My 300C Road test fyi

Greeneyej · 04-18-2004, 12:51 AM

Hello every one, Jay here.. I hope to be ordering a 300C some time after I view all the colors. Here are my thoughts after this afternoons test dive. Also posted on yahoo's 300C group..

Finally got to drive a Silver 300C this afternoon and here is the trip report.
I checked out the wheels and yes they appear to be Chrome Clad plastic on a alloy
Rim. (reach in and feel the back of the spokes)Some thing to remember is the price point on this car and all the good things that are in it. (Sacrifices had to be made)
It was sprinkling and the rain sensing wipers are so cool. Mist, or down right dumping buckets they did the right amount of work and all speeds. Our route took us out over old concrete city streets that cause the rear to thump over the chunks that were uneven or just missing. Some one that drives a pillow soft car will be alarmed at the tautness of the 300C’s suspension.(Think sport sedan and you have it) The on ramp was a well banked right hand sweeper that calls for the loud pedal to be stomped on! The car felt like it squatted down and leaped forward. A most sweet feeling to have! You feel the torque in the seat of your pants all right!
The Hwy out of town heads up to a good summit and I was hunting for clear hwy to open it up. But no such luck. We had to deal with the spotty traffic and a cruising speed of about 65 mph. Cars in front of us would pull over and gawk at the car as we passed.
A 30 something male in a new(no plates) SAAB 93 couldn’t get enough of us, causing our sales man to laugh and we started noticing all the looks we were getting once we got back INTO town. A big hit w/ the girlfriend was the dual climate control. She set her side to 75 and my side at 69. Finally she can be comfortable with out me feeling like I’m in a sauna! You sit high in this car and its size helps with the feeling that you are a equal with the Mini-vans and SUVS. (Some thing the auto companies are striving for.)

Back at the dealers lot I went over the car with a eye on the details.. Like the true dual exhaust, After driving the car I understand the wanting of Flowmasters, it was hard to hear the V8 unless you had your right foot deep INTO it.
More observations. The right front brake rotor had a bad grove on it about ¾” FROM the outer edge. (the car had 53 miles on it) The other three rotors were smooth and clean. A foam baffle in the left front fender was loose, and some trim plastic on the roof top edge was questionable. This brings up the issue of Chryslers reputation of quality. Something the magazines all mentioned. If they (Chrysler) can deliver a well built car they will sell all they can make! I truly hope this is the case since I’ll be placing my ORDER after I get a chance to see a Cool Vanilla 300C. The outrageous markups ($3K) are just on the cars that the dealers have on the lots. If you ORDER one, its MSRP. ( for my part of the country at least)

At the two dealer lots we visited that had 300C’s we saw 2 Silver and one Brilliant black.
The black and one silver had just been pulled off the trailer the evening before and had not been cleaned up. It wasn’t until you got right on top of the silver one did you notice that it was as dirty as the black 300C. Now the black is a very neat color, it appears to change color depending on the light. But will be high maintenance to keep looking clean.

Of the three cars only one had the “tortoise shell” the others had the wood. $400 for about 1.5 feet of wood. Not worth it. It looked very nice, but the “tortoise shell” is a eye catcher. IMHO