1998 Chrysler Sebring JXi Convertible A sleek convertible with European flavor. By Kevin Ransom, New Car Test Drive .com

The Chrysler Sebring JX convertible definitely knows how to make a splash.

Ever since it was rolled out for the 1996 model year, the Sebring convertible's elegantly handsome lines,

twinkle-toed road manners and easy, push-button retractible top have made it one of the most popular convertibles

in America.

Never a company to take success for granted, Chrysler not only tweaked the base-level JX and midline

JXi for '98--it also introduced a new luxury model: the Sebring Convertible Limited.

The Limited offers many luxury-line features as standard equipment, including chrome-plated cast-aluminum

wheels, "Rose Zebrano" woodgrain interior accents, a beige-and-agate inside color scheme with perforated

leather-trim seats, a padded console armrest, electro-luminescent lighting on the instrument cluster and

special "Limited" exterior badges.

For the record, the Chrysler Sebring JX convertible is not a soft-cover version of the Sebring LX coupe.

In fact, they're not even the same car--they share only a nameplate and an engine box. The Sebring LX coupe

is descended from the Mitsubishi Galant sedan platform, while the Sebring JX convertible was spawned from

Chrysler's Cirrus/Stratus platform. The Sebring JX convertible shares an engine and instrument panel with the

Cirrus/Stratus.

The Sebring JX ragtop replaced the stalwart LeBaron convertible that Chrysler retired in 1996. From the early

'80s through the mid-'90s, the LeBaron convertible sold briskly, even though it lacked pep and suffered from

uninspired styling. Like the LeBaron, the Sebring ragtop is a true, by-design convertible, although sleeker and

more muscular.

Besides the introduction of the Limited, and some new equipment options and cosmetic touches on the JX and

JXi, the '98 Sebring convertible is mostly, and wisely, unchanged from the '97 model.