The 300C Touring could be a hit in the UK - with diesel engine

Looks great and the engineering is ok. UK journalist's opinion..

See paragraph 3 in particular.

http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,12929-2218596,00.html

DAS

Chrysler 300C Touring
By Andrew Frankel of The Sunday Times

It could be really big


Recently I attended the launch of an executive car where a man
from marketing stood up and told me what I'd long suspected: it really
didn't
matter if the car was any good or not, so long as it projected the right
"look". This varied from car to car, which is why some preferred BMW, others
inclined towards Audi, and so on. But engineering excellence was way down
the priority list.
And if looks were the only arbiter, this new Chrysler 300C
Touring would be the class bestseller. Drive a 507bhp BMW M5 and no one will
look twice at you, but turn up in this diesel-powered Chrysler and you'll
garner a level of attention you'd need a new Lamborghini to trump. With its
long, sleek body, narrow windows and imposing cheese-cutter grille it looks
cool, individual and, if you order it in black, impressively sinister too.
Indeed it makes every other estate look bland and predictable by comparison.
Drive one and there will be people tapping your window at traffic lights to
find out more.

You may think you know where I'm heading with this. If I had a
dollar for every American car I've driven that's failed to deliver on the
promise of its looks, I'd have a dollar for every American car I've driven.
Except this one. In the 300C the long promised synergy that merging
Mercedes-Benz and Chrysler into DaimlerChrysler was meant to deliver from
the start - an irresistible blend of American creative design with German
engineering know-how - is finally with us.



Of course the 300C is not entirely new. A couple of years back I
reviewed one on this page and was broadly impressed - but that car had
deeply unfashionable saloon bodywork and, under its bonnet, a highly amusing
but scarcely practical Chrysler 5.7 litre Hemi V8. What's different about
this one is not only its estate bodywork but also the state-of-the-art
Mercedes 3 litre V6 diesel it uses to throw itself very convincingly up the
road. Its 218bhp means it reaches 62mph in 8.6sec, while a thick slab of
torque and an ultra-smooth and quick (Mercedes) auto gearbox means it feels
faster still. And at 34.9mpg it doesn't even use that much fuel.

But while Mercedes might be responsible for the way it goes in a
straight line, Chrysler is laying claim for its behaviour in the corners,
which news in the past would have caused me to groan. Again the 300C
confounds the form book - it rides a little firmly but that's more than fair
trade for its precision, grip and balance. Indeed, were it not for the quite
extraordinary lengths Chrysler goes to in press material to deny any link
between its chassis and that of the E-class, I'd have sworn there was more
than a little Mercedes magic in there.

Of course, however good looking an American car may be on the
outside, be advised that interior styling is about as important to American
car designers as aftersales service to a funeral director. But while I'll
grant you that the cabin of the 300C is not going to get knees knocking in
Audi design studios, it doesn't stoop to the laughable standards of many
American cockpits. It has some fiddly switches and, if you order the luxury
pack, some dodgy wooden touches, but on the whole its quality is reasonable,
its execution competent and interesting.

Add to all this the fact that there's acres of space in the back
and a strangely shaped but capacious boot, and you'll see why the 300C
Touring is more than a just a good looking, quick and characterful
alternative to the conformity of a big German estate.

But I've not even mentioned the best bit. Buy a Mercedes E-class
estate with this engine in it and it'll cost you over £10,000 more. The 300C
Touring is £27,275. Of course, the Mercedes is a little better in most areas
than the 300C but it looks a whole lot worse.

I can see a cult forming around the 300C Touring - a small,
brave band of buyers rebelling against executive estate establishment.
Sadly, its lack of snob value will keep it from the mainstream sales it
really deserves - were this car called a Mercedes they would queue down the
street for it.

Vital statistics

Model Chrysler 300C CRD Touring
Engine type 2987cc, six cylinders
Power/Torque 218bhp @ 3800rpm / 376 lb ft @ 2800rpm
Transmission Five-speed auto
Fuel/CO2 34.9mpg (combined) / 215g/km
Performance 0-62mph: 8.6sec / Top speed: 136mph
Price £27,275
Verdict A fascinating and capable alternative estate
Rating 4/5
Date of release Out now

The opposition

Model Mercedes E 320 CDI Elegance Estate £38,095
For The best executive load carrier in the business
Against Expensive relative to the opposition, bland styling

Model Volvo V70 D5 SE Geartronic £30,065
For Blends traditional Volvo ability with modern styling
Against Ride quality is poor, diesel engine rather unrefined

 

I'd like to stick a modern medium duty truck engine into an old
sixties Letter 300C. Or an Imperial or a Newport.

 

a 'modern' truck engine from where, US or EU - because the US ones
are, from what I've seen, WAY behind the EU ones technologically
(seems like 10-15 years behind)

 

Are you smoking crack? Caterpillar and Cummins. are about a decade ahead
of European diesel manufacturers. They've had production common-rail
injection for *years* now, and its still "new and spooky" in Europe.

Granted, Europe is even further ahead of the US than that in small
automotive diesels, but when it comes to medium duty engines you can't
TOUCH Cat and Cummins. Same for locomotives- the 6000 HP class EMD and
GE engines are superb (although the screw-ups by partnering with Deutz
almost killed the GE HDL engine, but they've all been undone now that
the partnership is dissolved.) You have to get all the way up to huge
ship diesels before you find European engine builders ahead of the US.