Yes, the 2023 Chrysler 300C is essentially a Dodge Charger Scat Pack in luxury duds. This means 485 horsepower, 475 lb.-ft. of torque, and a quoted zero-to-60 time of 4.3 seconds. Brisk stuff. Power goes to the rear wheels through an eight-speed ZF-derived automatic gearbox and a limited-slip rear differential for proper two-tire fires. Bringing everything back down to sane speeds is a set of four-piston Brembo brakes, while adaptive dampers will try their best to make the big Chrysler a bit like a linebacker in ballet flats.
While none of this is groundbreaking stuff, it’s nice to see a fast 300 again. It’s been seven long years since we last saw a fast 300 in America and while a Hellcat 300 would’ve been nice, I certainly won’t complain about the 392 V8’s broad powerband.
On the outside, the 2023 Chrysler 300C gets a bespoke grille emblem, twenty-inch forged alloy wheels, and that’s about it. While one could argue that it’s a bit more of a sleeper this way, I was hoping for a bit more swagger. Maybe some Mannie Fresh-spec chrome skates and an egg-crate grille to throw things back to the 2005 300C that awed a generation. Thankfully, things seem a bit more luxurious inside the 2023 300C. Beautiful leather seats, a stitched dashboard, and cool blue gauges take things up a notch compared to the 300C’s Dodge Charger sibling. Plenty of toys are also on-tap, from a 19-speaker Harman Kardon sound system to ventilated front seats.
Chrysler only plans to make 2,200 2023 300C models, 2,000 for America and an extra 200 for Canada. With a choice of Gloss Black, Velvet Red, and Bright White exterior colors, there isn’t much in the way of options for this fully-loaded 300.
While Chrysler could’ve gone way harder with the 2023 300C and made every Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition dream come true, I’m at least glad that this music video icon hasn’t been forgotten. Plus, it doesn’t seem terrible value for $55,000 excluding an unspecified freight charge. Let’s hope that Chrysler threw in the heated and cooled cupholders too.
…but $55,000 for another one of the endless series of cynical Stellantis “hurrr durrr we big V8’d the thing” cop outs built on a platform leftover from the Cambrian Period? Sorry. I’m not handing over my money that easily when I could find a 6.4 powered Challenger that’s in decent shape tomorrow for $35-40,000. It won’t have as nice of an interior but it will have the same big honkin V8…and whispers insane cost of ownership.
At the end of the day that’s all this is. It’s a big V8. Stellantis and FCA have been pumping this stuff out for 20 years. It’s literally everywhere. I’m not going to be a contrarian and say I don’t enjoy a huge V8 from time to time, because I daydream about the 6.2 liter LT1 often. But IMHO you’d be absolutely nuts to choose one of these over an S5, M340i, CT4-V Blackwing, G70 3.3, et cetera. Or if comfort is your ultimate goal you can find a reasonably well sorted secondhand S class for that much money.
Plus you can already get a 300 with the 5.7 liter V8 as is…which is a decent engine in and of itself. Anyway, this is cool, but I don’t think it’s $55,000 cool when you can find a decent scat pack (god do I hate that name) for 15 grand less or get a dedicated performance sedan for the same price. Do something interesting already Stellantis. V8 ALL THE THINGS is cool and all but the times are changing. You have to put another feather in your cap sooner or later.
The S5 and M340i are German. That’s nearly an automatic elimination for those who keep their cars past the warranty, even if they were anywhere near as large, and they’re not even close. Those two and the CT4 are practically Civics compared to this. And the Blackwing engine is nice to think about, but is not really that special other than the fact that it fits in the cars that are built around it…
Finding a well-sorted, used S-Class? Again, German; also used; also, good luck finding one in this market with the options and color you want. And when you do find your unicorn S-Class, luck might be that it was owned by a cigar smoker. Or in an accident. Or in an undisclosed accident. Or with ALL the miles. And “Certified” isn’t as good as the original warranty no matter what the used lot Sales Manager tells you.
This is a great bargain. Sure, the same car with the 5.7 is a better bargain. But there’s no excuse for Stellantis NOT to put the 392 into a 300C. I’m not sure why they’re limiting it to 2,200 units, though. They could probably sell twice as many.
I probably wouldn’t even get to drive it until next summer, (assuming I can even get one) but this would probably be both the last fully gas powered vehicle, and the last large/family hauler sized vehicle I will buy. Assuming it lasts 7 years as a daily or in rotation with something else, by then we’ll be empty nesters, and will be in the US permanently, at which point, some sort of smaller plug in EV (hybrid or full EV) will make more sense for us. I’d keep the 300 as a weekend car, though. Just like my wife plans to keep her 1-series [unless a Z3 in great condition is out there…… 🙂 ]
And for those that say “it’s an old platform”, so are the platforms of the old cars many of us drive for fun. Age doesn’t make it a bad platform. In fact, as it’s a Benz platform from when German cars still had a vault-like teutonic feel, I would argue that old platform be a good thing.
Basically, Germany helped design the platform, a lot of Mercedes suspension components can bolt right up to it, but it’s not an old Mercedes platform at all.
We’ll talk then.
‘Ramchero’ … good one, that.
How is it that the Viper got handed off.. while Chrysler built another 100k of the Charger / Challenger? Cause they are cheap and it hurts to dump the Viper..
30,000 Vipers were sold in 25 years; more LX cars are sold every couple months.
