It's what America has always done well – the big,
comfortable, muscular sedan – but now done for the world: the Chrysler 300C.
New 2013 Chrysler
300C
Back in the middle of the last decade, Chrysler made
everyone stop and gawp when they dropped the new 300 on us. The whole
Daimler-Chrysler partnership meant that the under pinnings owed a lot to the
then-current E-class Mercedes, but the body was all-American. While the
Mercedes it was based on looked like an elder statesman, the 300 looked like a
night club bouncer in a rather snazzy suit. It should have been called the
Chrysler Henchman, and with the 5.7 Hemi or 6.1 SRT Hemi V8, it could hench
jolly quickly indeed, with a degree of European-style refinement not expected
from an American car.
Over here, we got the Hemi version, which didn't sell many.
We got the SRT Hemi version, which sold very few. We got the V6 petrol version
which sold hardly any. And we got the diesel version, which sold like hot cakes
at fat camp. Everyone from execs who wanted to shy away from the usual BMW or
Audi (yes, there are some out there) to the chauffeur-driven
market loved the combination of presence, power and reasonable running costs offered by the 300
diesel, yet it was only ever offered
in Europe and Australia – the Yanks never got the diesel version. They still
don't … and I think Chrysler is missing a trick there. After six years on the
market the 300 got updated, which speaks a volume about the popularity of the
original styling. Six years is a long time in this game. We got our hands on
one of the new Chrysler 300s for an extended test, and this is what we found.
2013 Chrysler 300C
Front View
First, the styling. It's still the same heavyweight boxer
size and shape, but a crafty tailor has somehow conspired to conceal it a bit
better. The bulging biceps of the old model have given way to sharp creases.
Whereas the previous model's designers were clearly thinking about Bentleys
when they put pen to paper, they seem to have been more preoccupied with Rolls
Royces this time, with a definite whiff
of big Cadillac from certain angles.
2013 Chrysler 300C
Interior
Under the bonnet … well, you wouldn't know what's changed
because it all lives under a big chunk of plastic marked '3.0 CRD'. What is
under there (supposedly – it could be anything!) is an A630 V6 turbo-diesel
built by VM Motori of Italy, a company that, like Chrysler, is wholly owned by
Fiat. It's a 60-degree vee with a forged steel crank, and a common-rail direct
injection squirting diesel at 1,800bar of pressure. That's over 26,000psi, or,
to put it another way, five and a half Chrysler 300Cs per square inch. The auto
'box is a W5A580 five-speed. There's no manual option. Likewise, there's
currently no petrol-engined option. There's no SRT sporting version. And
there's no estate version any more, either. This is it: the Limited or this,
the Executive model. Two trim levels, each with a handful of optional extras. This
isn't a range anymore; it's an allotment. Naturally, as this is a press fleet
car, it's the top of the range and carrying all the top options. As the
Executive has just about everything anyway, the only options to add are the
Tungsten metallic clear-coat paint and the stunning Harman Kadron hi-fi
package. More about that later.
