SEDAN IS NEITHER SPORTY NOR DELUXE, BUT IT’S QUIET
The Chrysler 300 was introduced in 2005 and extensively redesigned in 2011. There’s no doubt the big sedan is aging. But is it aging well?
Chrysler is a company that really makes just two vehicles in 2020: the Pacifica minivan, and the 300. The big sedan is available in an impressive variety of trims and drivetrains. Our tester is the Limited AWD, which is basically second from the top in the 300 hierarchy, under the V8-powered 300C.
The most affordable 300 on the list is the rear-wheel-drive Touring, at $34,545. The Limited AWD starts at $48,195, but our tester was further equipped with options that included the $1,495 Harman Kardon sound system with 19 speakers, self-levelling HID headlights for $695, a $1,595 panoramic sunroof, $770 for the 8.4-inch touch screen Uconnect infotainment system with GPS navigation and satellite radio, and $1,690 worth of various safety features, such as blind-spot monitoring and parking sensors, bringing the as-tested total to just over $54,000. That’s more than $20,000 over the base 300! That kind of price jump is what you’d expect to find on a Porsche, not a Chrysler.
Some of these items are worth it, such as the blind-spot monitoring system, but others — including the premium audio system — are questionable.
Out on the road, the 300 is a mixed bag. The drivetrain is pretty much faultless. The 3.6-litre Pentastar V6 smoothly delivers 292 horsepower, and with a pleasant sound. The transmission is equally brilliant, making the right shifts all the time. The drivetrain is pretty much perfect, and easily the best part of the whole car. When the V6 is this good, I don’t really pine for a V8.
The steering is comfortably numb for a luxury car and that’s fine, but the suspension could use some more refinement. The 300 doesn’t have a hint of performance intent in it, and it weighs nearly 5,000 pounds, so I expect magic-carpet-road-pillow ride quality, but the 300 doesn’t deliver.
One thing that does help redeem the ride is the excellent sound deadening; it might be the quietest car at 100 km/h this side of an S-class. It’s that good.
The 300 is a big car on the outside, and that translates to extra interior space as well. The passenger room is positively cavernous and I feel like I could share the driver’s seat with another person. But all that volume doesn’t really translate into comfort; the seat, while nicely upholstered in Nappa leather, is oddly shaped and not especially soft. Luckily, you can get the 300 with 15 different combinations of seat design, material, and colour, so that options list will have something for you, somewhere.
The interior is where the 300 is really showing its age. Materials that would’ve been marginal in 2013 are now decidedly behind the times. The 8.4-inch touch screen is a blessing to use and features Apple Carplay and Android Auto, but Uconnect is kind of a mixed bag — it’s visually attractive, fast to respond, and generally easy to use, but some functions are more difficult to adjust than they should be.
For example, adjusting your heated seat requires you to tap into a submenu, and then further tap to your desired level of warmth. The lack of haptic buttons is annoying when stopped, and borderline dangerous when moving.
As a whole, Uconnect is a great system, but I’d like to see it augmented with more physical controls. To be fair, the main functions are covered — volume and radio tuning are controlled by knobs, and interior climate-control settings are handled by buttons.
In terms of curb appeal, the 300 has to work hard to shed its rental-car image. The tester’s maroon paint and chrome wheels certainly don’t help, but surprisingly, the 300 is available in some jazzy colours and with nine different wheel designs, depending on the trim level, including 20-inch mesh wheels finished in bronze, which I dearly wish this tester had. Does this particular 300 look like a $55,000 car? I think you’d have to squint to see that.
Overall, the Chrysler 300 is interesting in that it’s the last of the big rear-wheel-drive American sedans that many of us grew up with.
It’s nice to see a car with a relaxed, quiet, luxurious attitude, and not even making a whisper over Nürburgring times. But it also fails to hit on the main points that made us love those massive Yank Tanks decades ago. Things like a super-soft ride and pillowy seats are missing, but are integral to achieving the formula. Without them, the 300 is neither sporty nor overly cushy. It really needs to pick a side.