I ordered a
Brilliant Black Crystal 2005 Chrysler 300C 12/05/2003. I was told that it should be delivered in
March 2004. I ordered it with
dark slate grey/medium slate grey leather interior, navigation system, Sound
Group II (Boston Acoustics seven speaker system with subwoofer, 380w amp, six
AM/FM/CD/MP3 changer), HID headlamps, power adjustable pedals (with memory),
protection group II (side curtain airbags, self-sealing tires and air
filtration) and California Walnut wood trim. I did not order the smoker's group, cold
weather group, Sirius Satellite radio or sunroof. I originally ordered the UConnect option but
had to remove it in January to get my car built.
The
wait for the car was usually fun and sometimes painful. I documented the details of my ordering saga below; please feel
free to read all of the silly details.
I have
received well over 500 Emails from all over the world from visitors to this
page. I absolutely love hearing your
comments on the car or feedback on this page and or feedback on my picture page. Please Email me your questions or
comments, I'd love to hear them!
I found an awesome video of a 300C on a test track
and uploaded it to my site. There are
two versions of this video below; one is a 3.2MB version in original AVI format
and a 1MB version in WMV format for those of you on dialup.
3.2MB AVI version: 
1MB WMV version:
I added the latest Chrysler commercial with the
300C to my site today (04/18/2004). It’s great to see it getting some
press!
3.9MB WMV: 
(04/26/2004) I added another
commercial exclusive to the 300.
I’m quickly running out of room on my server, so grab the big
files quickly! J
2MB WMV: 
(05/05/2004) This is a quick
walk-around video of two 300C’s with a fitting music selection…
2.5MB WMV: 
(05/31/2004) I finally uploaded the
Speed Channel videos I have been promising.
You can see them both here:
19.4MB WMV Speed Channel Test Drive Segment: 
22.2MB WMV AutoWeek magazine feature article: 
(06/09/2004) With a big thank you to Charley, I
finally have the ER finale episode with the
300C footage:
4MB WMV ER Finale 300C Intro: 
13.8MB WMV ER Finale Ride Scene: 
Update 01/26/2005 – Apparently the 2005 auto shows have created a
lot of new interest in the Chrysler 300’s again. These pages have seen thousands of new visitors
in the past few weeks, and I’ve been getting a lot of great Emails from
all around the world. A nice fellow
named Goro from Slovenia has been among my favorites. He saw his first 300 in his country and was
completely hooked. The 300’s are
finally making their way to other countries as well. Approximately 10% of the recent traffic on
this site is coming from Europe, and that’s quite a increase over a few months
ago. As you can probably tell I’m
a huge Chrysler fan and am thrilled to see that Chrysler is doing this well
world-wide. I’ve been a Chrysler
fan for many, many years, so it’s great to see them make a strong
comeback again.
For the record, my car now
had 13,500 miles on it and I still absolutely love it! I am starting to see more 300’s on the
road, but the 300C’s are still few and far between. I know that Chrysler is selling them faster
than they can make them, so where are they all going?!? J
I have been terribly lame
and haven’t updated these pages in quite a while, but it hasn’t
been for lack of material. I have several
great new videos that I want to get uploaded, I just can’t seem to make
time to do it. I managed to find a few
Chrysler sales videos for the 300C that I really want to upload. I promise I’ll work on that soon. Please bookmark this page and come back in a
few weeks. I swear I’ll have more
stuff soon!
Update 09/12/2004 – I added
some great pictures of 300’s from the Dub show in Houston to my picture page. Thanks for the great pictures, Ron!
Update 08/26/2004 –
It’s been *way* too long since I’ve updated this page. I was out of town for a bit and have not made
time to catch up on my Emails or updates to this page. I will respond to each and every Email I
receive, eventually. Sorry for the
delay!
The story by Brett Clanton mentioned below was in the Detroit News, but he
didn’t mention our discussion. The
article is long gone now, sorry! All in
all it was a great article.
E.R. starts up
again on September 23rd. The
finale last year had Dr. Pratt being shot at in his brand new 300C, and the
season premier continues that story line.
