Cars.com's Dave Thomas takes a look at the 2008 Chrysler 300C. It competes with the Buick Lucerne and Cadillac CTS.
Transcript
(upbeat music) Hi, I'm Dave Thomas with cars.com. We're here with the 2008 Chrysler 300C. From 2008, Chrysler's made some small improvements to the sedan, but it's still really about the Hemi.
The 300 comes standard with the V6, but when you get to 300C, that means it comes with a Hemi V8 engine, has 340 horsepower, it's pretty powerful, it's one of my favorite engines, American V8 engines, and it moves this thing pretty rapidly. I will say I've driven all the Hemi powered Chryslers, are all rear wheel drive, all wheel drive, and all wheel drive does add some driving competence. It has more confidence in the steering department. It's a little heavier, but the sacrifice is definitely made up in the steering, and obviously road grip. Most the changes for this model are on the inside, and they're very slight. If you sat in the 07 or 08 right next to each other, you might not even notice. The gauges get a slight upgrade. They're a little nicer now, especially in daylight, at night they saw the same faded green glow, but in the daytime they are better looking. A big improvement to me of the ergonomics of the cruise control. They moved it from a stock on the left where your turn signals are so you always got them confused, and moved it over here to the right, which is much more standard and accepted in the, in the industry, and much more comfortable. And believe it or not, the armrests also got a slight upgrade. They have a little more padding now. So your elbows a little more comfortable To me, that's not a huge upgrade. Now, despite all those upgrades, the 300 still has a kind of a disappointed interior, especially when you look at the price tag of an, of an up-level trim, like the 300C, costs almost $45,000 with all the options we have in it. Mainly it's the big bulky plastic of the dash that immediately will throw you off. Some of the trims that are fake silver, kind of feel fake or feel cheap. It's certainly not a characteristic you want in a car, like I said, that you just spent $45,000 on. Part of the thinking about the 300 is a big large sedan, and there's gotta be room in the backseat, right? Well, there is plenty of room back here. The seat is in the position where I was driving. I'm 5'10, I have plenty of knee room, plenty of foot room, there's enough thigh support. It feels comfortable. Also this model can come equipped with an optional DVD system, and of course, since this is a loaded test model, we have it here too. I've said it a couple of times, we're in a fully loaded Chrysler 300 C, and that's not exactly accurate. For $45,000, and we have lots of great things, but what it doesn't have a side curtain airbags, or side seat airbags. It come in an optional thousand dollar safety package. Without that package, which this car does not have, the 300 C the lowest test score inside crash impact by IHS. I'm going to move with the interior improvements. We're not big fans of the interior overall, but when you're sitting in the 300 C and it's got the Hemi engine in it, all you have to do is rev the engine a few times and pull away from the stop sign to get the true enjoyment out of this car. Even though our loaded 300 C all wheel drive Hemi powered test there was $45,000, you can get into a 300 for 25,000 with the V6. There's also some generous rebates on a most of the time. So there is some value to it. However, for the 2008 upgrades weren't a huge improvement and there are some problems, especially with the crash tests. So we don't know if we'd fully recommend it. For additional information on this car or any other go to cars.com and our blog Kicking Tires.