The Viper was full of bespoke parts, up to and including its engine and chassis, and would have required redesign to meet safety standards after 2017.
I greatly admire them for keeping the Viper pure and never compromising for sales with a V8 model, an automatic transmission, or a Mach E type cheapening of the name. But that decision came at a price, namely the fact that they didn’t have the money to continue development.
Because somehow, some way, somebody got their head out of their ass at Chrysler. The 1957 Chrysler 300C was the first legend out of the letter series, the first with the new 392ci Hemi V8 (marketed as the FirePower but, it’s a Hemi. Not just 426cis are Hemis, people,) the first with special brake equipment, the first with a special emblem, just so many firsts. Which is why they had the 300M in the 90’s; there was supposed to be a 1966 300M, it got cancelled. The FWD in ’99 was ‘continuing the heritage.’ Then they tried the 300C in ’05 with a 5.7, MyGIG, and the failed Backseat Television from Sirius. These all failed (especially Backseat TV) for all the right reasons. Calling a very mildly tarted up 300 a 300C was an affront, and the people old enough to remember what 300C meant hadn’t died out yet.
Well, they’re sure as shit dead now (or hopefully no longer driving due to glaucoma, cataracts, and senility.) AND WHO THE FUCK CARES BECAUSE HOLY SHIT IT’S A PROPER 300C TRIBUTE. 392ci V8? Check. Special brakes? Check. Most luxuriously appointed Chrysler product? Uh… maybe check. (Look, the Grand Wagoneer exists. And the 300C’s still going to be on the 20 year old platform that was 20 years old when they started using it.) Limited prod-wait, NO! NO NO NO! DAMNIT. YOU WERE SO CLOSE! See, the other thing about the 300 letter series? Genuinely limited production. But to be absolutely correct, they needed to make 2,402. Oh, and COLORS for fuck’s sake. You had to HUNT to find a 300C in black or white. Where’s my Gauguin Red, my Horizon Blue, my Seafoam Green?!
… eh. I’ll take it.
The non-chrome grille is also correct. The 300C’s had chrome bumpers and painted grilles.
Leather dash and stainless steel trim, also correct.
And, irony of ironies, having two different clocks is also correct. Yes, really. The dash had a gauge-styled clock in the center, and a Benrus mechanical clock located in the steering wheel.
Awd.. is bs. Sure the price is stupid.. Id still go for this instead of some bmw
Because you’ve already demonstrated that you absolutely, definitively, have not sat in the WL. Ever. Turns out, when FCAtlantis wants to build a quality product? Shocker – it’s orders of magnitude better than the lease-mobiles that Bavaria is churning out. Nevermind the high-strung, overstressed, under-engineered B58B3. Oh yes, mysterious missing coolant, cracking valve covers, disintegrating and leaking oil filters, same fucking VANOS problems they’ve had for the past decade, oh, and some of the worst coking problems in the industry.
Meanwhile, FCAtlantis has… the 6.4 Hemi “Apache” making less than 100HP/liter, with MPFI, and over 20 years of experience over more than 5 million engines. That’s not counting the prior experience from 1950 and another couple dozen million more. This isn’t the half-assed Hellcat with enough compression to send heads to orbit. It’s the naturally aspirated version. With fully forged internals and MDS. The only word for it is ‘understressed.’ It’s making numbers you can make on a 5.7 Gen3 block, easily. It is the exact opposite of the B58; it is shockingly refined given the technology, absolutely and utterly bulletproof, and power delivery is silky smooth unless you stomp on it. There isn’t a dyno curve, there’s just a flat line of torque and a perfect 45 degree angle of horsepower. It is, in other words, the ultimate cruiser engine. It is like a Mercedes-Benz; effortlessly accelerating on the highway with absolutely no drama whatsoever, but able to make elevenses several miles long on command.
Which is the whole POINT of the 300C. Not every damn Hemi has to be some drag-strip one-trick-pony with break-your-neck burnouts. That’s never what the 300 letter series were or were meant to be. Their advertising was the epitome of “if you were any more relaxed, you’d be asleep.” Here’s a woman driving with a man smoking a pipe next to her and a dog in the back seat. Here’s a convertible parked at the beach. Just.. parked, top down, with a picnic laid out. The 1957 300C was always – always – the epitome of a Big ‘MURICAN!! Cruiser. Big engine because bigger car (seriously, 4500lbs.) Point the car and go because holy shit, you have a pushbutton automatic transmission – no clutch. No burlap, vinyl, and Naugahyde here – only genuine cow leather. Hell, if you had enough money, you could even get actual air conditioning not some swamp cooler. Take a road trip. See the country. And enjoy the drive. That’s the ethos of the 300C. Giving it the big 6.4? That doesn’t change that, it only expands the appeal. It won’t have the ridiculously loud exhaust of the Charger. It will do a burnout absolutely. But it will do that burnout while your ass-cheeks are kept at 34 degrees farenheit in Death Valley, working any knots that show up out of your back for you.
Whereas this one is perfectly suited as a daily driver. The end. And the 6.4 Gen3 even in Scat Pack tune is pretty much bulletproof, especially coupled with the 8HP75. It has heated and ventilated front seats. It has modern infotainment. Enjoying it is: get in and go drive. To whatever.
The fact that you’re even trying to compare them means either you don’t get it at all or you’re just a hater.
