Consumer Reports (300C)

It's not made by Honda or Toyota.

Daniel J. Stern wrote: >

Unfortunately, you're probably dead accurate. No one buys a Hemi for the fuel economy, but I've heard nothing but praise for its MDS and overall quality. Just ignore what C/R says.

But maybe I'm just biased... ;)

Thanks,

Scott Moseman

They liked the acceleration but not the gas mileage. But frequency of repair for hemi equipped has been bad. 3.5 is more reliable according to their survey. Of course, one mistake at the factory in the first year of the hemi or its 5 speed AT could have made reliability look bad in their survey.

They're communists. Consumerism is a philosophy. A world-view, if you will. The Hemi is too.... bourgeoisie. I'm sure you've seen enough to realize they have an agenda.

Art,

Specifically, what repairs is the Hemi requiring?

Ken

I'm starting to see it. I've noticed that very few foreign vehicles that don't make their list.

They also complain about SUVs being "thirsty" Gee, no kidding.

Ken

No, Consumer Distorts is biased. :-p

I remember seeing the specifics but don't remember where I saw them. You might look up TSB's and alldata.com if you can still get to them for free.

True but I just replaced my Avalon with a Honda minivan and remarkably the minivan gets about as good mileage as my 99 300M which matches Consumer Reports mileage figures. They claim that the Chrysler minivan does about

Okay - Thanks.

Ken

I did (dare I say) look at the Avalon. It does offer a lot of car for the money but I just don't like the styling of it. I know it's a personal preference so I hope I haven't offended anyone.

The C offers a DVD entertainment system which for us is great for those long trips.

I have also considered or looked at the Cadillac STS, Pacifica,Maxima, Acura TL, Audi S6, Lexus ES330 and Dodge Daytona. Yea, I know. I'm all over the board. I do like that Top Banana Daytona Charger but I wonder how long something like that would last without getting stolen.

I think of all of the vehicles I mentioned, the Pacifica has everything I want in a vehicle but I've heard about how the 3.5 struggles with the extra weight the Pacifica has over the M.

On a personal note: Did you find back support an issue on the M?

Ken

This Chrysler Aspen looks nice. I wonder when it will hit showrooms?

My wife and I liked the 300M and had no trouble with the seats. I found the seats more comfortable than in 2001 Avalon which were just too hard for my body. My favorite seats were in the 94 LHS. Should have kept the back seat and made it into a living room couch.

I looked at the Pacifica and Charger. While deciding my father had to give up driving and I needed a car that I could transport his power chair a couple of times a week. I ended up with the Honda minivan and it sure seems like a bargain compared to the Pacifica. After experiencing the power sliding doors, I don't know how SUV's caught on with families with kids. They work great for elderly parents. We rented a Caravan in Florida for a week before deciding on the Honda. Unfortunately the Chrysler just doesn't measure up. It is a good van but they have a ridiculous price on it so they can advertise a rebate. And the Honda rides and handles better and gets better mileage. The only negative to the Honda is back seatbelts a bit difficult to put on and for some reason, Honda thinks that the informational displays like outdoor temperature should be only readable by the driver.

The other thing that bothered me about the Pacifica is those rusting suspension parts. Why the heck can't they paint them?

Just how long do you think paint would last on suspension parts?

Matt

Obviously other manufacturers have a solution to prevent rusting suspensions. Show me another SUV with the same problem.

It may be chemical treatments/coatings that are put on the parts. For example, I know that DC brake rotors (at least on the LH cars) rust like crazy - yet you look at a Toyota (or other) brake rotor that is 5 years old, and not a spec of rust on the rotors.

My understanding is that that the difference is that there is a coating called Dacromet? (sounds similar to di-chromate - not the same thing - this is Dacromet?, spelled correctly - a trade name - probably there are other companies' similar trademarked product/process names also) that Toyota and some other car companies use on the rotors that pretty much stops rust totally. Perhaps that or similar coatings are used on the suspension parts on Toyotas, etc.

I th> Obviously other manufacturers have a solution to prevent rusting

Every vehicle I've seen, other than Corvettes and a few others with composite or aluminum suspension parts have rust. My 94 K1500 is rusted stem to stern.

Matt

Haven't you ever looked under a car? Some of the high-sitting SUVs have comsmetic black paint on the suspension now, just because its so visible. But look under most any typical car or truck with stamped-steel suspension components from the past 50 years. Bare metal. No problems. Its purely a cosmetic issue in the ones that do get painted, and I'd call it "poor design" for letting the suspension hang out and be so visible (eg Aztek, Rendesvous, and some mid-90s Cadillac sedans).