From the E.R. premiere commercial you can see
that the 300C is trashed! It is driven
into a river or lake and the occupants are trapped inside. I hate the fact that they trashed the 300C
for the episode, but it will be cool to see the car featured in the main story
line of the show again. I’ll try
to get it on tape and will post it here.
In case you haven’t seen the story, Chrysler will be making a
hotter version of the 300 next year. The
300 SRT-8 will feature a 6.1 liter HEMI
with 425 HP, 20” wheels and a lower and stiffer suspension. The 340HP 300C is a hoot to drive, I can only
imagine how much fun the SRT-8 will be!
Update 07/01/2004 – I spent
a little time on the phone yesterday with Brett Clanton, a reporter from The Detroit News. Brett has written several great articles about
the Chrysler 300 series and is in the process of writing another. This story is being written from the angle of
owners of luxury cars trading them in on the 300’s. I fit that bill as I traded in a 2000 BMW
740I for my 300C, so I’m a great example of this phenomenon. His story should be out in a few days. When it’s available I’ll post a
link here.
AutoWeek’s July 5, 2004 issue hot my mailbox today. According to AutoWeek’s readers the
Chrysler 300C was voted “America’s Best Sedan” for
2004. My favorite quote from the
article: “This is the hottest thing
to come out of Detroit since Aretha, Eminem and the
World Champion Pistons combined”.
I love that! You can find the
article online here.
I’m sure many of you know that Rap artist 50
Cent acquired one of the early 300C’s for one of his Rap videos, but
now it’s Snoop Dogg’s turn.
Snoop left a message on Chrysler CEO Dieter Zetsche’s answering machine asking
for a 300C, and it was reported that his car is being expedited. For grins you can hear the message Snoop left
for Dieter here and you can
read the story and the translation of what you just heard here. This car is definitely creating a buzz! J
Update 06/23/2004 – Time
sure flies when you’re having fun!
I haven’t had time to update this page in two weeks. Sorry about that!
I have almost 3,000 on my 300C now and it’s still a joy to
drive. I haven’t driven any of my
other cars in the two months I’ve owned it because I can’t stand to
leave it in the garage. The car still
gets a lot of attention because there just aren’t a lot of them on the
road. I have been watching for other
300’s on the road, but in the past two months I’ve seen less than
10 others out there in my 30+ mile commute every day to work. On Monday at lunch I saw two in a two minute
span, but they are few and far between.
I think that Chrysler has made many thousands of them, but I just don’t
see them on the roads. Only one of the
300’s I’ve seen has been a 300C, and that was the beautiful vanilla
C owned by Claudia and Terry. Where are they all at?!?
Well, I know where at least one other one is: My buddy, Craig Helm from Helm Chrysler in Graham, TX received
another 300C this week. I believe this
is his second C to come through and probably the last one he’ll get for a
while. This one is Brilliant Black
Crystal Pearl (a beautiful color IMHO!) and has
Protection Group II, California Walnut trim,
Sirius Satellite Radio, UConnect,
Power Pedals, Smokers Group and Slate Graystone interior. The MSRP for this one
is $35,445.00. Please call Craig at 888-828-HELM
for more details. Graham is approximately
100 miles NW from DFW Airport, so it would be an easy (and fun!)
fly-in-drive-home opportunity for those of you not local. If you work out a deal with Craig in advance
I will even volunteer to pick you up at DFW Airport and chauffer you to his
dealership in my 300C. It’s a nice
drive out there and I don’t see Craig often enough. Tell Craig you found his 300C for sale here
and I’m sure he’ll give you a great deal!
Update 06/09/2004 –
You’ll love this: GM is offering a $250.00
disloyalty discount to anyone that takes a 24 hour test
drive of any eligible GM product but buys another brand instead. How awesome is that?!? As listed in an
article on The Motley Fool today this is probably one of
GM’s dumbest moves yet, and that’s saying something! Take home a GM for a day and let GM help make
your down payment on your new Chrysler 300C… J
Charley, an esteemed visitor to this page, answered my request for a
copy of the ER season finale
in a big way! Charley took the time to
record it to DVD for me after cutting out all of the commercials. He even cut a separate CD with the 300C
scenes perfectly edited. That saved me a
lot of time, thank you Charley!! The
300C clips are now located on my site and are linked to above. The 300C wasn’t merely mentioned, it
was actually featured on the show! Dr
Pratt leased one in the show, bragged about it and showed it off and then
quickly abused it. I hate the fact that
they show a Buick Regal (it was a Riveria, thanks
for the correction, John!!) keeping up with it in the
“ride” scene, but nonetheless it’s a great
“commercial” for the 300C.
