I've found that by using a flat toothpick, you can control the amount of paint that is to be applied to the scratch. Test your dexterity before trying it on your car!
Saw an article today on MSN site about America's most loved vehicles. JD Power supposedly did the survey of 110K owners. The 300M was nowhere to be found, even in the comparison products for the selected cars. [Neither was my wife's Eldorado.] I guess the 300M is in a class by itself. I think these surveys are BS anyway. They rated the AZTEK as the best SUV entry vehicle. Apparently, the 2 people who bought that dog over the past few years really like it. And they had the Beetle over the Cruiser. Nice try. I emailed them and told them to take a look at the Chrysler mag a few issues back where they had a spread on modified Cruisers, and told them that was demonstrated passion. I also told them to check our Edmunds board and stop being a shill for various models/manufacturers. Anyone get the JD Power questionnaire? I sure didn't.
As the famous saying goes --"There are lies, damn lies and statistics." Surveys are only as good as their subject matter -- and the objectivity of those selecting the subject matter.
Obviously these surveys are biased from the start and the results are self-serving to those setting the paramaters.
Is there any segment of the North American population that loves their car more than the 300M owner? I doubt it! I may be biased, but at least my bias is not on an exclusive basis, such as these surveys!
Just venting and demonstrating passion for MY "most liked car" (and thereby proving my point!)...
Since the Grand Caravan is in the shop for its SECOND transmission replacement in 75k miles, Big Red is in the garage where she belongs. I commented to my wife how perfect the car looks there, and that it's like the garage was made for it (snicker) and she just rolled her eyes. Then she told me that if I wanted to put three car seats in it and make it her daily driver that it could stay in the garage. So, basically, I guess my wife owns the garage. Telling her that it goes against every male principle (the wife owning the garage), she gave me a big pretty smile and told me to "get over it". *sigh*
Mike - I have the same setup going -- being the wife who hauls at least one kid per day -- I get the garage (but my car IS the M). Maybe this will be of some consolation to you: cars in garages of households that have young children are hazardous to the M's beauty. My car has received more damage in the garage than out. I have one parking lot ding on the passenger side, but on the driver's side that is in the path of bikes, skateboards and toddlers, I have 2 nice dings and numerous "unexplained" minor scrapes. By the way, did you know that if you take the gas tank door and shove it back in the opposite direction it puts a dent in the car? (don't try it!) My daughter, who was 4 at the time, is lucky I didn't realize what caused it for a couple of weeks. (It's about time for a visit from the Ding Doctor). My family thinks I'm insane though -- I am always harping on them not to even touch the car and if they have to, PLEASE shut the doors with the handles (I hate fingerprints on my beautiful slate car).
"speaking real dual exhaust, i ran two 3" pipes back, one from each converter into a muffler on each end. and then i ran back not the Hujo setup, but ran pipes from the converter into one muffler, then back to the end and split into two. an H if you will.....
much better results on the 2nd setup. i dont know about anyone else but in my backed up opinion TRUE dual exhaust, on this car, created too much backpressure, the H setup like mustangs reduces backpressure compared to the straight back."
You have a good point about the garage. Mine has evolved (de-evolved?) into a disaster in the last few weeks. My wife is a pack rat and the garage is where stuff goes. There is stuff everywhere...bikes, boxes, laundry, etc. Anyone want a stair climber that hasn't been used in 5 years? Seriously, Saturday morning it goes to the curb with a FREE sign on it.
LOL... Hope you're "over it"! Bet Big Red is saying- THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! Bet you hope the "5-STAR" takes his time repairing that transmission- again! ;-))
That was good news. The Concorde was the top full size car. And since it is built basicly the same as the 300M, it is good news. My CRV also made the top of the list, although it is a year newer then my M it has seen the service department more. so go figure.
My car was not involved but my back was. Have orders to lay down for the next couple of days. It figures I get a few days off, and have to do it laying down. Will do the testing but may be slightly delayed.
Michael sorry to hear about the accident. Hope you back up on your feet soon.
Hey, If someone has a good cure for scratches please post the technique and pictures on the Club pages. We all have scratches. Being out here in New Mexico I have several small rock dings on my hood, sure wish I had gotten a Bra when I bought the car. So please let us all know how to repair scratiches and nicks.
Mike - you don't need to get up to do play with the headlights, do you? Just roll around :-D Hope you feel better soon - I've been there with the back thing. It's a royal pita - no pun intended...
Chips - great link denverm. Far too much work though... Considering one of the small bra's for the front. Do they really help prevent chips to the rest of the hood?
Ranking - it's nice that the concorde was up there - that was my last car. Great ride. However, I'm always skeptical of rankings like this. Too easy to skew results...
