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Comments
I've had no personal experience with one but just about every magazine and editor seems to use it as a benchmark. I do agree that the M5 is grossly overpriced...but pricing aside, it would still wallop the 300 in performance. But since this is the real world and price IS a concern, I'll be gleefully picking up my new 300c next year and loving it more than any other car I have owned.
dkrhardy - I've tried that before.....and it does work well, but the audiophile in me insists that if there are 7 speakers and 380 watts of power to be had...why not use them?
DVD players in the drivers area, vision, or front seat area are illegal in many states (if not all of them).
From DC.
fastdriver
Anyone with a nav system in their 300 want to try to toss a movie into the DVD slot and scribble down the results?
Did someone state that they ordered an in depth manual for their 300 that would have a wiring diagram included?
He also repeated the moonroof claim, as well as the "have to mark them up $1-2K" story, if they arrive unsold. Sad.
No, not at all, according the the Nav manual and Mopar/Alpine.
As a matter of fact, I have yet to find how to open that slot. The manual is silent on that but does advise that there may be an annual update disk for $150; I'm sure they will tell you how to open the slot when one buys that update. :^))
I have a few more phone calls to make -- to Sirius to get registered and see if that new free year's subscription applies to me. Price of the Sirius has been reduced to $195 from $325 on my window sticker. And there was no mention made of any free subscription of any kind. You can play it for demo purposes w/o the coding but you must call Sirius and give them the code number of your unit to get it to work properly.
I also need to call Mopar/Alpine and get some more info on the NAV unit. That manual is not particularly well written, either.
The biggest problem I have found so far with the car is the owner's manual(s). The package is about the size of a usual Bible and very obtuse. It doesn't fit very well into the glove bos where there is a slot designed for it. A little bit of everything is in the manual, then some specifics in the Nav manual, and finally more specifics in the Sitius manual, which I didn't receive. The mauuals sorely need a few fold-out picture diagrams to have stay handy outside the books when reading about all this stuff which is described either by weird new names or numbers. Or they should add much more and decent graphics to the manual itself. As I said before, DC cut many corners by making the manuals fit the entire 300 line. There are many instances of, "if equipped" that drive me batty trying to keep track of what is going on. I think my car has just about every conceivable option except tire monitors which are still not available, yet you have to wade thru the BS to find the gems.
wait til you guys try to read the manuals -- you'll see what I mean.
I wouldn't hold my breath for incentives on these cars. If their momentum continues, I anticipate slight price increases every four to six months. Unless sales drop off considerably, I see no reason (unfortunately) for Chrysler to drop prices. Compared to the competition, this car is already a bargain!
I wouldn't hold my breath for incentives on these cars. If their momentum continues, I anticipate slight price increases every four to six months. Unless sales drop off considerably, I see no reason (unfortunately) for Chrysler to drop prices. Compared to the competition, this car is already a bargain!
Dennis, my disappointment in the MDS is that it isn't seamless as reported in virtually all the automotive press, Car and Driver, Motor Trend, etc. I can feel and hear a vibration when the engine is strained in the 4 cylinder mode. It is slight, so the radio must be turned off to hear it. I can also feel the car jerk just a little when the engine switches to 8 cylinder mode. I don't believe this is something that the dealer can repair.
I believe that all 300C's behave this way and that owners who regularly drive on mild grades and smooth roads at 45 to 65 mph will be able to tell what mode the MDS is in, and they will also notice that it switches back and forth quite often.
stephen
Can you predict earthquakes?
Last night, in my quest to find the right exhaust system, I took the muffler shop guy's 300C for a spin. He's got some EXTREMELY loud flowmasters on his ride (too loud IMHO), and you would think that at the extreme decibal level he's running them at, the MDS would audibly announce itself. Not so. Just like my own 300, the MDS was impossible to detect.
Your car vibrates and jerks too? Take it back. It's a dud.
