The big bad boy from the US is back. I like the old 300C. It was like a crazy teenager who doesn’t know he’s bigger than anyone else. It out-muscled the old guard of Holden and Falcon. The old 300C, like any teenager, was rough under the edges, cheap, clumsy, inexperienced, crude and always hungry.
The teenager has come of age. In some amazing way, the new 300C is refined, is not so petrol hungry, its engine is no longer lumpy, but smart, complicated and brilliant. Its interior does not look like it was made by orangutans with hammers, it looks well made!
The ride and suspension feels firm and doesn’t float, its direct and compliant at the same time. The old 300C used to wallow like a teenager being asked to take the bins at night.
The best thing about the new Chrysler 300C is that it still retains the stuff that we love. It’s cheap! $43,000 for the V6 model, with more equipment than your equivalent Commodore. It still looks out there, but with less of a deformed face. Look closely, you’ll notice that the bottom half of the front bumper looks a little Mercedes C class. Besides that fact, I like the car very much. And just when you thought the large car was dead, trust the Americans to change our minds. (JY)
