I was lucky to be able to attend NAIAS on Thursday night for the industry preview night. I attended a design review for the PT Convertible and Chrysler 300 series while I was there. I also had the opportunity to sit in both the 300C as well as the Magnum, plus take in the rest of the show with only a few hundred people around, rather than the usual 40,000.
Ralph Gilles, design chief for the LX series, did the presentation on the
300 series, using a 300C for demonstration purposes. For those of you who've seen the pictures of the car at the NY auto show, or in the magazines, let me tell you, it looks very good in person. He said it's actually 1" shorter in overall length than the current 300M, but I can tell you, you'd never know it unless somebody told you. The car presents a stocky, muscular appearance, but it's not short at all; the so-called 'H' line that runs along the top of the front fender stands quite tall compared to the current LH cars. The detail in the headlamps is very intricate, and Gilles said he was particularly proud of how they turned out. Apparently one of the guys on his team that did the work had been a jeweler in a previous life, and it shows.The grille is large, and is the love-it or hate-it part of the car's design. Personally, I love it, but I can see where it would be a turn-off for people. Gilles said they wanted to make a statement with the grille, and they chose its large, bold appearance to give the car character. Love it or hate it, it does that in spades. I'm reminded of the reaction I had back in '97 to the Sebring's grille; it seemed large and plasticky to me, and I thought, gee, that will never work out. But it grew on me, and I think that if you don't like it, give it some time and you might change your mind.
There are four trim levels offered: a base, two mid-level versions, and the
300C. The Hemi will be available only in the 300C which starts out at $32K and change. They made a big deal about the value for the price, by the way, I guess the Pacifica misadventure still smarts. Fully optioned with all the stereo equipment, navigation system, supplemental air bags, etc., it will easily approach $40K. The mid-grade versions get the 3.5L V6, and really the two are the same car with the more uplevel version getting all the electronic goodies. You can easily option either of the mid-grade versions into the price range of the 300C, if you add all the air bags, Sirius stereo, etc. The base car gets the 2.7L V6 and a cloth interior with hubcaps. I seriously doubt they'll sell too many of these equipped this way, but my understanding is that it will start in the $23-$25K range. With the 3.5L versions starting around $27K, I'd be hard pressed to see why you'd go for the 2.7L. I guess AWD will be available soon, but not at first.The interior is very nicely done. The Magnum and the 300 series share the same interior with only minor trim differences, and a slightly different 'center stack' in the dash above the radio/HVAC controls so the 300 can have an analog clock like the 300M does. The electronics were disabled on the stand, so they had somebody crawl in through the back seat passthru to release the rear decklid. From 5 feet away, I'd say the trunk has room very similar to my Intrepid. The ignition switch is on the dash, and there's a control stalk mounted above the turn-signal stalk that controls lighting and cruise control, IIRC. The wiper control is on the turn signal stalk. It seems like a good choice to keep it there. There's the usual center console with storage cubby which integrates rear HVAC outlets, and a glovebox. Really, nothing revolutionary in the dashboard design, just a good execution of the standard concepts.
Rear seat room is excellent, and the front seat is just as good. You really do 'slide into' the car, rather than dropping into it; the seats are a skosh higher than what you're used to in a passenger car. It isn't quite high enough to give you the same view of the road you have in a pickup or a minivan of course, but it felt like it will be considerably better than the view from the LH cars. The beltline of the car is very high, and the side windows are not very tall at all. I wasn't in traffic, of course, but I don't think that visiblity is going to be a big problem. The view out the front and rear is excellent, although I didn't think to check for blind spots. You can see the hood quite well, but it's unobtrusive.
The LX car I like the best is the Magnum. A lot has been said about how disappointing it was that there won't be a Dodge sedan version, and I was of that same mind right up until last night. I realized once I got to crawl in and around it that this is an outstanding form factor for that vehicle, and I think that it's going to sell very well. For me, it's good enough to make me forget about wishing for a sedan.