I noticed a couple weeks back when I took my floor mats out to shake some dirt of them. There was a wet spot about the size of a grapefruit. We had a lot of rain the days before that so I didn't give it to much thought. This was on the driver side right about where your heel rests. I left the mat out and made sure it was good and dry. Then put the mat back a few days later. Well yesterday was the first time its rained since then. We went to the store just a few miles and away. Something told me to look under the mat when we got back. Sure enough a damp spot in the same place. Right about where your heel would rest about the size of a small grapefruit. I rubbed my hand on it and it smells kind of musty. I have an appt next Tuesday with my 5* they are replacing the belts power steering A/C. They said they were starting to show some cracking. Goldie as we call the M is now 3 years old and 66000 mi on her. Wondered if anyone has any idea about the leak so I know what they should be looking for at the 5*. Thanks sel714
Well, unfortunately I joined the crunch club this morning. Was following another car through a right turn (more like a 30 degree right curve) on a green right turn arrow, and that car suddenly stopped, but I couldn't stop in time. Not sure if it had brake lights. The other driver took off and I didn't get a plate number (an old Honda wagon with a temporary plate). My car: crunched bumper, hood, pushed back and scraped headlight assembly, and slightly crunched corner of right front fender. Time to visit the auto body shops . . . . (Good news is that no one was hurt and also my hood had a lot of paint chips, so that will be taken care of now )
denverm - ok that's it. No more crashes here! Glad everyone's ok.
bulbs - check ebay. There's one guy who regularly sells them for $29 for the set. I'm almost positive those are the right numbers. One is high, one is low.
Starbucks sounds good -- I could use an Eggnogg Latte about now! But seriously, I haven't called Ding Doctor yet so don't know if the charge by the trip, dent or both, but I do plan on looking into it soon so I'll ask about "group discounts." I'm just curious how they do it. I assume they take the inside door panels off for door dents (scarey thought). The one by my gas door seems to be enclosed by the fender panels so don't know how they would do that one, but I want it gone.
I bought one of those about 8 months ago. Nice quality. She has a bunch of them. I can't bear to wear it though -- sort of a collector thing as it looks just like my M.
If your ding dr. knows what he is doing, you will see that he probably does not have to remove anything to get at the dings, they are amazing. I have used my guy here for 4 of my vehicles and am more than satisfied. I have a bunch of his cards and give them out to what I think is a great car. I just dropped my garage door on the roof of my M and my guy got the severe dings out by going through the sun roof and then polishing the scratches out. I can't tell the difference.Total time was 35 mins. and it would have cost me with tax in $92.00 Cdn. which at the last time I checked about $10.00 US. As I am a stupid customer and bring him more than enough business, I do get some freebies and this was one.If you are close to the Cdn border, go to the largest city and they should have lots of these repair shops. There must be about 20 in my City.
If you have 20, then San Diego needs 1000! Got another one, this time on my passenger side door. I also discovered that since yesterday I got a nice scrape on my rear bumper. BLUE doesn't look good on inferno red. What I need is a car alarm system that will pump about 500 volts through the body and blast anyone who comes in contact with my car when it's armed. lol
Everyone drives everywhere in CA (not a lot of public transportation). It seems a lot of parking lots were built in the 80's when the trend was towards compact cars so the parking spaces are really narrow. The newest trend is to build average size spaces, but after a couple years they will decide to reduce parking even further by tearing out part of the parking lot and adding yet another store (thus creating the need for more parking - duh!)so sometimes you have no choice but to squeeze into a non desirable space. Another reason is the popularity of SUVs and Trucks out here -- the corners of those doors can do major damage to cars that sit lower. Plus I think the sheetmetal on the M's is pretty delicate -- it dents way to easy IMO.
Yep!!!!! We did have the most cars than any other city in North America according to stats. We have almost a million people and about 2 million vehicles and they all hone in on M's and garage doors don't like them either. LOL
The XL7500 oil is marketed at oil change chains and targeted to consumers wanting to follow OEM guidelines in changing oil every 7500 miles. I've never used it and the various numbers representing it's chemical properities shown on their web site are not as good as some of their more mainstream oils, but they're close. It's all about change interval mindset I think (i.e. Marketing)
Some other info:
The 10W-30 as most other Amsoil oils are 25,000 mile or 1 year oils. The 10W-30 is one of the original oils that Amsoil developed back in 1972.
I use the Series 2000 Severe Duty Oils which are 35,000 mile or 1 year oils. Specifically this is the 0W-30 Series 2000 100% Synthetic oil.
The Series 2000 oil is the new generation of Amsoil products that is supposed to be better engineered.
I typically change once a year, all my vehicles, at the break of Spring. I've never had a problem or issue. On the vehicles that get really high mileage, I usually change the oil filter at 12,000 miles per recommendations.
