bentley and a Ferrari. And among that crowd of vehicles around the hotel were a couple more Sebring convertibles-- a common sight around Palm Springs as I soon found during our week there. Last summer, I tested the retractable hardtop version of the 2008 Sebring and came away impressed. My opinion hasn't changed after a week with a soft-top Sebring, which ABOVE: The Sebring comes with three different convertible top options-- vinyl, cloth and a steel retractable hardtop. RIGHT: The attractive interior in the Chrysler Sebring Touring Convertible model. came with the 2.7-litre V6 as opposed to the 3.5-litre V6 I tested in the hardtop model. In my previous review, I said the retractable hardtop made a lot of sense in Canada because it offers the warmth and snugness of a hardtop coupe in the winter and top-down motoring in the summer. In Palm Springs, the soft-top version is just fine thank you because you don't have the severe weather conditions to deal with like we do in the Great White North. The new design for the Sebring doesn't `wow' you, but it is attractive. It has a higher stance than the previous model and also a higher beltline. It comes with either 17- or 18inch wheels. Ride and handling is not in the category of the top sport coupes on the market, but the Sebring convertible would be a very nice, every-day car. That's why you see so many of them in Palm Springs where the weather is certainly more conducive to owning a convertible and driving with the top down for much of the year. That, combined with the number of convertibles in rental fleets, means that open-top Sebrings are spotted everywhere on the roads in Southern California. For many years, the Sebring was one of only a handful of convertibles on the market and was a sales leader in its segment. Now with the resurgence of the convertible, the Sebring has plenty of competition including several other four-seaters like the Volkswagen Eos, Pontiac G6 and Volvo C70 that offer retractable hardtops. The freeway drive from the Los Angeles airport to Palm Springs on a Friday afternoon provides a good opportunity to test the acceleration and braking capabilities of the car as L.A. freeways are everything they're chalked up to be-- think the 401 through Toronto on a Friday at rush hour in the summer. The travel was stop and go for more than an hour and the Sebring moved along easily with the traffic. The ride is on the soft side and handled the freeway potholes and ruts without incident. The beauty of the Sebring over many convertibles is the trunk capacity. While not overly spacious, with the top up Chrysler says there is room for four golf bags and that seems about right. With the top down, the space is modest with just enough room for a couple of bags. Chrysler Convertible 2008 at a glance... BODY STYLE: DRIVE METHOD: ENGINE: two-door convertible front engine, front-wheel drive LX 2.4-litre DOHC inline four-cylinder (173 hp, 165 lb/ft), Touring 2.7-litre V6 (190 hp, 190 lb/ft) Limited 3.5-litre V6 (235 hp, 232 lb/ft). $29,995 to $38,995 chrysler.ca PRICE: WEBSITE: The Sebring Convertible comes in three trim levels: LX, Touring and Limited. It starts at $29,995 for the LX, making it one of the least expensive four-seat convertibles on the market. The Touring model is $34,995, while the top-grade Limited starts at $38,995. The LX comes with a 2.4-litre four-cylinder engine producing 173 hp, while the Touring has the 2.7-litre V6 with 190 hp. The Limited has a 3.5-litre V6 producing 235 hp. The LX and Touring have a four-speed automatic, while the Limited gets a six-speed automatic. Interior wise, the Sebring is attractive, comfortable and functional, but could use less of the hard plastic materials Chrysler seems to be using more and more these days. There is room for four, with adequate rear seat leg room even for adults with the front seats forward. Getting in and out can be a bit of a chore, but that's no different from any convertible. With the top up, the cabin is fairly quiet with surprisingly little road and tire noise. If you're looking for an affordable convertible, I'd start with the Sebring. It offers an attractive design, room for four, and a smorgasbord of roof and engine choices. There's something for everyone in the convertible market.