Let’s start with the things I like. The Sebring has good visibility and room. It is a manageable size, and has a decent trunk. The standard 2.4-liter has dual VVT and 173 hp. It comes with lots of stuff like auto up/down power front windows, illuminated entry, variable intermittent wipers, a split-fold rear seat, thick steering wheel, and stain/odor resistant seat fabric in a handsome weave.

Unfortunately, it ends there. It’s not that the Sebring is a bad car – though some think the styling is ungainly – but that it falls well short of many of its competitors. For example, at a time when Ford fits the Fusion with a six-speed manual or automatic gearbox, the Sebring makes do with four forward speeds. Or when the latest Malibu launches with an interior with style and grace, the Sebring clutters its Art Deco instrument panel with more grains than Wheaties and more textures – cross-hatch, pebble, and satin – than there are grains of sand. Not to mention that the steering wheel looks and feels like it came out of the same Rubbermaid factory as the upper dash material.

Then there’s the handling and ride. True, the ride fits the "luxury" image the Chrysler name should suggest, but it does so while draining all of the life and athleticism out of the handling and steering. It doesn’t need to be this way. Since it is, there is little fun to be found behind the wheel of the Sebring, a non-sequitur for a car carrying the Touring badge.

The powertrain isn’t a noisy underpowered lump – it acquits itself well in everyday driving – but the lack of forward speeds means it has to carry each gear longer to get to speed, and can’t carry the overdrive necessary for the best fuel economy. As a result – and I still can’t believe it – the Sebring returned just 23 mpg in the week I had it, one mpg short of its EPA city rating and nowhere near its 32 mpg highway rating. Honest, my foot wasn’t buried in the carpet most of the time, and I’m surprised enough to want a rematch at a later date to see if this number is an anomaly.

Elsewhere, fit and finish are lacking, especially in the collar around the tilt/telescope steering column. These pieces fit together about as well as Britney Spears and hair shears. Thankfully, the rest of the interior is put together well, and the rear seat room is adequate for two adults.

The bottom line – other than the $19,530 base price and $21,000 as-driven cost – is this: Somewhere between the last Sebring and this one, between the "merger of equals" and talk of divorce, between success and dropping sales, Chrysler lost its focus. That much is apparent from my time in this car. It’s an incomplete product, neither fish nor fowl, that has all the right pieces but none of that magical "something" that makes good cars great. What’s sad is that Chrysler could use as much of that magic as possible right about now, but it won’t find any in the Sebring.