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They had Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep areas.
I spent most of the time at the Chrysler area.
They had a pretty tight course laid out with cones, plus a little drag strip with a stop sign at the end - first you are supposed to floor the gas pedal then floor the brakes and try to stop at the stop sign.
First I drove automatic Crossfire. Not bad. Actually it looks better to watch when someone else is driving. From a driver point of view it is very nice but could sure use some more HP.
Then I drove a 300M special two times. Most people drove it like a granny. I drove it like it is meant to be driven and made the Chrysler reps nervous in the passenger seat.
I think I liked 300M Special better than the Crossfire. It was easier for me to maneuver around the cones. Maybe because I am very used to 300M.
I have after market 17 x 8 wheels. I've been told that 245/45's are too wide for the standard M wheels, but there are some forum members who have used that size on stock wheels,
I bought mine at Discount Tires (I've shopped at their stores for years, always with satisfactory results). I paid $800 for 4 tires, including road hazard warranty and lifetime balance. Most Discount Tire Stores will repair any flat free, even if your tires were not bought from them.
By the way, I've heard horror stories about the noise generated by the Conti Extreme Contacts and
I can vouch for the quietness of the Pirellis.
Lynn Flowers
Ruski, so you made the sales rep nervous; I'll bet. I hope if he was the bothersome type you really made him pay the price. I can remember one time many years ago when I was the boy-racer type, and I took a car for a spin, thinking I was testing it as needed to be tested for what was important to me. When we got back to the car lot, I said to the gray haired rep, I hope you don't mind that I tested the whole car, including it's pickup. I still remember his reply, which was "that was quite interesting, particularly when we went through the red light at 75". It dawned on me then that the light had been quicker than I had calculated, and I probably had the elderly fellow holding on for his life, but he was too polite to say anything to me, and I was just seeing if the car was indeed fast enough for me. Ahhh, old memories.
The impact was on the Driver side door. I am assuming he was talking about replacing the pillar between the front and back door, and the pillar between the front door and front quarterpanel.
I would like my car back, but I don't believe it will ever be the same again. I finished paying the car off last December and was planning on keeping it at least until my extended warranty ran out in a couple of years.
I have asked the insurance company to have a specialist go take a look at it. They have not gotten back to me yet with any estimates.
Did you actually read my post?
why must someone who has never owned an M tell someone else its not a good car ? I was so tempted to post something but I'm sure I would have sad some not so nice things .
You called it a "test drive event", so I assumed it was an even sponsored by dealers. You didn't say anything about a marketing firm. And when you said the Chrysler rep in the passenger seat was nervous, I thought you meant the Chrysler dealer rep. Also, you did say you made him nervous, which was what my post was about. I read it fully, just didn't understand it I guess.
Because ignorance won't stop some people from speaking what's on their little minds.
The 300M is a great car and I would, and did, choose it over an Acura.
As far as people perceiving that a "Honda" is somehow superior in construction or design - they are only fooling themselves. In fact, compared to the earliest Hondas, the newer ones are in fact junk, because they are now made in the U.S. if you apply his logic. If manufacturing a car in the U.S. is what causes a problem, then Honda can expect to see their problems increase as they make more stateside.
You might also ask the Honda nut where the engineers that designed the car were educated. Odds are, even if they live overseas, many of their "top" guys were U.S. educated. Or does that guy think that is just a fallacy as well???? There's a reason we have a lot of foreign engineering students here ...
I have the nav/sat radio package in mine and never have any troubles with reception. The only complaint I might give you is that some songs with heavy base and a lot of things going on simultaneously (mostly newer alternative rock - isn't that mostly noise anyway??) tend to vibrate the crap out of the front speakers. But any of the techno, jazz, classical, rock, classic rock etc. comes in just fine. Hell, I hardly use a CD player now at all.
It's funny, but on ocassion, I find myself tuning into talk radio, just to hear someone speaking - as they would in A COMMERCIAL! It keeps me grounded that I'm still listening to a radio.
P.S. Now that I have a sat radio, I doubt I'll ever be happy with a normal AM/FM again. These things will be the death (or at least the evolution) of the typical radio station that you know today!
Thanks for the response on Sirius, though. I've been trying to find someone who has Sirius that could give a "review" of it. My girlfriend has XM in her Accord and I love it. I want to make sure Sirius will be as enjoyable before I plunk down the cash to get the Sirius tuner for my RB1.
My bad.
And yes if you love XM, I think you will really love Sirius due to no commercials.
Just ignore him. You know how those Acura people are anyway. They think they have all the answers! LOL....
Hope all is well.
fastdriver
I want my 300M back!!!
I'm interested to know what was wrong w/the paint on your buddies 3.2 TL. Orange peel, un lustrous finish perhaps? I assumed all the manufacturers had their painting processes down pat, especially I thought the Japanese manufacturers would. As an aside, the paint and clear coat on my metallic candy apple '99 M is the best paint job I've ever had on a car. A couple of times I've had people approach me (strangers) and say how they really like my car, and they've been really surprised when I tell them it's a '99. The paint is really like new other than some scratches and hood dings, which is saying something for a car w/78K.
On the M bashing I can understand where he's coming from. I don't agree though. The M is a great car for what it is. The Acura has the name, but poor quailty is right on since most of them are made in the USA. Quailty control is out the window now. Dealers by me are worse then the DC ones. I loved my M & would have kept it if I could.
Got my Autoweek yesterday, a small picture of the 300C (and Magnum). The C (imho) is just not getting any prettier! Especially compared to the M. Maybe in person...?
Going to NE Autoshow next week. Wonder if the 300C will be there? Probably not. Supposed to be in the 70s tomorrow here in the Boston area. I guess my '99 Platinum beauty gets a bath!
