My experience
On our recent trip to Akron we rented a Stratus for four days. It was nice to have the familiar ergonomics of a Chrysler in the car as we have a Jeep Liberty at home. One thing that I’ve found annoying in rental cars at times is trying to figure out where things are. For instance I was stuck with a Cavalier as a rental once. It was a pretty poor car in most respects. However, most annoying was the proximity of the headlight switch to the wiper controls. Theirs is nothing quite as exciting as turning off your lights by mistake when it starts to rain. Rain, darkness and unfamiliarity with a car are an ugly combination that I was lucky to get through without an accident. Fortunately the Stratus was a much nicer experience.

The basics
The Stratus is a midsize car. The one we rented was a four door sedan in the STX trim. While SXT sounds like it is made to go fast, it is indeed the lower end version of the car, featuring a 2.4 liter four-cylinder engine that produces 150 horsepower. The styling is rather average in my opinion. It borders on sporty, but somehow falls more closely to the bland lines of so many other midsize cars.

Despite any feelings on whether Chrysler hit the mark with sporty or fell short with bland, the Stratus is roomy. Driver and passenger legroom is very nice, even in the back seat there is room for two semi-comfortably and three if comfort isn’t as big a deal. The trunk easily accommodated luggage for three people as well. It was surprisingly deep.

Drivetrain
A four-cylinder engine powered our Stratus. This engine delivers 150 ponies through a four-speed automatic transmission to the front wheels. Throttle response was rather impressive at first blush. A slight nudge of the accelerator gives the entire auto a rather tremendous jolt. However, in somewhat longer driving, this thrust became something of a rather annoying twitch. There is little more power lurking beyond that initial thrust.

Flooring the accelerator did nothing to improve the acceleration. Instead, it seemed that there was little which could be done to deliver a smoother takeoff. The first eighth of the throttle seemed to deliver as much power as punching the pedal to the floor. It resulted in more than one unfriendly remark about how heavy my foot was when leaving a stop.

Beyond the rather twitchy initial acceleration, the transmission was smooth, shifting both quietly and cleanly. Overall acceleration was average. There was enough power to merge smoothly into freeway traffic, but not enough to make me grin.

On the positive side, the engine delivered a pleasant, sonorous note. There was a rich grumble of power emitted from beneath the hood. It wasn’t loud enough to be annoying, just a pleasant roar beneath the hood.

The EPA claims 22/30 for gas mileage. The rental car company listed it as straight up 21. I got about 25 using it about 50/50 highway/city over the course of a tank of gas. That’s not bad for a car this size I guess.

Handling
A big plus for the Stratus was the excellent combination of ride and handling. The car was quiet on the road, took bumps very nicely but still gripped through turns with sure traction. The smooth ride didn’t have the floating sensation that many larger cars demonstrate. Yet there was nothing jarring about hitting a bump or reasonable sized pothole. The car could still be tossed into a fairly hard turn without fear of suddenly facing the wrong way.

The braking system was not a positive. Braking feel was rather spongy and insufficient. The front disc and rear drum brakes were not anti-lock which is an option on the Stratus. I never felt like the car was capable of stopping quickly in a crisis. While the car did track straight under hard braking, the braking power was underwhelming.

Interior
Not only was there ample legroom for my six-foot frame, the seats were comfortable and wide as well. One trip had me in the car for almost an hour. The cloth seats were very nice to sit on the entire time. The rear seat splits and folds down to allow larger loads to fit in the trunk. It is a little odd to me that the seat splits 40/60. The 60 is nice, but the 40 doesn’t really allow room for two people to sit.

A little detail that I haven’t ever seen in a car before was what I believe was a French fry holder. A small slot by the emergency brake in the center console was the perfect shape and size to take care of a regular order of fries for busy drivers eating on the road. While this was a very handy feature, the location of the drink holders was a little less than perfect. Room for two drinks was down low in front of the gearshift. This was quite a reach and very hard to find in the dark.

The entire dashboard is located well away from the seat. The top of the dash is very long at the end of a rakish windshield line. I’ve never been fond of having that much room to dust or lose parking stubs. However, if you like to keep lots of stuff on your dash, there is plenty of room there.

Instrumentation is easy to read and well laid out. The white gauge faces are perhaps the most attractive part of the interior.

A couple of large open stowage areas reside in the dash. These have tiny nubs to keep what is placed on them from sliding away. While this is nice, I imagine they keep you from cleaning them sufficiently as well.

In all the interior is mostly practical and comfortable. It is not luxurious by any stretch however. Some might argue that the styling of the exterior isn’t bland (certainly their right, style is subjective). I don’t think too many will make the same argument about the interior—it is bland.

Amenities
Even the base SXT car included a fair assortment of what used to be extras. Cruise control is one of those nice things that I rarely use. Power windows and mirrors however, would be hard to live without these days. Trunk releases are nice as well. All are included on the SXT.

The sounds system was decent. The sound was fair and the volume levels were more than sufficient for the average driver.

Final Thoughts
In all the Stratus is rather bland. It doesn’t do much to make you say, “wow!” Alright, it doesn’t do anything to make me say “wow!” It does enough to get by, it looks okay and it is comfortable. The car doesn’t do any of this with any sort of style or panache.

The price of the Stratus might seem reasonable, however there are other more exciting cars in this class that offer more for less. The Pontiac G6, Saturn Ion and even Dodge’s own Charger are all cars that have much greater appeal than the Stratus either for price or lack of blandness.

It was nice to have a car with a familiar feel to it while on our trip. For a week or so, the Stratus was nice to drive. However, owning a Stratus long-term isn’t appealing to me.