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Comments
Must be something endemic to ChryCo engine controls.
Acura TL (possibly S-type): This was my second choice. However, it had less interior room than my Mitsubishi Galant, which was a BIG surprise to me when I read the specs. As a result the rear leg room isn't up to snuff, expecially for entertaining/transporting clients. I liked the fact that there was only one option (the nav computer), but it didn't have some of the comfort features of the 300M (e.g. dual seat memory) at the same price. The resale value is great, but you won't get any killer deals.
Audi A4
Too small and too expensive for what you get. Nicely made car and very comfortable, but like I said earlier, rear legroom and overall interior size was a big deal to me. The Passat is basically the same car for a lot less.
Chrysler 300M
My pick. Nice size (bigger than the midsizes yet still manageable), great engine and amenities, and some killer deals going on right now. Local dealers in San Diego are selling for $299 over invoice, MINUS a $2,000 rebate until 4/3. This is about $4,500 off MSRP. You might also find cars used at the Bob Hope Desert Classic or the Holiday Bowl with under 1000 miles on them for even cheaper.
Infiniti I30
Nice car, but for comparable equipment was about $5,000 more expensive than the M.
Nissan Maxima
Size issue again, plus not even close to the others in terms of luxury. This is more of a mid-size sports sedan, not a near-luxury car. I loved the way it drove (it has an awesome engine), but the overall call didn't do much for me personally. It certainly wasn't a head turner like some of the others.
Volkswagen Passat
Great car, but for me was too small (as stated earlier).
I also looked at the Mitsubishi Diamante, but the repair records and customer comments were less than stellar.
Hope this helps!
The install is not hard. The hardest part will be running the wire harness through the firewall to the engine. My only hole is used by 4 gauge power wire for my stereo.(might have to drill on my install)There are 5 wires. 2 splice into the Map sensor, 1 splices into the TPS sensor, 1 wires goes to power in the fuse box, & 1 wires goes to ground. All crimps/connectors etc are included. Also included is some velcro to mount the module, some small tie wraps, & some brackets/screws to mount the module permentaly.
The instructions do not say how long the install will take.
ezaircon4jc - I live in the Rancho Penesquitos area. I'll find you once I get rid of this Mitsubishi Galant and get into my new 300M.
Thanx for the breakdown on your choices. Not sure there is a $5K diff between the 300M and the Infiniti I30. At any rate, I'm off to both Chrysler and Infinit dealers this weekend for test drives.
Bob
P.S. COngrats on the soon to be 3rd kid!
I have been a lurker for the past several months. We are looking at either an Intrepid ES (or RT) and a 300M. Based on your very candid opinions, I take it that the group overall is very positive on their 300M's, which is great to hear. However,I am aware of tire problems with 300M's from your posts. If I might ask, is the tire problem specific to Goodyears or are the Michelins also prone to problems? Also, are the cars with the PHP's similarly prone to tire "imbalance" (I understand that PHP's have had Michelins from day 1, I'm trying to determine if the firmer suspension is positive for tier performance or not). Also for those with 2001's, do you see any performance penalties for the slight "detuning" from MY 1999 and 2000? I am used to around 26MPG at 75mph w/ my current Intrepid with midgrade gas; is this what I should expect w/ 300M? Lastly, any opinions on Intrepid RT vs 300M?
Many thanks. I have gotten to know some of your cars' names better than those of many of my co-workers, which is another story...
Rob
Sunday - drank heavily with occasional sobbing
Monday - Called State Farm (her insurance), had car taken to local 5* dealer. Was provided with a smelly Chevy Lumina with 20,000 miles as rental. Discussed the repairs with body shop manager at Dealer. He assured me that the car would be "as good as new" when got done with it. Confirmed he only used DC replacement parts, etc. Also talked to State Farm agent, who said I would be compensated for "diminished Value" of my new vehicle. Still trying to figure out what that means in terms of $$$.
Tuesday - Estimate under way
Wednesday - estimate complete, $5500 delineated on an 8-page repair sheet. Body shop manager said he thought he could get it done in around 10 days.
Tomorrow - will call State Farm agent to discuss next steps, and possibilities of a new replacement.
Man, I want to be back in my M!!
dont be surprise if they just offer you a thousand or two towards decreased value--get a second opinion from another dealer as well as this dealer as to decrease in value and put up a good fight--try to get figures in writing from the dealers and plan on a disagreement--if they wont come close to your price, tell them you would like a new car!
good luck--I bet you will be very happy with the job--its amazing how good a job they can do as long as its a reputable shop--and the extra bucks in your pocket wont hurt either--if you sell it in 5 or more years, you will not lose much on a resale as long as shop does a good job--and the money you pocketed will more than make up for it.
Easyrider300M
My'99 w/PHP had Michelin MXV4 tires that performed very well. The '01 has Michelin HX MXM V4 tires ($200 each!). I strongly recommend the PHP, Now called PHG, for any serious driver.
I averager 23 MPG on my '99 over 69,000 miles, and got 26-27 MPG on trips using 87 octane regular gas.
I don't know where the 3 ponies went from '00 to '01, but I don't miss them.
As for the Intrepid vs the 300M, if you could put all the 300M features on the Intrepid I don't think there would be any difference in price.
However, some 300M features are not even availavle on the Intrepid.
Finally, I think the 300M would hold value better than the Intrepid, as there is no "cheap" 300M. The price spread from top to bottom is much less, and used car prices tend to be based on the lowest cost model.
