I bought a Chrysler 300c awd 2010 in January of '10, w/ every option offered. Things I do like is the awd. It is fabulous with snow on my slanting driveway. Traded in a '06 300c w/ only 26,000 on it.
My complaint. It had a push button where the key would go. When you shut down, the steering wheel is supposed to rise out of the way and the seat move back to swing my long legs out. Sometimes it works and sometimes not. You never know until you push the button. Even when it fails, you can push the button through its series and it usually works. Usually the first time but sometimes 6 or 7 times. This failure goes clear back to the first time I drove it.
I have spent many, many hours in Chrysler service waiting rooms and many miles driving to them and spent many a gal of fuel getting there.
Now they say it is a software bug that they can't find the solution for. Bull!!! If they build a car that they can't fix, in the 16 months I have had it, my recommendation is DO NOT BUY one.
Do the hand operated electric seat controls still work?
***************** Yes. It is in the computer's software they now say but they are too stupid to fix it. I'm going back to Lincoln next time. I've had 4 new Town Cars and they always worked.
Not really but they still have a top of the line I made a deal for, drove the demo around for 1/2 hr, found I had a limp when I got out. The center console was just at the right height to catch me in the soft part of the knee. I canceled the deal.
It cost a little more, list at 51 and the 300 at 43 so I saved a few bucks on that.
Do they still make Town Cars? I thought they were on the endangered list?
Trust me. You don't need AWD. Hardly nobody needs AWD in a passenger vehicle.
I doubt you need to deal with the sort of snow that I do here in the middle of the great lakes. My '00 300m with a good set of snow tires can pull me through any and all of the deep snow that I have to deal with on the poorly plowed residential streets of my city.
AWD means you spent about $4k more than you should have, and will always carry around about 300 lbs of extra dead-weight (as if that car isin't already heavy enough) and pay more for drivetrain repair. And you'll always pay more for tire care and repair because you'll usually have to replace all your tires when ever one of them develops a fault and has to be replaced (can't have mis-matched tires if you've got AWD - or so I hear).
I hear that the air pressure monitoring system on the 300c's are a major pain, because the car computer won't let you drive the car unless they're always working - and they're expensive to repair.
So enjoy your german-designed 300c - stuffed full of out-dated, trouble-prone and expensive mercedes e-class parts.
I spend about 15 minutes twice a year at my chrysler dealer - getting my
11.5 year old 300m oil changed. And oh - by the way, it still has the factory original battery. Here's what I've had to fix in the 11.5 years and 100k miles that I've had my 300m:
- transmission output speed sensor (covered by original warranty)
- 1 ignition coil pack
- both rear door power lock mechanisms
- left and right front exhaust flex coupler
- front exhaust combiner muffler
- 1 rear tail-light bulb (no other lights have failed yet - including headlights)
Normal wear items (like wiper blades, brake pads and rotors, spark plugs, air filter, etc) I've replaced several times myself (spark plugs only once so far). Also the front sway bar bushings and connector rods, but no other suspension parts. One front speaker has developed a buzz, and some surface rust is starting to become more prominent along the bottom edge of the front doors. Has passed all required emissions tests (about 4 of them so far) with ease. After 11.5 years, fuel economy seems to be getting slightly better. On a flat highway with no headwind I get about 32 mpg at 70 mph. Let go of the steering wheel and the car runs straight as an arrow - no pull to either side.
I wouldn't buy one soley because of the look of that butt-ugly front end and high belt line. I hear that you feel like you're driving a submarine when you're inside it.
I certainly would never buy AWD. A decent set of snow tires and FWD is all anyone needs, and only if you get snow, and then only for a few months of the year. If I lived a few hundred miles more to the south (and I thank my lucky stars that I don't) I would have replaced my FWD
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