When you're looking at 10 year old+ cars as daily drivers, you want something simple, parts that are cheap and readily available, and easy to repair.
An '02 Sunfire is all of these things. An '01 Stratus coupe is none. Parts are very expensive, a transverse V6 with a timing belt is a lot more difficult to work on than the little OHV 2.2 with a chain in the Sunfire.
There is a lot is misinformation in this thread. As stated above, it is an Eclipse. It shares absolutely no parts with the Stratus sedan. Different engine, transmission, body parts, even the key blanks and radio are different.