Thank you Charley, ER and NBC!
Update 05/31/2004 – I
*finally* uploaded the 300C AutoWeek Magazine feature article from the Speed
Channel today. You can find the link for
this video above. I also uploaded one of
five segments from the Speed Channel’s Test Drive show. They gave the 300C some great track
time. If you enjoyed the 300CDrifting
video above you’ll *love* this one!
If you have the E.R. season finale
on tape I’d love to borrow it from you.
Please let me know if you can get your hands on a tape of this
show. I’d love to have it!!
Update 05/30/2004 – I had
my windows tinted yesterday and I uploaded new pictures to my pictures page. In addition to making the car much cooler on
hot Dallas summer days it
makes the car look even meaner than it did.
I love it!
One of my 300C buddies, Terry, told me a story
about getting the window’s tinted in his wife’s 300C. His dealership used a metallic tint that
reflects heat better than the non-metallic versions, but it negatively affected
his AM radio reception. He was only able
to pick up really strong stations because the metallic tint was blocking the
waves from getting inside the car to the AM antenna. His dealer removed the metallic tint and
installed a non-metallic tint and his reception problem disappeared. I used metallic tint on my car yesterday, but
I never listen to AM radio and won’t miss it at all if it’s
gone. Please keep this in mind when
getting your window’s tinted…
Update 05/28/2004 –
I’ve had the AutoWeek Magazine tape from Speed for three weeks but I
haven’t yet made time to upload it here yet. I’ll get that done this weekend, I
promise! I thought I had a tape of the
E.R. season finale that was supposed to
have had a great feature of the 300C, but the tape I had of it was somehow
taped over. Bummer! I’m still looking for someone that has
that on VHS. If I can find it I’ll
upload that here as well!
The splash guards I installed really help keep the car clean. That is well worth the time and effort
installing them. That should be one of
your first upgrades!
I’d like to mention again that this car is a blast to drive
and the power it has is scary. While
cruising on the interstate today I punched it to see what it would do. I won’t list the speed at which I
floored it nor will I mention the speed at which I lifted, but what I will say
is it didn’t take any time at all to be going slightly over the posted
speed. Chrysler electronically limited
the top speed at 128 MPH because of the H-rated standard tires. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that it
will do every bit of 128 MPH and much, much more. This car is deceivingly fast… J
Update 05/20/2004 –
I’m up to 1,260 miles and I still don’t have had any major
complaints with the car. IMHO, the
suspension is too soft, but I believe its setup just right for a highway
cruiser so I’ll leave it as is for now.
It’s a little bouncier than I’d like it to be but it’s
perfectly capable in the twisties. The
reviewer from USA Today that said
the ride was painfully stiff must have sniffed too much glue…
Another minor complaint I have about the car is that driving over
even a small puddle will cause water to be thrown all down the side of the car
causing ugly splash marks. I hate
that! To combat that problem I installed
Mopar splash guards today. I believe it
will almost eliminate the splashing problem, and that is wonderful news. I put several new pictures of my car with and
without the splash guards on my picture page. The splash guards are available
as part numbers 82208031 (front) and 82208032 (rear). Each set lists for $38.00, but I paid much
closer to the cost of $27.00. Shop
around for a good deal! Please also note
that I finally installed my personal plates on the rear of the car. I love it!
I obtained a nice Mopar catalog with part numbers for the splash
guards, front mask, car covers, etc.
I’ll post all of the part numbers pertaining to the 300’s
this weekend, so please check back!
Update 05/16/2004 – I was
out of town last week and wasn’t able to update this page. Sorry for the delay! I spent the week in Las Vegas on
business. Well, the daytime hours were
work and the evening hours were spent gambling.
