Revealed: '12 300 SRT8

[Chris_Doane]

http://www.autoweek.com/article/20110406/CARNEWS/110409932

http://www.caranddriver.com/news/spied/11q1/2012_chrysler_300c_srt8_spy_photos-future_cars

[FAPTurbo]

[Intrepidation]

Oh man, that looks awesome. Love the steering wheel. This car will look sinister in all black.

[daves87rs]

Nice!

[Robert Hall]

Sweet...I'd like to see it in black w/ black wheels..or dark gray.

[ocnblu]

HOT, and it's so fast, it blew the mirrors back.

[siegen]

Body and stance look good. The head lights and grill ruin the look of the front for me. Too insignificant-looking and the head lights look droopy. Feels like they should be more substantial than they are.

[Justin Bimmer]

This car is super awesome!

[Drew Dowdell]

:lovey:

[Turbojett]

Nice find! The changes are subtle, but it looks awesome.

[William Maley]

Begins drooling..

[David]

Sweet A black on black version with Black Chrome rims and Black Chrome accent on the car such as grill, etc will make this a bad ass sleeper.

[PurdueGuy]

IMO, looks good, not great. Just not getting real excited about it, sorry.

[smk4565]

I don't know why everyone is in love with this car, it the same body as the 05 model with headlights off a Town & Country. Interior is monotone charcoal gray, and it is no doubt SUV heavy. It's $50k for a mediocre sedan that goes fast in a straight line.

[Robert Hall]

I don't know why everyone is in love with this car, it the same body as the 05 model with headlights off a Town & Country. Interior is monotone charcoal gray, and it is no doubt SUV heavy. It's $50k for a mediocre sedan that goes fast in a straight line.

You might want to put a bit of effort into getting your facts straight...the '11 body is not the '05-10 body. Similar shape, but no panels in common. And it's probably only 4500lbs or so.

Edited April 10, 2011 by Cubical-aka-Moltar

[smk4565]

I don't know why everyone is in love with this car, it the same body as the 05 model with headlights off a Town & Country. Interior is monotone charcoal gray, and it is no doubt SUV heavy. It's $50k for a mediocre sedan that goes fast in a straight line.

You might want to put a bit of effort into getting your facts straight...the '11 body is not the '05-10 body. Similar shape, but no panels in common. And it's probably only 4500lbs or so.

Yes it is new panels, but it is basically the same. They made some improvements, but to me all they did was a mid cycle refresh of a 6 year old car. It wasn't like the 300 went through the transformation the LaCrosse had from W-body to Epsillon 2.

[FAPTurbo]

I don't know why everyone is in love with this car, it the same body as the 05 model with headlights off a Town & Country. Interior is monotone charcoal gray, and it is no doubt SUV heavy. It's $50k for a mediocre sedan that goes fast in a straight line.

You might want to put a bit of effort into getting your facts straight...the '11 body is not the '05-10 body. Similar shape, but no panels in common. And it's probably only 4500lbs or so.

Yes it is new panels, but it is basically the same. They made some improvements, but to me all they did was a mid cycle refresh of a 6 year old car.

Which is pretty much par for the course for every auto manufacturer on Earth.

[Robert Hall]

I don't know why everyone is in love with this car, it the same body as the 05 model with headlights off a Town & Country. Interior is monotone charcoal gray, and it is no doubt SUV heavy. It's $50k for a mediocre sedan that goes fast in a straight line.

What I love about it is that it's RWD, has a V8, IRS, and is big and heavy in a world of characterless FWD generics...and has bold, brash yet elegant styling.

Edited April 10, 2011 by Cubical-aka-Moltar

[Drew Dowdell]

I don't know why everyone is in love with this car, it the same body as the 05 model with headlights off a Town & Country. Interior is monotone charcoal gray, and it is no doubt SUV heavy. It's $50k for a mediocre sedan that goes fast in a straight line.

Because it has an elegant yet bad ass look that says "I'm an American luxury car, don't f#$k with me", the interior is greatly improved over it's predecessor, you can get the interior in tan if you want. An AWD model with every option checked is $45k.

