Saw My 1st 300C on the Road Today

====================================

From comments I've heard among acquaintances, the 300C appeals to those who prefer the "formal" designs such as the K-based Dodge Dynasty and New Yorker, which were swept aside in the mid 90s by "Cab Forward." As such, it seems to have an upmarket appeal compared to cars of the aero design, now nearly universal among the smallest and cheapest cars, though the "high body" style is catching on. To me, the proportions of the 300C look a bit strange now, except from the rear quarter, where the it looks "right." Perhaps that's because perspective from that angle minimizes the visual effect of the slit-like rear door window.

That same angle of view is where the second generation LH always has looked awkward, where the front fender meets the A-pillar.

I brought this up because the issue of the 93-97 LH style "holding up better" was mentioned to me by a well-known Mopar guru in some casual correspondence, and I have been thinking about it ever since. What I felt at the time of its introduction was that the 98 Intrepid, specifically, was an outstanding example of a totally new and fresh "shell" or contour, with the surface detailing being almost as totally evolutionary from the old design, yet all fit together in a unified whole. Perhaps what has made the 98-04 LH body look less fresh now, is that so many other cars have since followed up with lines that were, if not intentionally, then effectively imitative. It's kind of like they changed over from imitating the 86-95 Ford Taurus, directly to the 98+ LH body.

One car whose design grew on me over time was the first generation Ford Taurus, especially the station wagon, which to me looked like an overinflated blimp. In just a few years it did not look so radical any more, and I began to like it.

Reply to
Gene Poon
Loading thread data ...

Yes, I know what people mean when they say "gangsta" image. Obviously you don't know what I mean when I question you about the "gangsta" image being associated with the 300C. "D Unit"? Is that the unit between the "C Unit" and the "E Unit"? Quite honestly, I have NEVER heard of a group called "D Unit". Possibly my kids could tell me. As for "Fifty Cent" - I have a few Kennedy's laying around but no Franklins, so if "Fify Cent" is a group I have no idea about it. Guess I'll have to ask my kids on that one also......... and on this reply I am being completely honest, not just a "little"!

What this whole issue that we have bantered back-and-forth boils down to is the fact that what you posted was not interpreted by me in the way you posted it. As such you could not understand what I was posting because your mindset was, nor will it ever be, the same as mine.

Again - I do NOT claim there is NO "gangsta" image in the entertainment industry but I would still like to know how you associate it with the

300C........and I do not care to visit "their" websites, thank you, because I see enough of "their" disgusting attitudes without having to go searching for it.

RP

Reply to
RPhillips47

Gentlemen, please! Here are the facts of the matter:

1) There is a popular rapper named Fifty Cent. He has had a couple of top ten hits.

2) He has a group of associates called the "G Unit". They have just released a record.

3) G Unit requested, or was persuaded to request, a new 300C Hemi which appeared in their video.

4) The Wall Street Journal cited this as evidence that the 300 may turn out to be very popular with younger people, many of whom look to "gangsta rappers" such as Fifty Cent and G Unit for stylistic inspiration.

Acceptance by a younger, "hipper" crowd is critical to the success of nearly any car nowadays. Sportiness and youth appeal are seen as mandatory qualities, even if their potential buyers are usually not so young (an example would be Mercedes-Benz ads in the US which usually feature couples about fifteen years younger than the average real-life M-B customer).

In any event, the "gangstas" are often not so much setting trends as simply picking existing trends out of the aether and writing them large. Consider, as an example, the dramatic swing in the sales ratio of Rolls-Royce and Bentley during the Nineties. Where the Flying Lady used to outsell the winged "B" by two to one, now the ratio is six to one in Bentley's favor... and all the rappers started featuring Bentleys in their lyrics and videos shortly after the change started. Since rappers are too rare to account for a significant percentage of customers, even for such a small firm as Bentley, presumably the rappers were just saying what we all knew, namely that Bentley had captured the public's imagination and was taking off.

If you don't want a gangsta image for your 300, select standard finish wheels ;)

Reply to
Jack Baruth

Yes, but Wal-Mart sells the 'spinning' hubcaps for $30 for a set of 4 15"...

Yes, you too can be hip and stay within a budget...

Reply to
SMoo

You must've missed my quote from the article about the C being featured in D Unit's video from the article, and hence my reference to the "gangsta" image, but I see now that you have apparantly gone back and picked up that context from my original post. I truly misinterpreted where you were coming from, and I apologize for that.

Yep - miscommunication. (However you did kinda escalate pretty quickly into strong personal attacks, but I guess I kinda started it by my implying that you were being dishonest when it now appears that you were simply being naíve - and I don't mean that as a putdown - some things I wouldn't mind being ignorant of.)

Oh - maybe you still haven't picked up on it - I though you had. The

300C was featured in the D Unit video, hence the "gangsta" association with the 300C (possibly with a behind the scenes commercial deal from Chrysler to feature it, but then again, maybe not). My point, without really saying it, was that I thought it a bad idea for Chrysler to be actively promoting the connection if they had had a hand in having it show up in the video - that they could actually (statistically) lose some sales. Again, if you go back to my original post, you will see that I quoted from the article about the 300C appearing in the D Unit video, and that is apparently what you missed in your original response.

On that we're agreed - apparently you share my disgust for certain things.

Bill Putney (to reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with "x")

Reply to
Bill Putney

Fortunately nobody else has your eyes!

Reply to
RPhillips47

I'm not that old but it happens to me a lot. I'm glad to know you really didn't understand what he meant. I thought you guys were being buttholes. But if it's never happened to you, naturally you wouldn't understand what he meant.