If I lived closer to Vegas I’d be in trouble… J
While I was in Vegas I saw quite a few 300’s being used as
rental cars. All of them were base
models, but they are beautiful nonetheless.
While I was there I drove a rental Subaru Outback wagon. Driving the Outback after driving my 300C was
painful. Driving my car home from the
airport was wonderful. The massive
interior of this car and the quality of the ride was definitely
refreshing. Vegas was fun but I was
thrilled to be back and driving my 300C again!
Update 05/09/2004 – I now
have almost 700 miles on my 300C and I can honestly say that the more I drive
it the more I love it! I don’t
miss the BMW 740I I replaced it with at all!
This car drives better, handles better and is a lot more powerful than
the BMW was. All that for much less than
half the cost of a new 745I? No contest!
I recorded AutoWeek Magazine today on the Speed Channel because
their feature story was on the 300C, but I haven’t yet had time to get it
digitized and uploaded. I’ll do
that this week. I will also upload the
track portion of the “Test Drive” show the
Speed Channel ASAP. They spent some
great time on the track with two 300C’s and the video footage of that is
awesome!!
Update 05/05/2004 – I
finally made time to meet with Terry, a visitor to
this page and fellow 300C owner for a short meet-n-greet and mini picture
session. I added the best pictures to my picture page, and I added a *great* video
I
as well. I felt that the music was quite
appropriate… J
I’m worn out today so this is it for tonight. I’ll try to post more about this
wonderful car tomorrow!
Update 05/03/2004 – I have
over 400 miles on my 300C now and had to fill it up for the first time this
morning. The gauge was a little
premature since I was only able to fit 14 gallons into the 19 gallon tank. I managed to get almost 300 miles on those 14
gallons, so that translates to over 21 MPG average. Driving it on the highway at speeds between
55 and (some number faster than the speed limit) I got 26.5 MPG. With mixed highway and street driving I have
seen 22.5 MPG and with street driving only I’m seeing around 17 MPG. Not bad considering this is a 340
HP V8!!
I drove it to work today and received comments about it all day
long. One person said it looked just
like Green Hornet’s car “Black Beauty”. I have never seen Black Beauty, so I
couldn’t comment. That changed
this evening when I read the AutoWeek magazine I received on the mail
today. The “But Wait,
There’s More” section in the back has a picture of a 300C and Black
Beauty with the caption Body Double. I
added this image to my pictures page tonight. I’ll scan the image ASAP to make it
much better quality
This weekend I discovered that I can, indeed, feel the MDS changing
from four to eight cylinders. It’s
discernable by a very slight shudder when it kicks back into V8 mode. It’s not terribly noticeable, but I can
feel it. I haven’t yet felt it go
into four cylinder mode, but I’ll certainly be looking for it!
All in all, this car is an absolute joy to drive! It is quiet, smooth and really easy to
handle. The seats are very comfortable
and infinitely adjustable. I
couldn’t be happier with it!
Update 05/01/2004 – I
added a few more pictures to my picture page today. I plan add more pictures over the next few
months when I get some good ones. That
might happen tomorrow: One visitor to
this page lives less than 15 miles from me and owns a Vanilla 300C. We’re going to try to get together
tomorrow for a photo opportunity. If I
get some good pictures I’ll post them here!
I spoke to my dealership again today. My old BMW did receive some hail damage along
with all of the other cars on their lot.
I’m very happy that I picked the car up with I did, getting hail
damage would have been another painful twist of fate…
I drove the car around a bit more today and am absolutely thrilled
with it! On the 130 mile trip home
yesterday I got nearly 26 MPG with the cruise set at 60, but overall I got 22
MPG for the trip. Around town today I
got just over 17 MPG, so it’s exactly as I expected. I believe the mileage will go up after the
car is “broken in”, so it should be able to achieve almost the same
economy as my previous daily driver (20/27).
I’m really glad that I ordered my car without a
moonroof. I have quite a bit of headroom
in there without it, and I love that!
One of the pictures on my picture page shows me
getting handed the keys to my new car at the dealership, and you can see that
I’m definitely not a short guy.