As far as weight, the AWD 300C is 4500lbs and 198 inches long, so yes it is a little less than SUV like in weight as long as the SUV is the BMW 750xi at 199 inches and 4718lbs, or the 202 inch A8L at 4,453, or the 199 inch Lexus LS460 AWD at 4597.

The RWD 300C with a pushrod V8 @ 4270 weighs less than the same size 7-series RWD with an I-6 @ 4344.

[smk4565]

$45k for a 300C loaded up, an SRT8 will likely be around $50k. The interior may be much improved over the old car, but the old car had a bad interior. The 2011 300C in my opinion is still behind the LaCrosse, Taurus, Genesis, and even an Avalon or Maxima in interior. If you want to go fast for $50k and have a bad interior, just buy a Corvette. At least that won't lose half its value in 2 years.

This car is more expensive than a CTS with that interior. Yes it does 0-60 in 4.6 seconds, but I'd bet a V6 CTS can out handle it. All this car is, is a 6.4 liter engine in a $30k car, and a mediocre $30k car at that. This is typical Chrysler, all they know how to do is build an uncompetitive product and then cram a huge engine into it in hopes of getting a few people in love with muscle car nostalgia to buy it. Why don't they take that $13 billion the government gave them and get to 35 mpg CAFE, because right now they are last place of all automakers.

[Drew Dowdell]

You bet a CTS can out handle it? Wow, I didn't know Sir Issac Newton joined C&G to teach us basic physics. The CTS is a smaller and lighter car... of course it can out handle a 300C. Next up in irrelevant comparisons, I bet a BMW 1-series can out handle the 7-series.

The 300C is DTS sized inside and in the trunk. Compare it to that.

[thedriver]

It is no secret that the 300 is a reskin of an existing chassis. The "W-body to Epsilon" switch will be in about 2014 if I remember correctly. This is more of the Lesabre to Lucerne or Regal/Century to Lacrosse update if you will.

[Oracle of Delphi]

My comment on the whole thing is "Meh"! As y'all know I'm no Chrysler fan so to me it looks very similar to the model it replaces, and it will to the general public as well, and that could be it's undoing. My wife for example asked me, did it change? That more than likely will be the public's reaction too. Time will tell, and I could be wrong on my assesment, but I don't think I am.

[balthazar]

If the American makes are to 'ever match the Germans' in so many subjectives, the American consumer had better get used to incremental, subtle stylistic change from generation to generation, ALA BMW, for EX.

That, and future styling progression is very very very very finite. In football parlance: it's going to be a low-scoring game with a LOT of lateral passes.

[Drew Dowdell]

Has your wife seen one in person yet?

I was completely against this car until I saw it in person. It changed my opinion of it from entirely negative to entirely positive.

[Oracle of Delphi]

Has your wife seen one in person yet?

I was completely against this car until I saw it in person. It changed my opinion of it from entirely negative to entirely positive.

No, we have a rule in my house, thou shall only shop GM ...

[Drew Dowdell]

Has your wife seen one in person yet?

I was completely against this car until I saw it in person. It changed my opinion of it from entirely negative to entirely positive.

No, we have a rule in my house, thou shall only shop GM ...

Oh I understand that. But it's possible to see one out and about.

[SAmadei]

You bet a CTS can out handle it? Wow, I didn't know Sir Issac Newton joined C&G to teach us basic physics.

Well unfortunately, our particular Newton just crawled out of the ground and is shouting "Merrrrcedes!".

No, we have a rule in my house, thou shall only shop GM ...

*Sigh* I remember those days.

We're still trying to figure out the new family rule... so far we've only gotten to the declaration that GM can suck it.

[ZL-1]

My comment on the whole thing is "Meh"! As y'all know I'm no Chrysler fan so to me it looks very similar to the model it replaces, and it will to the general public as well, and that could be it's undoing. My wife for example asked me, did it change? That more than likely will be the public's reaction too. Time will tell, and I could be wrong on my assesment, but I don't think I am.

Not a big fan of it either; I liked the original design much better than this 'refresh' and it would be ebtter to redesign the whole thing instead of going for the botox approach...