Besides, the 300M just has more panache!
i've only put 9,000 miles on my m in 15 months i only drive it on nights and weekends around town, i don't want the engine to get all gunky inside should i switch to synthetic.
However, I have two complaints.
1. terrible rear view visibility. The high trunk blocks a significant portion of your rear view. Makes backing up/pp difficult
2. Size and turning diameter. The car is BIG and has a large turning diameter. Makes getting in and out of tight parking spaces difficult.
Next car after the lease expires? Something smaller and easier for city driving (metro DC)
Subaru WRX, Audi A4, Acura TL/CL, Lexus IS300, BMW 325ix are all considerations. It's not that I don't like the 300M, just that where we live now, necesitates a smaller easier city car.
BTW how's this for trivia: Why the name, 300M?
the 300M is the latest of the letter series Chrysler 300's dating back to 1955. The first one was called the 300C with the 300B following in 1956. The first Chrylser 300 engine boasted 300 bhp ergo the 300 designation. The letters were advanced one letter for each year through 1965 with the 300L. Although they made non letter series Chrysler 300's through 1971, no more 300 letter series were made after 1965 until 1999 when the 300M that we all love was built in remembrance of the great Chrysler 300 letter series cars of the past.
Score one point for Easyrider. Tandee, please send me my chocolate glazed Tandee Donut.
Easyrider300M
Easyrider300M
This edition of trivia is TOTALLY unofficial!
You can buy retail off their web site. www.amsoil.com or sign up as a personal use only dealer and get it for the dealer cost. That's what I do. Richmond has one of their product distribution centers, so I pick mine up without the shipping costs, but you can get it shipped UPS for typical fees.
The oil is a 35000 mile or 1 year warren tied oil. I change once every March. I have 32000 miles with no problems. I use this oil in all my family's vehicles and power equipment. I have a once a year oil change weekend usually in late March after Spring finally sets in here in a.
I've used AmsOil since 1985, all with good results. I've taken apart a couple of old Pontiac engines in my college ride and my GTO racecar. The engines are EXTREMELY clean, no sludge and like new. The lifters and cam from my college ride with 150,000 miles worth of 1 year oil changes were still within new part tolerances. Cam bearings were almost like new.
I fully believe in the benefit of synthetics.
Hope it helps.
I plan to change mine every 7500 miles which will be this weekend.
http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=1280600&a=9485515
First car I have used synthetic in so no other history. I think DC is being to conservative (or money hungery) on the synthetic time frames. The new corvettes come with Mobil 1 and have a 15,000/12 month change schedule.
Hope this helps.
Memphis 300m
I wouldn't have a clue whether my 3 week old, Silver '01 has a rattle. I am having too much fun turning the Infinity sound System up with my favorite CD (e.g. Steely Dan, Elvis Costello, Allman Bothers)blasting away!! It got to 37 today here in Wisconsin and I was driving around at lunch with the hole in the roof open.
I drove an Intrepid gor 6 years, and drove an A4, Infiniti I30, etc. but just kept coming back to the 300m. I will never regret the choice, or sell this car.
Good driving all!
Tires - I have a 2K with the PHG's Michelins. Had a nasty vibration soon after I bought it. Had to balanced a couple of times before I found a place with the GSP 9700 - that fixed it.
hey..anyone here have the Taupe or Sandstone interiors? Almost every car I look at here has the charcoal gray...which I'm not real keen on given our sunny summers in SoCal. How are these two lighter colors holding up cosmetically for people? Is the leather easy to clean? Nice thing about the black is that it hides stuff.
Thanks and happy m....ing
Fuzzy...sorry about the duplication post.
using speaker level inputs tap into the wires coming out of the amp:
white/black = - left rear
white/red = + left rear
tan/black = - right rear
tan/red = + right rear
dark green/red = turn on lead
after you hook up the speaker level inputs, connect the ground to a spot under the trunk carpet, and run a power wire to the battery...nothing to it you can do it yourself!!
check out my pics:
Racefan9's 300m
We drove a Maxima SE, a loaded Intrepid ES and a loaded Camry (I know this is apples and oranges but ...)along with the M for our evaluation. The Camry fell out right away; not much styling and, well, just not much of anything for $28.5K list. The Max didn't impress me as much as I'd thought it would; great engine but otherwise seemed cheap inside. We have a 94 Intrepid ES so wanted to check out Generation 2. Not bad at all, but as was pointed out above, lacks a lot of the goodies that the M has. And lacks some of the punch. Yeah, it's $5K different so I have to get both sides of the brain to agree on that. My better half will be doing most of the day-to-day driving so I need her to be happy with the choice that she is going to help me make.
As far as oil is concerned, the '94 Trep has had nothing but Castrol Syntec for its 130K miles. I usually change every 5K miles...I know it is good for longer than that but I tend to keep these things forever. The Trep uses no oil whatsoever; I do my own changes and the oil isn't really dirty to the eye at 5000 miles. I would recommend synthetic; it is a lot more stable than natural oil for a longer period of time. Filters; I go with Purolator. Don't cheap out on filters; the particles that do the most long-term damage to piston rings are in the 10 micron or so range. Tough to catch these. Stay with quality here. The new M or Trep will get Syntec as soon as the break-in oil gets tossed.
Again, many thanks; will keep you all posted.
Rob