You might also notice that I’m wearing a custom made T-shirt with
images of the 300C on it. That was made
from pictures of the concept car I got in one of the press kits I found. I’ll be making a few more with pictures
of my own car in the next few days. I
love being able to do that!
I couldn’t resist testing out the acceleration on the car
this morning. At a stop sign I turned
off ESP and floored the accelerator. The
poor tires squealed loudly in protest for a few seconds before I lifted the
throttle a bit to quiet them. On a
highway entrance ramp I floored it at 40 MPH and I was absolutely amazed to see
the speedo rise to 80 in seconds. There
aren’t many clues to tell you that you are going that fast since road
noise is completely absent and wind noise is extremely minimal. It will be *way* easy to speed in this
car. It definitely has power to spare!
I’d like to take an opportunity to thank Graham Auto Rebuilders for
doing a *super* job of repairing my car.
I’ve looked it over dozens of times already looking for damage and
can’t find any flaws at all. The
repair job is perfect and the paint matches completely. Thanks guys!
One last bit of thank you to Craig Helm of Don Helm
Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge. Craig and his
dealership went way beyond the standard level of service for me throughout this
transaction and I greatly appreciate it.
If you are in the market for a Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge or even a Ch*vy
please contact Craig at 888-828-4356. I
know he’ll take care of you!
Please tell him SuperDave sent you!
BTW – Thank you for the Emails with support throughout this
ordeal. I have received well over 300
Emails, many of them in the last week. I
am currently behind in my responses, but I promise that I will respond to all
of them ASAP!
Update 04/30/2004 –
It’s here! I made it to Don Helm Chrysler
today to pick up my car. When I got
there I swore they had swapped it out with another car as I could not find
*any* sign of the damage to rear quarter panel (see the new
pictures here). I was
thrilled with the repair and accepted the car.
Woohoo!!!
I drove my 2000 BMW 740I out to Graham (130 miles from my home) and
drove the 300C home. The BMW drives and
handles great so I was worried that the 300C wouldn’t compare. To the contrary, it drove better, rode better
and was much quieter than the BMW. The
drive back was a whole lot of fun and the car grabbed a lot of looks and
pointing. I’m *finally* the proud
owner of a 300C… J
I went to Graham early this morning because severe storms were
expected here in North Texas today and I didn’t want to take the chance
of getting hail damage on the car on the first day I owned it. That actually happened to me in 1991 when I
purchased a brand new Eagle Talon. Less
than three minutes from the dealership I drove through a hailstorm. I seem to have a lot of disappointing car
stories, don’t I?!? Regardless, I
beat the storms by a few hours, but the dealership got pummeled by hail this
afternoon damaging most of the cars on the lot.
My BMW was also there, but I’m not yet sure if it received damage. I hate that, but I’m glad it
wasn’t my new car!!
I posted a few
pictures here tonight but don’t have time to put them all
up. More pictures, comments and driving
impressions will be here tomorrow, please check back this weekend!
Update 04/29/2004 – I
swapped several Emails and phone calls with my dealership today to verify that
my car will be ready tomorrow as planned.
It’s ready, and according to my buddy it looks great! All of the paperwork I need is done, so
everything should be smooth-sailing tomorrow.
That’s the plan…
At 6:00 PM today my buddy
called. I knew it probably
wouldn’t be good news but I answered the phone anyway. The dealership was going through the
make-ready process when they noticed that they couldn’t get air to come
out of the vents, only through the defrost ports on the dash. They hooked it up to their diagnostic
computer and learned that one of the three servo motors that reroute the air
flow isn’t responding, so it needs to be replaced. The thought of them ripping the entire dash
to get to a silly little part flashed through my mind, but it’s as simple
as removing one small panel under the dash.
They got to it but since this car is brand new they don’t have a
replacement part for it. The A/C is nice
and cold, it just comes out of the wrong vents.
You don’t think that after my nearly five month wait I’m
going to let that small issue keep me from picking up the car, do you?!? No way!
Assuming the paint and repair job are perfect I’ll be driving the
car home tomorrow. The servo motor can
wait for a week or two. Tomorrow I plan to
have lots of pictures to upload to my picture page Tomorrow’s
the day!!
