Its not that the Breeze was particularly unattractive, as its curvaceous lines were quite stylish when new, but the Cirrus and
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| The Breeze was what you bought if you needed something in the compact to midsize category, but were on a budget. (Photo: DaimlerChrysler Canada) |
Stratus that bowed the year prior stole the limelight leaving the Breeze merely a needs driven purchase. What do I mean? Well, if you had the means you'd buy a Chrysler or Stratus, depending on your preference for luxury or sport, while the Breeze was what you bought if you need something in the compact to midsize category, with decent styling and performance, but on a budget. So does it make a good used car buy? Certainly it does, and an extremely reasonable one due to its lack of notoriety. It offers a reasonably large rear seat that seats two adults or three children, fairly well put together accommodations, a high level of style for a bargain-basement 4-door sedan from the late '90s era, and decent performance.
Under the floorboards is a 4-wheel double wishbone, fully-independent suspension that responds easily to driver input, handles corners well, and in the end is actually quite fun to drive. Thin, economy-level tires result in a moderate 0.78 G 300-foot skidpad rating in early year vehicles while improvements in rubber increased this to 0.81 Gs in '97,
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| Due in part to its lack of notoriety, the Plymoth Breeze makes an extremely reasonable used car buy. (Photo: DaimlerChrysler Canada) |
although for spinning in circles at a slower rate its 11.3-meter (37-foot) diameter turning radius is not too bad. Powering the Breeze is a 132 horsepower 2.0-liter 4-cylinder with 129 lb-ft of torque in base guise, a little on the buzzy side but speedy enough for most. Those wanting a little more oomph need to buck up for what was an optional 2.4-liter 4-cylinder. It is much more refined than the 2.0-liter, and produces V6-like performance due to 150 horsepower and 167 lb-ft of torque, only 3 lb-ft less than Chrysler's V6. Unfortunately, the 2.5-liter V6 available in the Cirrus and Stratus was never offered in Plymouth trim being that value was the brand's first order of business.
