Car: Chrysler 300C Touring
Prices: £28,595- £41,595 - on the road INSURANCE GROUPS: 16-20
Emissions: 220-330g/km
Performance: 0-60mph 8.6s /Max Speed 136mph
Fuel Consumption: (urban) 26.2mpg / (extra urban) 42.8mpg / (combined) 34.9mpg
Safety: ABS, stability and traction control, brake assist, twin front airbags, front and rear curtain airbags WILL IT FIT IN MY GARAGE?: length/width/height mm 5015/1880/1475
CIRCLE THE WAGONS!
Our Rating: 7.6 / 10
If estate cars still carry the faint whiff of ‘Lovejoy’ for you, try Chrysler’s 300C. You’ll never look at a load lugger in the same way again. Andy Enright reports
Darwin was really onto something when he came up with the theory of natural selection. Although it’s tough to fault his logic, as a spectator sport, evolution makes crown green bowls look a hot ticket. In nature we have to wait thousands of years before finches develop beaks to reach a certain plant’s nectar. Aside from the obvious question of whether they know they’re being short changed in the interim, it’s not something that we can see developing in our own lifetimes. The same can’t be said of evolution in the car market. This natural selection moves at breathtaking speed and has resulted in cars like the Chrysler 300C Touring.
Perhaps a word or two of explanation is in order. It was only about seven or eight years ago that the estate car sector was looking very much like an evolutionary dead end. It was the Neanderthal being ruthlessly wiped out by the Homo Sapiens that were the MPV-style vehicles. Nobody was interested in a car that didn’t feature flippy spinny seats, multiple cupholders, auxiliary power points and a whole host of jaunty ‘lifestyle’ promotions to push it out of dealerships. Over the space of a few years, the penny finally dropped. There was nothing preventing any of these features being built into an estate. What’s more, customers would have all this practicality, a place to stow luggage and a driving experience not radically removed from that of a conventional saloon or hatch. Suddenly driving around in a high-sided vehicle that looked more like something you’d queue up at for a 99 with flake looked about as appealing as, well, quadripedal walking.
Estates have become big business. What’s more, smart designers have found ways of making them look – in certain instances – even better than the salons and hatches that spawned them. The fact that Chrysler’s 300C Touring doesn’t is a compliment to the striking styling of the saloon rather than any deficiencies in the penmanship of an estate version, but it’s nevertheless a very neat job. This car shares the same specification and engines as the hugely successful 300C saloon but adds striking estate proportions to create what, in its maker’s eyes is ‘one of the best-looking estate car on the road today’.
Apologising in advance for an awful pun, that may be stretching it a little, but the 300C Touring shares the same bluff front end that has the ability to scare outside lane dawdlers onto the hard shoulder. It’s the same metalwork back to the windscreen pillars but beyond that all of the panels are different, ending up with a neatly integrated set of wide windows and tailgate. What’s more, this is no ‘lifestyle’ sportswagon that serves up less carrying capacity than the car it’s based on. With the rear seats in place, the 300C Touring’s load area holds 630 litres of cargo, compared with the saloon’s 504 litres. With the rear seats folded down, cargo capacity rises to a monstrous 1,602 litres. In case you’re wondering, that’s better than established class benchmarks like the Audi A6 Avant can manage. A rear cargo organiser and cargo cover are also included to keep luggage safe and sound.
Two engines are now offered - a 3.0-litre 215bhp diesel which uses an advanced Mercedes engine and costs from around £28,500. There’s also a 6.1-litre V8 in the SRT-8 model but if you can’t stretch to that, you’ve the option of enjoying some of the this flagship’s ‘street racer’ appeal by paying a £5,000 premium over the baseline price for the SRT-Design diesel version.
Like most American cars, the handling isn’t quite up to the standard of its key European rivals. The steering is somewhat vague and the handling soon lapses into safe and predictable understeer. This isn’t surprising given the weight in the nose, but it does make the 300C feel a little stodgy, an impression backed up by the nautical levels of body roll the car displays if the driver gets a little enthusiastic at the tiller. Despite this relaxed attitude to cornering, the ride quality is surprisingly talkative. If you drive this car in a straight line it will feel sporty which is enough for the domestic market.
Although the 300C is relatively inexpensive to buy, there’s no getting away from the fact that it’s a sizea
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