1995 Chrysler Cirrus

Selecting the Car of the Year is far from a simple task. The rigorous examination process involves a cadre of dedicated staffers, several top-secret test venues, and a big stack of gasoline cards waiting to be run up to their limits. In addition to generating reams of empirical data on acceleration, braking, and handling performance, we micro-inspect every aspect of the vehicles' inner and outer limits-opening, closing, entering, exiting, sitting, reclining, loading, unloading, feeling, touching, looking, listening, probing, and prodding. From the overall design theorem to the details of the finished product, each car is evaluated with an eye toward just how well it performs oits intended task.

We considered every all-new or substantially changed '95 EPA-domestic car and minivan that will be on sale by Jan. 1, 1995, looking for the most significant vehicle in the market. Viewed from both an industry and buyer's perspective, we weighed technological advancement, value, and performance. After all the data were analyzed, and the heated debates put to rest, one new car stood above the crowd. Perhaps surprisingly, the winner wasn't the fastest, best handling, or even the lowest-priced vehicle in the mix. But the accolades roared nonetheless. On the merit of its superb design, top-notch quality, and outstanding value, we enthusiastically proclaim the Chrysler Cirrus Motor Trend's 1995 Car of the Year.

Chrysler's RenaissanceOne automobile does not a renaissance make, but Chrysler Corporation is in the midst of a styling and engineering rebirth that would make the Medicis blush. The all-new Chrysler Cirrus is not only a breakthrough American sedan in its own right, but the latest in a series of corporate home runs that includes the Dodge and {{{Plymouth Neon}}} small cars, the formidable Ram pickup (MT '94 Truck of the Year), the wildly popular LH-series sedans, and, of course, the hormone-engorged Dodge {{{Viper}}} V-10 supercar.

As impressive as the Cirrus is in its finished form, the development "story behind the story" is just as intriguing. As the keystone of Chrysler's newfound mission, its lean and mean "team concept" platform development program doesn't merely replace a model of car with a fresh-faced version, but literally reinvents what that type of vehicle should be for today's world. Advanced design and manufacturing concepts bring to bear all-electronic engineering methods and resources heretofore the province of aerospace companies. Attention to detail is evident throughout, which, in part, is the result of using select squads of parts suppliers integrated from the onset into the computer-based development team. That integration helped make Chrysler Corporation an efficient manufacturing machine.

As a low-cost producer of domestic products, Chrysler is now a company that thinks globally and acts locally. It took a world-class view of the Cirrus, imbuing the small sedan with the best ideas and technologies to be found-whether they came from Chrysler's own labs or from outside suppliers. Such an allied spirit of cooperation infused the Cirrus' JA-platform development group with a take-no-prisoners approach to doing battle in the hotly contested compact-sedan class. From Nissan's hot-selling Altima to Ford's new Contour, the Cirrus is ready to compete. Perhaps even more impressive is Cirrus' "class ahead" strategy that targets Ford Taurus and Honda Accord shoppers, even though both those cars are positioned in the larger EPA mid-size class of sedans.

In the following pages, we'll explore how that far-reaching goal was achieved.

Heads In The CloudsSteve Bartoli is the product planning manager for the JA platform, and a part of the Large-Car Engineering group whose superboss is veteran Chrysler engineering spearhead Glenn Gardner. Shake hands with this enthusiastic car-guy and prepare to be impressed, as the former czar of Diamond-Star Motors engages you in the story of the '95 Chrysler Cirrus.