It happens to "other people".

Reply to
Joe

You are so right about imperial. I hadn't thought of that. But, you need to get over your thinking that the 300 was somehow sporty. It never was. Never, ever. Fast, yes. At the time, it was the fastest big ol' American sedan ever built. You could wear your hat in it.

Reply to
Joe

I guess the Aztek shows that if everybody hates it, that's not quite as good as a love/hate thing.

Reply to
Joe

Here is a link that sums up my impression of the front end grillwork on the

2nd generation LHS.
formatting link
Regarding the 300M: butt-ugly front end.
Reply to
Hmmm...

Oh, yes it WAS! It was always big, but the automotive press raved about the fact that it easily matched or exceeded the handling of many European "sports cars" of the time. Certainly it was not a "sports car" and it never tried to be, but it was VERY "sporty."

I would contend that given that the 2-door coupe is a dead duck in today's marketplace, it was a coin toss as to whether to call a new luxury sport-sedan "Imperial" or "300" because the two lines are now combined in one market niche. Sure, I'd RATHER see the current car called "Imperial" and a second car added to the line with 2 doors, a pointier nose and tail, and a "300N" badge. Aint gonna happen, though. The two-door IS dead, as much as I hate to say it :-(

Reply to
Steve

I was beginning to think I was the only one... even Stern calls the first gen LHS a "road toad" and he's usually more traditionalist on styling than I am. :-)

Reply to
Steve

Oops - beware of unqualified generalisations.

- BMW Coupe

- Merc Coupe

- Peugeot 406

- Renault Megane

- Honda RSX (Acura in USA), Accord & Civic.

  • innumerable 3-door hatchbacks.

I have omitted the increasing numbers convertibles as being special cases, even those with rigid rooves that are, in effect, coupes when roof up.

Reports of the death of the 2-door coupe are greatly exaggerated.

DAS

Reply to
Dori A Schmetterling

Opened the link. You are right on the money - especially in the middle photo!!!

Yup!!!!!

Reply to
RPhillips47

I believe the OP meant that the full-sized coupe is dead.

Here in America, coupes and station wagons (estates) were once the popular choices. If you had a bunch of kids of a certain age, you got the wagon; otherwise you got the coupe. General Motors in particular seemed to focus on the coupe. Sedans were for cops and taxi drivers.

How many of you out there can remember being children placed in the back of full-sized coupes, often with a couple siblings? It's funny how people who spent their entire young lives in the back of, say, a Monte Carlo or Torino coupe feel their children are unmanageable in anything short of a minivan.

The full-sized coupe was replaced in the United States as an affordable style statement by the SUV. Most US manufacturers phased their medium-and-full-size coupes out just as they were phasing their truck-wagons in.

I believe that the largest five-seater coupe sold by a domestic manufacturer is the Stratus/Sebring coupe, which is a Galant under the skin anyway.

Really, if you think about it, the idea of having two identical cars differentiated only by door count doesn't make a whole tearing lot of sense. Honda and Toyota, the other five-seat mid-size coupe makers, at least change the body panels a bit...

If Chrysler comes out with a Charger Hemi Coupe, I think I'd have to look at buying one. A full-sized coupe is a neat idea.

Reply to
Jack Baruth

Pfft. Most families bought Caprice Classic or Malibu *sedans* if they didn't buy wagons. Sure, some families had Monte Carlos, but no, sedans were the overwhelmingly popular choice for families without wagons. Not sure where you get your mistaken notion that families bought coupes and that sedans were for "cops and taxi drivers". That has never been correct.

Probably because 2-door cars are a pain in the ass if you carry people in the back with any regularity. It means having to unload just about everyone except the driver so that ONE person can get into or out of the back seat.

It's worked well for many manufacturers for many years.

DS

Reply to
Daniel J. Stern

Large coupes assured that there were no back doors for young children to open while tooling along at 70MPH (well, my dad usually drove 80-85 most of the time). I grew up riding in the back of Chevy Impala coupes.

Reply to
James C. Reeves

"Style statement" is an apt phrase. I have never quite understood the penchant for paying more for less space and greater inconvenience (in any

2-door vehicle).

Currently I have a 2-door vehicle, but as it's a convertible I forgive myself the contradiction, especially as I don't drive much (what a waste!) and don't often carry passengers.

FYI at least the Merc CLK and CL and Peugeot 406 can be considered 'full size' by European standards. Relatively few are sold, of course, but it's not a dying breed.

DAS

Reply to
Dori A Schmetterling

From the sales numbers for mid-sized cars. The GM A-body coupes outsold the sedans for every year I can find. For most of the mid-late Seventies America's best-selling car, the Cutlass Supreme, was primarily sold as a coupe.

Furthermore, when I was a kid family sedans were rare as hen's teeth. The only sedans in my neighborhood were Mercedes and Saabs. Everybody else had a two-door. It's possible my experience does not reflect the world at large, as it was confined to about twelve cities on the East Coast.

Didn't seem like that much of a hassle, to be truthful.

But according to everything you have posted above, not *that* well. Furthermore, the number of cars on the market with a panel-identical two-door option nowadays is vanishingly small. BMW, Merecdes, Volvo, Chrysler, Toyota, and Honda all use different bodywork on their two-door cars. Look at a Camry and a Camry Solara, an Accord and an Accord Coupe, a C320 and a CLK320... Now go back and look at the two-doors of the Seventies. Not really the same thing.

Reply to
Jack Baruth

MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.