You can use any of these oils and change oil at the OEM intervals and be fine. Amsoil will back up the OEM warrenty if the OEM tries to deny coverage due to an oil related problem or try to make a case that only changing once a year caused your problem. Not to worry, you're using one of the highest quality products you can put in your car today. I've using it since 1985.
I decided today to go ahead and change my battery for preventative maintenance reasons. I feel it being three years old, my big stereo, and previous bad experiences with factory OEM batteries (specifically Mopar) called for a change.
It's really tucked away in the fender. It took about 1 hour and 12 mins (based on my clock) to replace it. I had to remove the right front wheel, remove the fender liner access cover, unbolt the holddown bracket and slide out the battery. I suggest disconnecting the negative cable at the jumper cable convience point first. It's kinda tight and the positive connector has to be removed first in order to slide the battery out so the negative can be removed.
I replaced it with an Interstate Megatron MT-34, a top post battery.
Next time I hope Chrysler puts it in the trunk.
One nice thing, after 40,000 miles, the brakes still look good!
I started my 300M today and the temperture only displayed in Centigrade and not Fahrenheit. I keep pushing the button to change it back but it does not work. Any ideas???
Went for a buisness trip yesterday for a couple of hundred miles. The "M" is just a joy to drive. Had the tunes going most of the time. My new "Enya" disk, Andrea Bocelli, and if you think I'm a little high brow also had Pink Floyd the "Wall" cranking, along with "Queen"(Radia GaGa) just sound great on the Infinitey system. Took "Beast" in for service to-day as the airbag light was coming on every so often. Happened to be just a loose connector which they fixed. I also had them change my oil over to synthetic Mobile-1. Also had a Mopar locking gas cap installed which they keyed to match my ignition key which is neat. Don't know why D.C. didn't have a lock mech. on the gas filler door. It's starting to get pretty cold up here in Ontario and guess it won't be too long before that white stuff starts to come down. I hope Beast doesn't go into shock at the first snow fall.
got my car back from the shop today, and what happens on my way home from work, i get rear ended. i am soooooo pissed off. i have a show on dec 16th. that i think i have a great chance at, well there goes that idea. anways, thought id let you guys know!!!!!!!!
Really sorry to hear that. Hopefully you have a better experance then beach did. Get it fixed right. Maybe I can mount you wheels on mine and go in your place jk.
I just got my Ravin Catalog today. it as stainless exhaust systems and has Rhino systems listed as well. It has some nice tips as well. www.goRavin.com for catalog and pictures. Midas carries the parts.
I have a 7 inch LCD flipdown screen comming in, an spring commprssor (to put on my intrex springs) and my Alpine CDA-D853 stereo system all comming in on the 11th. Then most of the mods I have planned should be done (at least until I can find an night vision camera for the front), like the Cadillacs have.
I just bought a '99 Concorde this week and want to upgrade the factory radio/cassette to the factory radio/cd/cassette. I'm not interested in a high dollar aftermarket system, but figured maybe someone here has replaced their factory system with an aftermarket one and so would have the original to sell. Supposedly the Concordes, LHS's, and M's take the same radios.
Comments
300mike - Looking forward to the results...
Thanks,
Silver
Obviously these surveys are biased from the start and the results are self-serving to those setting the paramaters.
Is there any segment of the North American population that loves their car more than the 300M owner? I doubt it! I may be biased, but at least my bias is not on an exclusive basis, such as these surveys!
Just venting and demonstrating passion for MY "most liked car" (and thereby proving my point!)...
plastic. THANKS.
I have the same setup going -- being the wife who hauls at least one kid per day -- I get the garage (but my car IS the M). Maybe this will be of some consolation to you: cars in garages of households that have young children are hazardous to the M's beauty. My car has received more damage in the garage than out. I have one parking lot ding on the passenger side, but on the driver's side that is in the path of bikes, skateboards and toddlers, I have 2 nice dings and numerous "unexplained" minor scrapes. By the way, did you know that if you take the gas tank door and shove it back in the opposite direction it puts a dent in the car? (don't try it!) My daughter, who was 4 at the time, is lucky I didn't realize what caused it for a couple of weeks. (It's about time for a visit from the Ding Doctor). My family thinks I'm insane though -- I am always harping on them not to even touch the car and if they have to, PLEASE shut the doors with the handles (I hate fingerprints on my beautiful slate car).
http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/chrysler300mownersassocation
As you can read, he's still a modifying.
Avalanche writes:
"speaking real dual exhaust, i ran two 3" pipes back, one from each converter into a muffler on each end. and then i ran back not the Hujo setup, but ran pipes from the converter into one muffler, then back to the end and split into two. an H if you will.....
much better results on the 2nd setup. i dont know about anyone else but in my backed up opinion TRUE dual exhaust, on this car, created too much backpressure, the H setup like mustangs reduces backpressure compared to the straight back."
