Chrysler has taken a daring tack with the new Sebring. While many car makers strive to carry over as much as they can of a new model's predecessor while still making it look different, the '07 Sebring's stylists tossed more than they kept of the previous generation's visuals. Even so, and despite the sweeping changes to the new Sebring's exterior, it's safe to label the redesign as more dramatic than radical.

Least startling in its revised look is the front end, although there, too, the changes are significant. The shape of the trademark grille survives but shrunken and positioned higher in the fascia. The car gets an honest front bumper, below which is a set of intakes, at least one of which actually functions to channel cooling air to the engine. Large, multi-element headlight assemblies fill the tops of the bumpers. The hood sports embossed strakes splaying back toward the windshield in a pattern intended to bless the Sebring with some of the sporty airs of the Crossfire, the Sebring's underrated, two-seater sibling.

The side of the 2007 Chrysler Sebring is decorated with creased character lines, a big change from the smooth flanks of the '06 model. Flowing rearward from the front quarter panels, these creases spread, expanding the distance between them and emphasizing the sharply outlined wedge shape of the '07 Sebring. Mild fender blisters circle the wheel openings. Body-color, anti-ding door moldings are optional on all trim levels. Side windows are framed in flat black. Door handles are body color on the base and Touring, chrome-finished on the Limited. Mirror housings are body color across the line.

The rear of the car is the most radical element of the Sebring's redesign, but it's radical in a contrarian way, showing more of a traditional trunk and bumper style than the '06's chopped off, Kammback-look. Where the '06's taillights bracketed the trunk lid, the '07's taillights bridge the seam between the lid and the rear fenders. A molded-in, micro-spoiler lip tops the trailing edge of the trunk lid, itself remarkably shallow, yielding a severely cramped trunk opening. The only jarring element is the inset backlight, which seems to be an effort, however futile, to enlarge the trunk opening while maintaining the desired top-to-bottom proportions of the new Sebring.