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THIS IS the land of the Gila monster and saguaro cactus, the tarantula, scorpion and desert broom plant. It is a place of austere and commanding beauty, not far from the Vulture Mountains, which have a forbidding beauty of their own.

This is no place for a fool, which was my problem.

I drove here from Phoenix, where I picked up a 1996 Chrysler Sebring JX convertible. The day was crowned by the brightest sunshine, which beckoned me to lower the Sebring’s roof. Hmph. The mark of a fool is his belief that he’s headed toward heaven when he’s steering toward hell.

It was warm, initially. I stripped off my East Coast winter wear and let the wind blow in my curly hair. But the ambient temperature fell with the distance traveled, and I did nothing to protect myself from the chilling weather.

Everyone around me was driving with windows up. But I just didn’t get it — until I awakened the next morning with a cough, a scratchy throat and that deep-down, queasy feeling that I would be spending time with the flu.

Background: The Sebring convertible is an illusion. It looks hot, sexy, rich. But it has the simple soul of an economy car.

Like the Arizona weather, I didn’t understand the Sebring at first. I was bamboozled by ego. Here’s how:

In Scottsdale and Phoenix, people crowded around the car whenever, wherever I parked it. They oohed and aahed, asked numerous questions. A group of gearheads in downtown Phoenix even invited me to dinner to talk about the Sebring and things automotive.

You get that kind of attention and, well, you feel like you’re somebody. You feel like you’ve got something. I wanted to believe the Sebring was a runner. But it’s not. Instead, it’s a gilded wimp.

That isn’t to say that the Sebring is a bad or poorly built car. Nothing could be farther from the truth — except the expert deception with which the Sebring presents itself.

The tested base Sebring JX convertible, for example, is equipped with a 2.4-liter, double overhead-cam, 16-valve, four-cylinder engine rated 150 horsepower at 5,200 rpm. Torque is set at 167 pound-feet at 4,000 rpm. That’s about the same thing you’d get from the 2-liter four-banger installed in Chrysler/Plymouth Neon subcompacts.

Buyers who want more bang and less jive can opt for a 2.5-liter, single overhead-cam V-6 rated 168 horsepower at 5,800 rpm, with torque set at 170 pound-feet at 4,350 rpm.

The Sebring is sold as the JX and upscale JXi convertibles, and as the base LX and upscale LXi hardtop coupes. Both convertibles come with four-speed automatic transmissions as standard equipment. A five-speed manual is standard for the coupes, which get automatics as options.

Standard brakes on the Sebring convertibles include vented front discs/rear drums. Four-wheel antilock brakes are standard on the JXi model and are optional on the JX. All Sebrings have dual front air bags.

Complaints: The workaday nature of the Sebring’s base four-cylinder engine belies the o verall glamour of the car. Something that looks fast ought to move fast, without the all-too-frequent downshifting that marks the base engine’s performance when attempting to accelerate.

Praise: Superior exterior and interior styling. Maybe all economy and mid-priced cars ought to look this way. Also, there’s actual real, honest-to-goodness seating for four adult bodies, which is two more than you can get in most convertibles.

Head-turning quotient: Wham! Slam! Outta here! Totally first class.

Ride, acceleration and handling: Good ride. Average acceleration. Very good handling. Excellent braking. But no overall big whoop in the RAH — ride acceleration handling — category.

Mileage: About 24 miles per gallon (16-gallon tank, estimated 374-mile range on usable volume of recommended regular unleaded gasoline), running mostly highway, top down and danged fool driver only.

Sound system: Six-speaker AM/FM stereo radio and cassette. Chrysler Infinity System. Very good.

Pri ce: The Sebring convertibles go on sale this spring. They are expected to be priced from $17,000 to $23,000, with dealer invoice prices ranging from $15,666 to $21,250. Actual prices to be announced.

Purse-strings note: If you want an exceptionally pretty, well-built convertible with modest performance and a relatively modest price, buy a Sebring. If you want something that moves as sexily as the Sebring looks, look elsewhere, perhaps at the Chevrolet Camaro, Ford Mustang or — heh, heh — the BMW Z3 roadster.