LOL... Hope you're "over it"! Bet Big Red is saying- THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! Bet you hope the "5-STAR" takes his time repairing that transmission- again! ;-))
fastdriver
Hey, If someone has a good cure for scratches please post the technique and pictures on the Club pages. We all have scratches. Being out here in New Mexico I have several small rock dings on my hood, sure wish I had gotten a Bra when I bought the car. So please let us all know how to repair scratiches and nicks.
Dillon
Chips - great link denverm. Far too much work though... Considering one of the small bra's for the front. Do they really help prevent chips to the rest of the hood?
Ranking - it's nice that the concorde was up there - that was my last car. Great ride. However, I'm always skeptical of rankings like this. Too easy to skew results...
Well yesterday was the first time its rained since then. We went to the store just a few miles and away. Something told me to look under the mat when we got back. Sure enough a damp spot in the same place. Right about where your heel would rest about the size of a small grapefruit. I rubbed my hand on it and it smells kind of musty.
I have an appt next Tuesday with my 5* they are replacing the belts power steering A/C. They said they were starting to show some cracking. Goldie as we call the M is now 3 years old and 66000 mi on her. Wondered if anyone has any idea about the leak so I know what they should be looking for at the 5*.
Thanks sel714
TSB: Make: CHRYSLER
Model: 300 M
Year: 1999
Service Bulletin Number: 232998
Bulletin Sequence Number: 235
Summary Description:
EXPERIENCING WATER LEAKAGE ON TOP OF FLOOR AND/ OR UNDER FLOOR CARPETS. *YC
i thought i had seen them as 9005XS and 9006XS.
is this correct?
thanks, andy
bulbs - check ebay. There's one guy who regularly sells them for $29 for the set. I'm almost positive those are the right numbers. One is high, one is low.
Which oil is better: SAE 10W-30 or XL-7500 10W-30?
The XL-7500 sounds like it is more durable, but it is less expensive. Does it mean that it is not as good?
20 in ONE city? Are you bad drivers up there? ;-))
fastdriver
YIKES! This topic is starting to scare me!!! What in the world is going on?
fastdriver
The XL7500 oil is marketed at oil change chains and targeted to consumers wanting to follow OEM guidelines in changing oil every 7500 miles. I've never used it and the various numbers representing it's chemical properities shown on their web site are not as good as some of their more mainstream oils, but they're close. It's all about change interval mindset I think (i.e. Marketing)
Some other info:
The 10W-30 as most other Amsoil oils are 25,000 mile or 1 year oils. The 10W-30 is one of the original oils that Amsoil developed back in 1972.
I use the Series 2000 Severe Duty Oils which are 35,000 mile or 1 year oils. Specifically this is the 0W-30 Series 2000 100% Synthetic oil.
The Series 2000 oil is the new generation of Amsoil products that is supposed to be better engineered.
I typically change once a year, all my vehicles, at the break of Spring. I've never had a problem or issue. On the vehicles that get really high mileage, I usually change the oil filter at 12,000 miles per recommendations.
You can use any of these oils and change oil at the OEM intervals and be fine. Amsoil will back up the OEM warrenty if the OEM tries to deny coverage due to an oil related problem or try to make a case that only changing once a year caused your problem. Not to worry, you're using one of the highest quality products you can put in your car today. I've using it since 1985.
Sorry for the long diatribe. Hope this helps.
It's really tucked away in the fender. It took about 1 hour and 12 mins (based on my clock) to replace it. I had to remove the right front wheel, remove the fender liner access cover, unbolt the holddown bracket and slide out the battery. I suggest disconnecting the negative cable at the jumper cable convience point first. It's kinda tight and the positive connector has to be removed first in order to slide the battery out so the negative can be removed.
I replaced it with an Interstate Megatron MT-34, a top post battery.
Next time I hope Chrysler puts it in the trunk.
One nice thing, after 40,000 miles, the brakes still look good!
Thanks
Had the tunes going most of the time. My new "Enya" disk, Andrea Bocelli, and if you think I'm a little high brow also had Pink Floyd the "Wall" cranking, along with "Queen"(Radia GaGa) just sound great on the Infinitey system. Took "Beast" in for service to-day as the airbag light was coming on every so often. Happened to be just a loose connector which they fixed. I also had them change my oil over to synthetic Mobile-1. Also had a Mopar locking gas cap installed which they keyed to match my ignition key which is neat. Don't know why D.C. didn't have a lock mech. on the gas filler door. It's starting to get pretty cold up here in Ontario and guess it won't be too long before that white stuff starts to come down. I hope Beast doesn't go into shock at the first snow fall.
tom
(dubson300m)
PISSED OFF!!!!
Maybe I can mount you wheels on mine and go in your place
Post a reply and we'll go from there.
Thanks.