Update 04/28/2004 – A brief
Email from my dealership this morning told me that my car was set to be painted
today. They are going to do the final
preparation tomorrow so I should be able to inspect it on Friday. I plan to drive the 100+ miles out to the
dealership Friday morning and will be keeping my fingers crossed that it is
perfect and that I can drive it home on Friday.
The wait is killing me… J
Update 04/27/2004 – My
buddy at my dealership checked on my car today at lunch. The body work is complete and it was being
taped off for paint work when he was there.
It should have been painted today or possibly tomorrow morning. He said the body work looked excellent and
went as far as describing the repair as “baby butt smoothe”. That *has* to be a good sign, right? I’ve asked him to try to get pictures
for me as soon as it is painted, so hopefully that will happen tomorrow. I’m currently planning to check it out
and/or drive it home on Friday. Saying
“I can’t wait” is quite an understatement… J
Update 04/26/2004 – I added
another commercial above tonight. This
one is exclusive to the 300. I’ll
keep looking for new commercials, and when I find them I’ll post them
here. This is a sickness, isn’t
it?!? J
To make it easier to find the most recent updates here I’ll
start highlighting the updated parts. Is
this helpful or nauseating? Please
let me know!
I spoke with my dealer today to get an update on my car. The repair work is complete and they are
supposed to be painting it tomorrow.
After it is painted my buddy will be checking it out for me. I’ll have a second-hand update tomorrow
or Wednesday. Either way I’ll be heading out to check
on the car either Thursday or Friday
this week. Hopefully I’ll be
driving it home. Wish me luck!
Update 04/24/2004 – I
added links above to a great video and a Chrysler and Dodge version of a game
that allows you to race the 300C and Magnum R/T after
earning enough points to upgrade it that far.
Way cool game!
I also added the pictures of the Premier Night parties I went to
and some new pictures of a European spec 300C Touring Wagon to my picture page. I thought some of you might enjoy that…
Update 04/22/2004 – I
don’t have any new information to post tonight. I’m still leaning towards taking the
repaired car if they can make it look brand new. I have faith that will happen and would love
to have my car next weekend…
I visited Chrysler’s Premiere Night 2004 tonight and just got
home with pictures. Some of the pictures
turned out nice, so I’ll get them uploaded tomorrow. It’s too late to do it tonight, so
please check back tomorrow for pictures!
Update 04/21/2004 – I
received pictures of the damaged area and the rest of the car today. It looks like the damage to the quarter panel
and rear bumper cover is repairable, but the tail light will have to be
replaced as it was cracked. I uploaded
the pictures to my picture page.
I spoke with my buddy several times today about my options. He took the car to his body shop early this
morning and was told that they could easily repair the damage to the quarter
panel and bumper cover and would only have to replace the tail light. The body shop said that they would easily be
able to match the beautiful paint and that I wouldn’t be able to tell it
had ever had any repair work done to it.
One point to note here is that regardless of the damage Chrysler would
not lower the price. My dealership did
everything they could to work that angle, but nothing came of it. After the repair I would be able to purchase
the car for my original negotiated price.
The repair would come with a life-time warranty, and that definitely
helps my opinion about that. They all
know that it will have to look brand new for me to accept it, so I’ll
assume they will shoot for perfection.
I’ll note here again that my buddy at the dealership is doing
everything he can to make things better for me.
He isn’t making much off the sale of this car after all of my
discounts, but he is definitely going out of his way to make me happy. Thank you Craig!
My dealership was only allocated one 300C at this point, so they
didn’t think they would be able to order a replacement for me. After several phone calls to the right people
they were given the go-ahead to order a replacement if that’s what I
decided to do. I was told that it would
take four to six weeks best case scenario to get the replacement in. Based on past experiences I’ll guess
that would much closer to two months than one month, but that is only a
guess. My original price would still
stand and I would eventually have a perfect car. Assuming, of course, that the replacement
didn’t get damaged during delivery as well. That would be just plain rotten…
Here’s what it boils down to:
I can purchase the current car after it is repaired and have it in my
driveway next week or order another and have it sometime in June or July. Either way the price is the same, so
that’s not a consideration.
