The engine sounds that penetrate the defenses are of a classier quality, too. Dodge's safety folks are not completely sold on the effectiveness of door or seat mounted torso bags, which they believe are compromised by the need to do no harm to a small child sleeping up against the door. So Dodge went with curtain bags, which pose less of a safety risk as they take longer to deploy. The coupe profile does the look justice to a greater degree. As for styling, the four-door cars strike me as a regressing back to a Pontiac Grand Prix look, of which I am no fan.
Fact is though, they are better cars and certainly quieter.
The new two-doors feel far more refined and substantial, enhancing the appeal of these cars. That's good for consistent quality control - already a Stratus strong suit according to the latest J.D. Power Initial Quality Study. If the Stratus production models match what I have seen in their preview versions, it would seem that DaimlerChrysler has achieved what they set out to do, streamline their offerings while supplanting them with considerably better quality vehicles. And you can't argue with that.