I do know that my AUDI has one at 130 and the car gets really quiet at that speed. Engine just sort of quietly shuts down and you think you lost a wheel, and everything goes into slow motion....A bit scary until you figure out what's happening. Anyway, it wouldn't surprise me that a speed limiter would be required by the attorneys at Chrysler because of the tires they put on.
I cancelled my moonroof order and hopefully the car will change status. I'll let everyone know if that works.
No problem with pulling either right or left encountered. We went for a 300 mile trip this week, and everything was fine until the return trip, where we found ourselves going 80 mph on our local interstate against high winds. There was a sudden flutter, of sorts, coming from the engine, so I pulled over, and found that the engine bonnet had blown out of position. I set it back in place, and everything was fine after that. I can't find anything to hold it down, no screws, bands, clips, that I can see. It simply seems to just sit on the engine, being held down by the hood. I'll have to see if it does it again. Something must hold it down.
Slowly learning the bells and whistles, one nuisance I've been encountering is that Mopar put the door locks on the opposite side of the rear doors. Even though I had power door locks in my '94 LeBaron, I would usually simply reach in through the front door to unlock the rear door.
Can't do that anymore, have to use the power door lock now. The buttons for the windows and locks are still awkward to get used to. I liked the design better on the LeBaron. I also miss not having a trunk key.
Going to change the engine oil over to a quality synthetic, like Mobil One. My tire /rim came in yesterday to use as a conventional spare. It won't fit in the trunkwell, but on long trips, all I need to do is shove it up close to the rear seats, and there's still plenty of room for luggage.
So far, I like it, the wife loves it. Mileage isn't bad, averaging 19.3 on the trip computer. I've been using 92 octane, as our 89 octane contains ethanol, which I find can contain high degree of water, so I try to avoid using it. The wife did innocently put in 87 regular the first time she filled it, but seemed to run fine though.
"It will only be a matter of time before tuner shops which reprogram the computers to order provide the ability to control / delete MDS, modify the speed limiter to suit better tires, accomodate different gear ratios, and so forth. The problem is that the air quality bureaucrats have been going after many such services. Although I would not do it, it may be possible to disable MDS by simply unplugging the wire harness to the MDS valves, causing a fault, and the computer to realize that it is not available."
http://www.just-auto.com/news_detail.asp?art=44319
stephen
Well, I'm one of three, so far, that I know of. There is my car-enthusiast friend Marvin, and he could hear, see and feel the (very subtle) shifts in mode while riding in my car at 55 mph on a smooth road with gentle grades and the cruise engaged.
We can hear and feel a slight "lugging" vibration when the engine is reaching it's pulling ability limit in 4 cylinder mode. Then when it switches to 8 cylinder mode, the vibration stops instantly and there is a very slight jerk, as you might feel when a transmission downshifts. It will do this several times a mile on an undulating road surface. All this would be very difficult to detect on all but the smooothest of road surfaces, and of course, the radio must be off. And you have to be looking for these symptoms. It's not something that jumps out at you that you can demonstrate just anytime anywhere to a service manager.
The third person that has noticed this is an earlier poster on this forum that mentioned the vibration. Mark my words, enthusiasts who occasionally drive their 300C gently with the cruise engaged on smooth roads at slower speeds will learn to discern the engagement/disengagement of the 4 cylinder mode.
stephen
"Looking" for something will make you even more paranoid, especially when you have knowledge of it's function/behavior!
If it bothers you that much, then take it back!!!
The bonus cash is on top of existing rebates already as high as $3,500.
DaimlerChrysler AG’s Chrysler Group, which reported a 1 percent gain in sales last month, is giving a $1,000 loyalty bonus to returning customers who purchase 2005 Chrysler 300 Series sedans. Chrysler is also offering a $1,000 rebate to 2005 minivan buyers, plus $1,000 to those buying any 2005 Chrysler or Dodge model who agree to finance their loans through Chrysler.
http://www.detnews.com/2004/autosinsider/0405/06/b01-144482.htm
The bonus cash is on top of existing rebates already as high as $3,500.
