Reviews
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Restyled Chrysler 300 reaches back into the past to bolster its (slightly) more upmarket future.
WHAT IS IT? A mid-life facelift of the chunky, second-generation ‘modern’ 300, inspired by the greats of Chrysler’s famous ‘letter series’ models and bedazzled with a beautifully embellished front end. There’s also more bling inside, though the model range has been rationalised, meaning the entry-level Limited and turbo-diesel have been home-schooled to the northern hemisphere.WHY WE’RE TESTING IT? Well, why wouldn’t you when it also includes a flick at Sydney’s original, and only remaining, drive-in – Skyline in Blacktown. Yep, the updated 300 launch included a movie, a burger and chilli-cheese fries. But what better way to showcase the new 300’s brilliant (optional) 18-speaker Harman Kardon stereo with 900-watt amplifier and subwoofer than to pump the Ant-Man movie soundtrack through it? But we also enjoyed a stint through the national park, demonstrating the 300’s new electric steering and tweaked chassis.
It took Chrysler more than three decades to rediscover its own aesthetic, and it did so with such success that the reborn 2005-era 300, with its ‘chopped’ roof style and aggressive front end, was barely messed with when generation two lobbed in 2012. Now Chrysler has taken this retro-tech flavour to a new level with the extensively updated 2015 300.
It’s essentially the same car but much has changed. A new front fascia with a rather lovely fine-mesh grille and LED fog lamps to match the adaptive bi-xenon headlight’s C-shaped LED running lights gives the revised 300 a techy, ‘white light’ look and a striking rear-view-mirror presence. Not sure the ‘rectangular-doughnut’ LED taillights achieve the same effect – they look very Fiat-like – but the new Chrysler 300 remains a mean-looking son of a bitch.
We drove the 300C Luxury. With lovely diamond-stitched Nappa leather, a pretty new steering wheel with paddles, and a new retro instrument pack with a beautifully rendered central TFT screen fulfilling nav, speedo and trip-computer duties among other things, the refreshed 300 cabin has its good points.
In the Luxury, the front seats each have heaters and coolers, but they lack sufficient lateral support to complement the new 300’s tidy handling. Its new electric steering set-up (bolstered by a Sport mode in the Luxury, that makes steering weight a bit meatier and sharpens throttle response), is accurate and consistent, while the 300’s chassis continues to surprise with its cornering competence.
Chrysler says the 300 has cast-aluminium axles and rear axle housing to “reduce parasitic friction”, but it might have been smarter to engineer the top SRT’s adaptive dampers into the 300C Luxury because, on its chunky polished 20s, the Luxury’s ride is anything but luxurious. It’s quiet though, and that’s some compensation.
While reasonably well-mannered, what the V6 lacks is effortlessness. At 1862kg, the 300C Luxury puts all eight ratios to good use, yet it’s a busy worker, shuffling about the place in an attempt to deliver some muscle. But with Chrysler’s 250kW 5.7-litre Hemi V8 tied to the ZF eight-speed, the posh 300 would be so much more convincing as a luxury car.
While we lament the absence of a velvety Hemi V8, and reckon there’s a market for a sub-$50K entry-level sporty variant, the refreshed Chrysler 300 is even more car for the money than it ever was. Our inner petrolhead says the forthcoming $69,000 SRT range-topper will be the one to have, but there’s still plenty to like in this tough-looking, neat handling slice of distinctive Americana.
