300C

Next time you're out driving, do this:

Look around and notice all the Intrepids, Concordes, LHS and 300M's.

In 5 years that's how many 300C's will be around.

They will be as common as Accords or Camry's or MAximas. They are replacing 3 different cars. If you want to stand out from the crowd - buy one real quick. Their look will get old- fast. 3 times faster than the 300M did.

i'm not worried about being different, just want a nice luxury ride without burning a hole in my wallet. i kinda like the "bentley" look og 300C...

how do you think it's value will hold up as compared to Jaguar x-type ?? i plan to own the car...

thanks for the >

X-type underpinning is aging Ford Modeo/Contour platform with 4wd, a decent v6 covered in a pretty good looking Jaguar skin. X-type is a relatively small car and is basically a Ford Contour in a nice tuxedo.

300C uses some older Mercedes underpinnings with rwd, a hemi v8 covered in a Bentley-like (Green Hornet... your new car is ready) skin. 300C is a relatively big powerful car.

The warranty is better on the Jag. 300C is going to slurp fuel. If you are looking for a third and like the look, the Infinity G35 might be worth looking at... it is more practical and a better raw value than the other two.

Price/value/genetics will restrict volume and market for X-types. Reputation/efficiency/polarizing style will restrict volume and market for

300C. I wouldn't expect stellar resale values for either vehicle.

If you like the 300C... go for it.

Best of luck out there... Mike

not sure what your point is, but i'm after a luxury type sedan around the $36k-$37k range max. x-type jag and 300C fit the bill, just not sure what to buy yet. seems that Jag (or Ford) lacked the insight to build their x-type "sport" models with 3 pedals under the dash, a auto "sport" sedan just don't cut the mustard....

the 300C runs on 4 cylinders when not under load, done by controlling valves. Chrysler claims they can transition from 4 to 8 in 40ms, but i'm skeptical about this for a 8cylinder that has pushrods and hydraulic lifters...

k

In the same position as yourself, I would get the hemi 300C. I don't know what your family situation is (i.e. married or not, kids or not), but if anybody will ever have to sit in the backseat, the 300C will be much appreciated. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the hemi is a lot faster too.

Nobody who has driven in (none of the magazines nor myself) has said that they can feel or hear the transition. I wouldn't consider the 8 to 4 cylinder feature a negative against the car. Benz has been doing stuff like that for a while, and I'm sure they used the research allready available to them. I would go to a newstand and buy the may copies of Car and Driver, Road and Track, and Motor Trend if I were you. I forgot to mention one other "downside" I found when going over the car: the backrest of the passenger seat is manually controlled, and there is no option to make it power. Richard

Have any 0-60 or 1/4 mile times been published yet?

That does suck. How much of the rest of the passenger seat is power? Did they put the power seat controls on the center console or keep it low (like where it is on the 300m)?

Some cars (Lexus for one) have (or did have) ventilated (or air-conditioned) front seats (and I've been in a Lexus that had it and it is VERY NICE) and some cars have a key-fob that activates the ignition (ie no key-in-the-ignition to start the car). Any chance the

300C will get any of those features?

Wrong AGAIN, as usual!!!

0-60 5.3 sec. 1/4 = 13.9 sec 102 mph Car and Driver Motor Trend 0-60 5.8, 1/4 14.27 at 98.56 mph Road and Track 0-60 5.6, 1/4 14.1 at 101.1 mph

Yep, its got a HEMI in it and I don't care what kind of gas mileage it gets. If you want gas mileage, buy one of those small 4 cyl cars. This is a car I WANT to buy, I am not even a fan of Chrysler products, but I am really looking to getting this car.

JB

Why? It should be much simpler and more reliable with 2 valves per cylinder than with 4. OHC is overrated in advertising glossies, its just another way of operating valves with no inherent superiority over pushrods and cam-in-block until you get to 8000 RPM (and maybe not even then, given that NASCAR pushrod v8s are turning 9400+ RPM this year and have to run about 2-3 times as many miles per race as Formula 1 engines do). Let the engineers who build the engines pick the best method for the job, not the car magazine editors.

God I hope not. I hate schlock like that on cars- its what's driving the price to the sky. Give me the Hemi, rear drive, comfortable ergonmically contoured seats, and a solid chassis. I'll move the seats, unlock the doors, start the car, adjust the A/C, and pick my nose all by myself, thank you very much.

All the rest of the passenger seat is power. Honestly I wouldn't have cared if they had made the whole seat manual, in a nice way like what you can get in a BMW in Europe. The controls are on the side of the seat bottom.

Not that I know of, and I hope not. Richard

That must be what I was thinking of when I asked about the 300C SRT. Do you have any info on it other than displacement? Richard

no car mags. at all, just wondering how they control the lift at the valve stem as it can't be in the lifter or pushrod... any links would be good for me.

thanks

as a side note, there was a University team experimenting with magnetically controlled lifters, no lifters, no cam, and no pushrods. the setup also allowed for no starter (NO STARTER). they could start the engine by knowing the next cylinder to fire, load some fuel, set the valves, and fire, and the thing would start.

was too noisy at the time, this is a few years back. probably the future of upper valve tra>

I think you had better clean out your ears. The base Mustang with V-6 will be at the 19K range but there is no way you'll see a fully loaded GT at that price. If Billy Ford keeps saying that, he will be sued for either false advertising or running a bait-and-switch campaign. I mean, let's get REAL, mic!