DaimlerChrysler AG’s Chrysler Group, which reported a 1 percent gain in sales last month, is giving a $1,000 loyalty bonus to returning customers who purchase 2005 Chrysler 300 Series sedans. Chrysler is also offering a $1,000 rebate to 2005 minivan buyers, plus $1,000 to those buying any 2005 Chrysler or Dodge model who agree to finance their loans through Chrysler.
http://www.detnews.com/2004/autosinsider/0405/06/b01-144482.htm
Chrysler 300 (the V6-not the C),Cadillac CTS, Jaguar S-Type, BMW 530i, Volvo S80 T6, MB E320 and
Audi A6.
Well the 300 came in ahead of the Audi, Volvo,and (drum roll)BMW 530i! Pretty wild results. And the scoring between the 300 and the next finisher (Jaguar) was only a couple of points.
I'm sure there will be a lot of surprise among the Euro-Luxo readers that the results for Chrysler were so strong. While it's true that the value factor played a major role in the high scores for the 300, if the C had been in the test, it would have wiped the rest of the cars away. Add in the value factor with the C,and Chrysler is truly in the battle with the "big guys".
Pretty Amazing!
The AS isn't AS like I had in my '01 R/T. Won't hold a gear, downshifts if it wants, and to get into it you need to left click all the way down. Hmmmm. Having said that, it is the best full auto that I've ever driven. Smooth and well timed up and down shifts. So, I'll push the pedal and let it use it's good decisions to time my shifts for me. It has lots of torque, so I don't need to drop down a gear as often as I had to with the R/T.
Whatever price you can get it for today, you can likely get it for a couple grand less in a few months.
What is the massive hurry to get it right now? It's not as if you're going to get the price premium back at resale time.
Is it worth throwing away thousands in additional depreciation to be one of the first to own one?
When I drove east at Frederick, MD, on US 340 to shift to I70, the NAV told me to move to the right lane to bear right, then to move to the left lane (correctly) to merge left into I70 East. When I arrived just outside Baltimore a few minutes later, it told me to use the middle lane to merge left with I695 north. (Left went to a parking lot, and right moved one downtown). And so forth. These freeways all have 3 or more lanes where this guidance was given.
This area discussed is under constant change, but the NAV disk was right up to the minute on the turns, etc. There were no errors on the trip. All guidance was given at least 3 miles ahead of time to permit easy lane shifts.
I did not look at the screen while driving but relied entirely on the voice/tones plus my knowledge of the roads. However, I would have been safely and easily taken through this maize had I not known where I was going.
When I left I83 to go to my sister's house in the country, the NAV told me that I was now on uncharted terrain. I could then ask the NAV to leave a "bread crumb trail" which I could then save into the trip data so that a future trip would take me totally with guidance through the uncharted area. That could be done via the steering wheel controls, still no need to look at the screen.
It really is an incredible system.
When cruising along at moderate speeds on a smooth road with various grades, when approaching a hill three things can happen: MDS mode switch from 4 to 8 cylinder operation; disengagement of the torque converter lockup clutch; and downshift from 5 to 4. It depends on how steep the hill is. With experience and the tach, I can readily tell the difference between these three things. Sometimes it will do two of those things to maintain speed on a hill.
What I find particularly annoying is at 55 mph, the MDS in 4 cylinder mode cannot handle the slightest hill, even the most minute upgrade for more than twenty feet. It is ridiculous how little reserve power there is in 4 cylinder mode. On a windy day, a gust of headwind can make it shift from 4 to 8 briefly, at 60 mph.
I drove the car on a 60 mile round trip today. For the first ten miles, I couldn't tell if MDS was operating or not. Only when everything is thoroughly warmed up does it become discernable. And again, I want to emphasize that the vibration when it is lugging in 4 cylinder mode and the jerk when it shifts to 8 cylinder mode are very slight intrusions.
stephen