Yesterday I was leaning towards waiting for a replacement, but if you
have read much of this page you’ll know that I have been really looking
forward to getting this car and would love to have it sooner rather than later,
so I am now leaning towards accepting the current car if the repair is
invisible to me. The more I read about
the upcoming models (possibly a Charger version on this platform, 6.1 HEMI or a
supercharged SRT version),
I’ll probably want to trade it in a few years anyway. If I leased this one I could hand it over at
the end of the lease so I wouldn’t have to worry about the resale value
at all. I could trade up for a newer
version and keep the new car warranty.
Hmm…
While writing this out I seem to have talked myself into accepting
the repaired version if they do a great job, but I haven’t yet
decided. I’ve received just as
many replies telling me to refuse it as I have telling me to accept it if the
repair is good. I’d love to hear
more opinions. Feel free to Email your opinion to me.
I’d love to hear it!
Update 04/20/2004 – I
received a bittersweet call from my dealership this evening. I knew my car had been released from the
train depot at 03:18PM today, so I
guessed it would arrive either tonight or tomorrow night. On my way home from work today my buddy called
me to tell me he had received my car, but he also said he had some bad news for
me. Of the six vehicles he received
today three of them were damaged. Mine was among the damaged cars. I was told that one of the rear quarter
panels would need to be replaced because of a dent larger than a softball. I am *thoroughly* disappointed about that. I have waited, as patiently as possible for
me, for almost five months to get my car, so I’m fairly disgusted to say
the least. ARGH!!!
My car was supposedly damaged while on the train and not in the
final leg of the shipping on the car carrier.
It was originally shipped 03/30/2004, so it’s been in transit and/or
sitting around train yards for three solid weeks. It was simply handled too many times because
it was placed on hold several places along the way. If it had spent less time in shipping it
would have had less chance of being damaged.
That and I could have had it weeks ago!
It’s possible that the dent can be repaired, but if not a
replacement quarter panel will have to be shipped from Canada and that could
take weeks or even months. If it has to
be replaced and if it’s like every other car around, the rear quarter
panel will have to be cut out and the new one will have to be
spliced/Bondo’d in. After that a
body shop will have to *try* to match the beautiful factory Brilliant Black Crystal paint. What are the odds of a perfect match
there?!? At this point I’m not
sure if I’m willing to settle for a repaired car…
So, here I am ready to go pick up my car after waiting for nearly
five months, and I’m told today that it could be another month or two
before I can pick it up. Even then
I’ll be paying a new price for an already damaged car that I’ve
waited more than six months for. Either
that or I can go pay the up to $5K over MSRP price that
many other dealers are asking for to try to get a car now. I got a great deal when I ordered this car,
so I know, for a fact, that it will cost me literally thousands of dollars to
buy one somewhere else.
Even if I could get the same price, what are the odds of finding a
car with the same options? I
specifically ordered my car without a sunroof because of my height, but
I’ll guess that around 90% of the 300C’s produced will have
one. The odds of finding the car I
ordered somewhere are probably fairly slim.
Did I mention that I am thoroughly disappointed? L
Tomorrow should be a busy day. My buddy said he would make many phone calls
to try to figure out what our options are.
I
fully expect that Chrysler will do whatever it takes to make things right. I’ve been a Chrysler fan for many
years. My first brand new car was a 1985
Dodge Charger and I’ve owned many Chrysler’s since then. This page has given them free advertising for
months now and has been visited by over 10,000 potential customers. Hopefully that will count for
something…
I should have pictures of the damage tomorrow. I’ll post them here when I get them so
that those of you reading along can commiserate with me… L
Update 04/19/2004 – My car
didn’t move today. Drat! I’ll be watching it closely
tomorrow. If it’s delivered
tomorrow or Wednesday it is still
possible that I’ll have it by Thursday. We’ll see how that works out…
My dealer is getting a 300 Touring model with mine in the next few
days. If you are looking for a Touring
model in Bright Silver Metallic, grey leather, smoker’s group and
“26K” preferred equipment package, please call Craig Helm at
888-828-HELM (4356). The MSRP for this car
is $30,045.00. Tell him you found his
contact information here and I’m sure he’ll give you a great deal
on the car. Hopefully it will be
delivered in the next few days with mine!