For one thing, purge any Country Squire associations you might have in your mind. The 'wagon' portion of the vehicle is much shorter than that -- think more like 'Malibu Maxx' than any of the old Coronet-based machines you might have in mind. The space in the rear is very useful -- I'd say it has roughly the same floor dimensions as the trunk in the 300 -- but it's much more accessible with the rear hatch. The rear hatch itself is quite substantial, with the topmost portion of it extending about 12 inches into the roof. There is a hide-away compartment under the floor, and also a windowshade-style screen that hides stuff inside from view through the windows. It's truly a sporty wagon, much more so than the Pacifica, IMO.
The car overall looks *far* more powerful and imposing than any of the car-based SUVs. It has a tremendous stance, and a really menacing view from the front -- you'll react to seeing one of these approaching fast in your rear view mirror the same way you do today to seeing a Tahoe or a Ram. One of the things I like most about vehicles is when you have the option of having a fairly basic interior package coupled with the largest available engine. The RT version is just that. The car I sat in was candy-apple red and equipped with the Hemi, yet it had a cloth interior and a 'just enough gadgets' package -- CD player, tilt, cruise, interval wipers, power locks, seats and windows, and trunk release. I might also have had an overhead console with a Homelink transciever, but I'm not certain about that. Of course, you can get all the leather/sat nav/bluetooth goodies if you want those things. As far as I'm concerned, they're just extra weight.
My only carps? Well, I had a few. Gilles made a point of saying how the chromed gear selector was supposed to be part of the car's ornamentation. I wasn't terribly impressed; I would've favored a leather-wrapped shifter like my current Intrepid has. The front overhangs on both of these cars are somewhat low; I expect that drivers will have to be careful around curbs and parking blocks. The wheels and tires are *huge*, and although it works well in the design (the Magnums look like super-sized Intrepid ES wheels), I would expect the tires are going to be costly to replace. With 340HP on tap, that might turn into a real concern. We didn't get to peek under the hood of a Hemi Magnum (they had removed the release cable), but we were allowed a quick peek under the hood of a 300C. From a distance, I couldn't tell you about serviceability, but suffice it to say that the V6s looked a little cramped. (If it's anything like the Durango HEMI, it's going to be an exercise in patience to get to the rear sparkplugs, but not nearly as bad as the current minivans.) The Hemi has a large decorative engine cover with a HEMI logo on it in large block letters that looks identical to the one on the front fender of a '71 Roadrunner. One thing I couldn't do was adjust the power seats in any of the cars I sat in; they had the batteries disconnected. Somehow the foreign makes managed to arrange things so the dashboards were lit up and the stereos playing, so I don't understand why DCX couldn't do the same. Still, I'm just under 6', and with the seats all the way back as they appeared to be in the Magnum, I had a hard time reaching the pedals, and there was still room for me to sit behind the driver's seat without being cramped, so they've packaged the interior very well.
Later that evening, I happened across Mr. Gilles while looking over the VW Phaeton in the downstairs exhibit. I asked him what he thought of a $60K VW, and he replied that he thought it was fabulous, which I guess it was. He said he'd love to have the chance to work on something like that, and I guess what designer wouldn't like to have a $60,000 price point to work with? I told him I liked his cars, and had gotten over being upset about there not being a Dodge sedan, but I still wondered if they might do one in the future. He kind of smiled, and said, well, I can't say, but put it this way, if you had all the stuff you needed to do it, what would you do?
About 15 minutes later, I saw him snap a photo of a customizer's two-door PT hardtop in the downstairs display area. Given that the PT 'vert is a two-door body, it made me wonder...
So, how was getting to see the auto show with only a few hundred people, plus getting to meet the design chief on the eve of the LX car's introduction (and also resist the urge to upbraid Automobile Magazine's Jean Jennings for their foreign bias)? It was a banner night!
--Geoff