Re: chrysler/mercedes ?
Agree Chrysler always did more with less money than any of the big three. IMNSHO they had the best engineering (at GM the mark of a hero was to save a penny on a design).
That said at least on the gold coast they also had a reputation for rusting out on the dealer lot.
That Chrysler was given an obsolete Merc design for a halo car is not really surprising. Chrysler had nothing in this form factor. That they sold over 70,000 of them is. Their previous Halo car, the Prowler, sold only 11,000 units.
You must wonder about the attention paid to ergonomics though. Am presently more like 5'9" than 5'10" and knew inside of two minutes in a roadster that I could not get comfortable. Magazines said the same thing. It took a coupe and surgery of both the interior bulkhead and the seat bolster for me to be comfortable over several hours of driving. What were they thinking ?