SA Road Tests

Welcome
This is the home of automobile road tests in South Africa. We drive South African cars, SUVs and LCVs under South African conditions. It also just happens that most of the vehicles we drive are world cars as well, so what you read here probably applies to the models you can get at home. To read one of our road tests, just select from the menu on the left.

* Please note that prices quoted are those in effect at the time the vehicle was tested.

 

2009 Chrysler 300C Touring

We don shades and a dark suit in the Chrysler 300C Touring

“Looks like a hearse,” my prettier half said. It does, but there’s more to it than that.

Almost five metres long, finished in glistening primal black, with windows that darken in the sun, the Chrysler 300C Touring oozes “gangsta” from every millimetre of its being. It doesn’t roar; it speaks softly. It doesn’t just arrive; it infiltrates.

Chrysler’s 300C is available here as either sedan or station wagon. Sedans come in 3,5 litre V6 form, or as V8s of either 5,7 or 6,1 litre capacity. For the Touring wagon under review, though, there is but one – the 345 cubic inch (5,7 litre) hemi-headed V8 producing 250 kW at 5 000 rpm and 525 Nm at 4 000 rpm.

All Touring versions, along with European 300Cs and right-hand drive models, are built in Graz, Austria.

All use an intuitive 5-speed automatic gearbox with Autostick manual override, courtesy of the firm’s brief liaison with Daimler Benz. This features an electronically modulated torque converter clutch that notes how you are driving and adjusts its behaviour to suit. It works well.

Other components from the Mercedes-Benz E-Class parts bin include suspension design, front seat frames, wiring harnesses and steering column.

With good stuff like this built in, one might expect the 300C to drive smoothly and, considering its bulk, handle well. It does. Over our test course, the Chrysler dealt with twisty bits surprisingly well, while rumble strips and provincial dirt roads were dispatched with ease.

The big secret, though, is Chrysler’s innovative multi displacement system (MDS). This seamlessly shuts down four cylinders when V8 power is not needed, decreasing fuel consumption by up to 20% depending on driving style.

The transition, between eight cylinders and four, occurs in 40 milliseconds, so you don’t feel a thing. The only indication is the “fuel saver mode” readout on the instrument panel when “average consumption” is selected from the menu.

I averaged about 13,8 l/100 km during my time with the 300C. This is in agreement with Car magazine’s fuel index for this vehicle and compares well with other big V8s. Check it out.

Inside, the Chrysler has 8-way power adjustable seats for both driver and front passenger, front and side airbags, automatic headlights, rain sensor wipers, dual zone automatic temperature control, rear park assist, a MyGig video entertainment system and a 380 watt, eight speaker Boston Acoustics sound system.  Leg- and headroom is plentiful.

As expected at this price level and the previous association with Mercedes, ABS, EBD, traction control and ESC are standard.

What is not included is the Teutonic V8 price tag. Compared with its main competitors, the Chrysler is a comparative bargain at up to R 270 000 less of your hard-earned money. It also uses less of the volatile liquid, not that it matters much, of course. At this level it’s all tax-deductible, isn’t it? 

American cars are still dismissed by many South Africans as being big and sloppy, pigs to drive and badly made. They are also blessed with faces only their mothers (and a few others) could love.

It is an unfortunate fact of life that we are generally unforgiving and not willing to accept that things can change, but try it sometime. You might be pleasantly surprised. This particular “gangsta” could well turn out to be a priest.
 
Price: R 444 900
Zero to 100 km/h: 7,1 seconds
Maximum speed: 250 km/h
Fuel Index: 13,7 l/100 km
Service plan: 3 years/60 000 km

What We Do

This is a one-man show, which means that road test cars entrusted to me are driven only by me. Some reviewers hand test cars over to their partners to use as day-to-day transport and barely experience them for themselves.
What this means to you is that every car reviewed is given my own personal evaluation and receives my own seat of the pants judgement - no second hand input here.
Every car goes through real world testing; on city streets littered with potholes, speed bumps and rumble strips, on freeways and if its profile demands, dirt roads as well.
I am based in Pietermaritzburg, KZN, South Africa. This is the central hub of the KZN Midlands farming community; the place farmers go to to buy their supplies and equipment, truck their goods to market, send their kids to school and go to kick back and relax.
So occasionally a cow, a goat or a horse may add a little local colour by finding its way into the story or one of the pictures. It's all part of the ambience!

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