Chrysler 300 2015 Review

Typically, big cars are boring. They are supposed to appeal to conservative buyers who shy away from anything too avant-garde. But the Chrysler 300 isn’t boring all to look at, with its tall-sided, pillbox window styling.

Mind you, what’s underneath isn’t exactly exciting. That is, the 300 is based on an old Mercedes-Benz E-Class architecture, the same one that the 300C was a decade ago.

However, that architecture has been tweaked here and there, with new electric power steering replacing the hydraulic power steering and aluminium driveshafts and diff housing replacing steel ones.

The new interior is comfortable, if a little cloying. It is not quite as roomy as competitors like the Holden Caprice for rear legroom in particular and when ensconced inside the 300 there is a vague feeling that you’re peering out of the turret of a tank.

In a world where many feel bombarded, perhaps that’s the feeling you want. In any case, vision out of the 300 is not as bad as you might think, although the car feels big on narrow roads.

The new interior materials and greater attention to detail have worked really well. The 300’s innards look and feel like a high-quality item, in the main.

The features like heated and cooled cup-holders and heated and cooled front seats are firm favourites, and the addition of the 7.0-inch information display to the instrument cluster — by the looks of it, borrowed from the Jeep Grand Cherokee — works really well. It presents a whole array of information in a clear, large readout.

There are some jarring elements to the inside, like the old-school foot-operated park brake that not only seems past its use-by date but also isn’t quite at the right angle to make it easy to use.

The new Sport button in the Luxury seems lost in the cluster of other buttons on the centre stack, although admittedly once you know it’s there it isn’t too hard to find. It just doesn’t seem like the logical position.

There's no more diesel, but the 300’s Pentastar V6 is a honey of an engine. It downloads smooth power from idle to its 6700rpm redline. The eight-speed auto is also smooth and refined. You don’t exactly get thrown into the back of your seat when you floor the 300 from a standstill but it builds up from there to get this big, heavy car to freeway speeds much more quickly than you’d expect.

Once there, you can play with the new safety equipment like the active cruise control. This latest version will slow the 300 to a standstill if the traffic ahead stops, and hold it there for two seconds, Having used this feature on Sydney’s clogged M4 motorway, I can vouch for the fact it works.

The new electric power steering might save the engine from having to pump oil into the steering rack but it doesn’t exactly make the 300 an exciting thing to steer. It is direct enough, but feels as dulled as ever. The Sport mode is supposed to give the steering more weight, which it might do by a fraction, but it certainly doesn’t give it more substance.

The Sport mode also livens up the accelerator response and gearshifts. It certainly does that, although it seems to be at odds with the luxury connotations of this vehicle. It doesn’t turn the 300 into a Maserati Quattroporte, let’s put it that way.

The 300C Luxury rides on big 20-inch hoops and thin rubber-band tyres so you have to expect the degree of thumping though bumps that entails. The 300 does a pretty good job though at absorbing the worst of the roads imperfections. It feels as tight as a drum, too.

The latest 300 may well still just pull it off with its gangsta look — albeit softened after the updates to the original — but there is also now a faint whiff of gangnam style about it.

You get the feeling the 300 gets attention these days not because it still looks really cool but rather it might be carrying someone important. It’s like when you see a stretch limo rolling down the street… without the stretch.

All that aside, this is a car that still fulfils an important role and does it well. No, it isn’t cutting-edge but in a market where style means a lot more than substance, maybe that’s all Chrysler needs.

2015 Chrysler 300C Luxury pricing and specifications:
Price: $54,000 (plus on-road costs)
Engine: 3.6-litre V6 petrol
Output: 210kW/340Nm
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Fuel: 9.7L/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 227g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety rating: Five-star (based on Euro NCAP testing of Lancia Thema)