J
Update 04/18/2004 – My car
is currently listed as “Inspection At Ramp” at
the train depot in Mesquite. My dealer has six other vehicles waiting to
be delivered at the depot, so it’s possible that they will ship them out
in the next day or two. I’m
keeping my fingers crossed!
Update 04/16/2004 – I
didn’t have to wait until morning for an update. JR sent me
another Email telling me that my car arrived in Mesquite this evening
at 7:32PM. JR also told me
to ignore the estimated delivery date as it is just a default date. I hope he is correct! You’ll know as soon as I do… J
Update 04/16/2004 – I
received two more updates today on my car (Thanks again JR!). This morning I learned that my car was
reported to be in Muskogee, OK today at 3:36AM.
I figured that if all went well it would cross the Texas border around noon, and that had to be pretty close
because it made it to Fort Worth at 1:06PM.
I’m not sure if it made the trip from Fort Worth to Mesquite today, but as JR put it
it’s “so close you can smell it”! JR said he’d
send me another update in the morning, so I’ll update this page again
ASAP. However, that all said my car
still isn’t scheduled to be delivered until 04/26/2004. It’s within 20 miles of me now but I
have to wait another ten days for it.
That’s just plain cruel…
J
I spoke to my dealer this morning and learned that I *do* qualify for
the $1,000.00
Loyalty Discount.
That’s great! I saved $1K
by clicking a few links last night.
Sweet! J
Update 04/15/2004 – My car
arrived at Armourdale, KS last night on
a train. Hopefully it made more progress
south today. I’ll add updates to
the position of my car as I get them.
Thank you to JR for checking
the status for me, I appreciate that!
I learned today that Chrysler is offering a $1,000.00
“Loyalty Cash” discount/rebate for all returning DaimlerChrysler
owners and lessees. You can link to the
information from the Chrysler
300 WWW page or you can link directly to the Loyalty
Cash WWW page.
I plan to verify that I qualify for this discount tomorrow since I own
several Chrysler vehicles. Way cool!
Due to the size of this page, I split it into two pages today. You can find all of the pictures and scans of
brochures and press kits that used to be on this page on my picture page here.
Update 04/14/2004 – I
begged my dealer for another update today and was happy to see that my car did
reach Chicago yesterday. It’s currently loaded on a railcar and
should be on its way to Mesquite today or
tomorrow. The current estimated delivery
date is 04/26/2004, so that date
appears to be moving the wrong way. That
is just an estimate though, so since it is supposed to be in Mesquite this Saturday
it’s not impossible for it to be delivered to my dealer early next
week. I’ll check the status again
Friday to see if it stays on schedule…
I took a trip to another dealership today and was able to drive a
300C for the first time. First, the cars
are even more beautiful in person than they are in pictures. The dealership had three 300’s on their
lot, a Brilliant Black Crystal Limited, an Deep Lava Red Limited and a
Vanilla 300C. The metallic black paint
looks even better than I imagined it would look on the car. It was out in the sunlight, and if you look
at it at the right angle it almost looks charcoal grey. The Vanilla color is much better looking than
I imagined it would be. If I were to
place my order after seeing the colors in person I’d have to seriously
consider Vanilla. The Deep Lava Red car was the
only one indoors, and it just looked brown in that light. I wasn’t impressed with that color, but
I’m sure that would change if I saw it in sunlight.
So, on to the drive: The
salesman pulled the 300C out of it’s display area and tore off down the
street. He wanted to show me what the
car was capable of and how the ESP controls slides and wheel spin. The salesman turned off ESP and gave the poor
tires quite a workout several times before turning ESP back on. The car wouldn’t slide or spin much at
all with ESP on, so it does its job well.
I’ll probably leave that off most of the time… J
When the salesman finally gave up the controls to me I noticed
several things right off the bat: Being
6’5” I have become accustomed to moving the seat all the way back
before getting in.