'21 Dark Blue/Black Audi A7 PHEV (mine); '22 White/Beige BMW X3 (hers); '20 Estoril Blue/Oyster BMW M240xi 'Vert (Ours, read: hers in 'vert weather; mine during Nor'easters...)
im thinkin to get the phg struts it would cost more, but i dont think it would be a problem. not to sure though.
sorry i cant be of much help!
First, to fully know what is recommended maintenance wise, check your owner's manual or buy a LHS repair manual, which although costs $100 it explains everything. I would suggest in addition to pricing parts out on the internet just pull outyour yellow pages and quickly call about 5 places for prices over the phone. Ordering over the web you'll probably escape taxes, but the shipping might be expensive. I simply buy the parts I need, usually at a local parts store or Dodge dealer, and I've found a local garage who will do work for me when I bring him the parts, for a very reasonable rate. It's not unusual for me to beat the dealer's prices by 30-50%, and often I get better parts put in than he would use, such as upgraded ceramic brake pads, bosch spark plugs, etc. As for the web sites you requested, a couple I've used in the past are www.alldiscountautoparts.com and www.chrysler-parts-dealer.com. TireRack.com is great for brake components and tires and advice and online ratings; they may have struts also. You can also just go to Google and do a search on discount and auto and parts and chrysler. Note: Pep Boys has really poor prices in my book. Also, call a few local dealers for prices on the OEM parts you want. I've found that one particular Dodge dealer near me is about 20% cheaper than the local Chrysler dealerships for OEM parts.
I thoroughly enjoy maintaining the car and keeping it running crisp and looking great for many years. Never did understand the allure of paying high lease prices and changing every 3 years; wouldn't satisfy my inner mechanic, even though I could afford it if I wanted to.
>...paint looks & feels tons better then the Acura. I've been told to expect this from every car maker in the near future due to the EPA mandate that auto paint use more water bases. Acura is just so far ahead of the game it's showing up on their cars first.
After two tries at machining the OEM rotors I replaced them with Brembo. Magic!
Good luck, Silver
That's very sound advice bluesky. I definitely believe in managing the process. I very rarely let the dealership do any actual work on my car. I like to use them to diagnose the problems and then I choose who to take it to based on what I perceive the complexity of the repair to be. Dealership service departments are bandits w/o guns. A good example are the 30/60/90k mile services recommended on most cars. You pay a ridiculous amount of many for a bunch of stuff you don't even need.
Silver, I guess just swapping PHG struts in up front wouldn't really make my car handle like a PHG. With only an estimated 6 months left w/ the M I guess I'll let cost be my guide.
So even those who have traded the M for another brand still seem to have a love for this special vehicle.
Now, I can't wait for my TL-S lease to end in 2 years.
Yes TL-S is a nice car and has a lot of power. When new. And when it is in the mood.
For some reason I now occasionally get beaten by Camrys. The other day an Integra pulled away from me. I get pretty crappy fuel economy. And the tranny bucks and burps. And to top it all off I can't get a peace of mind thinking about when the tranny is going to fail again.
And I have rattles inside the TL-S.
Yep- STILL love my CL-S even with the replaced tranny. Everything else works like it's supposed to and hasn't broken, fallen off or stopped working in the 32 months that I've had her. Gas mileage still in the 20's around town except when I want to hear that sweet roar from the dual exhausts! The only thing I miss about Christine is that Candy Apple Red Zaino shine. I think I get as many compliments about the CL's looks as I did with Christine. Must be the color and that Zaino shine! :-))
Enough said. If I get off topic this message might get deleted too!
fastdriver
Wife loves the M too but thinks I'm obsessing over it...swears I'm going to wash the paint off.
probably am obsessing but don't care...
It's just so much fun to drive and looks so darned good! I'm looking forward to driving this car a looooong time.
You can find brand new 2004 platinum edition 300M though. It has this special cheap plastic panels painted in silver. Chrysler is not even with the Mercedes anymore but very close to Kia stand instead.
New Acura TL was really sweet; wish Chrysler went this direction (6 speed, brembo, ESP etc).
I actually am not around the Av as much lately, because I've been driving the '93 Cadillac Fleetwood daily. All white with heated red leather seats--what a beauty! Plus a 350 V8, RWD, and huge interior and body! It's because of this silky road monster and my father's '92 Buick Roadmaster LTD that I like the new Magnum and 300C so much! A sporty, agile, relatively light weight sports sedan like the 300M is awesome, but there's just something special about a low-slung, RWD, V8-powered luxury sedan that makes me tingle. I just wish they wouldn't be so stupid and put a 2.7 V6 in such a heavy RWD car....it will probably have 0-60 times in the 15 second range! Even the 3.5 isn't all that snappy, but would be a good base. That, and I think the top Hemi model should be a little closer to $35-36k and not $40k. Other than that, I plan on driving one as soon as they arrive and maybe buying one in a couple of years.
I still really do miss the 300M though, even lately. I hated the road noise, rattles, and vibrations the car had, but it was so gorgeous and so awesome on the road. To this day, I still think it is, without a doubt, the best looking sedan out there...especially the front end. I'd take a new graphite or black '04 Special in a minute, but I'm not sure what I'd get rid of for it! I really, really missed the M on Sunday when there was an '02 parked beside the Av after church. Kind of dirty, and was Lt. Almond over Sandstone (yuck, yuck!), but had every option, including PHG (I could tell from the tires) and sounded awesome when the lady started it, even though it had the plain single exhaust.
Hmm....maybe I'll still buy a used Lt. Cypress over Pearl Beige (love that color combo. and year!) '00 in a year or two!