SA Roadtests
South Africa
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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.
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*Please remember too, that prices quoted were those ruling on the days I wrote the reports.
Published in The Witness Motoring on Wednesday December 12, 2012
Everyone notices the Chrysler 300C. Car guards and school kids just want one, shoppers in supermarket parking lots stare hungrily, the manager of a popular Thai-style restaurant offered to “look after” the test car while your writer and companions had lunch and a fellow scribe said, “Nice car, but for the money, I’d rather have a Mercedes.” That’s an interesting comment, but why?
It’s built on the Chrysler LX platform that just happens to incorporate Mercedes-Benz W220 S-class front suspension, the W211 E-class’ five-link rear setup and the same car’s differential and ESP. By the way the five-speed, W5A580 electronically controlled automatic transmission is known as 5-Gmatic in another application. Just thought we’d mention it.
The car was extensively restyled in 2011, gaining new headlamps with LED daytime running strips, a restyled grille with updated Chrysler emblem and new tail lights with LEDs. Thinner roof pillars and a more raked windscreen contribute to improved visibility. Interior changes include a new instrument panel, soft-touch materials throughout, and a new steering wheel and centre console. Both seat-mounted and curtain side airbags were made standard.
No longer sourced from Chrysler’s previous de-facto owner, its 3.0-litre diesel engine is a VM Motori unit provided by technological partner Fiat. Then one needs to ask whether our journalistic friend could actually get a three-litre turbodiesel car, with as much kit as this one has, from the German company at a similar price? Not easily, Helmut.
Equipment that’s included in the basic price is a choice of either black or mochachino leather upholstery with 12-way adjustable, heated and cooled front seats, heated back seats with 60:40 split, climate control, an almost-full length sunroof, heated steering wheel, an 8,4-inch touchscreen to control the infotainment system with its voice-to-text messaging and Garmin satnav, music kit with USB, auxiliary and SD card sockets, powered “everything” including steering wheel adjustment, and an onboard computer.
Safety items include uprated brakes with high-performance pads, seven intelligent, multistage airbags, ABS brakes that use the ESP to detect rough roads and wet ones and compensate accordingly, braking assistance and Ready Alert Braking (aka “Pre-safe”), a reversing camera and hill holder. Optional safety items read like a brochure from those Germans too, with adaptive cruise control, forward collision warning, blind spot monitoring, and rear cross path detection that tells you when it’s safe to back out of a parking bay.
Apart from its ‘gangsta’ presence and unique appearance, what’s it like to drive? Put simply, it’s big, solid, quiet, powerful and rather conservatively styled inside. The boot is Mafia-big, there is plenty of interior space and it parks amazingly easily. The front doors open really wide and here’s where we get to Spouse’s only negative comment: “This thing needs a chauffeur to close the door behind you,” she said. If you’re inside and the door is still open, you either stretch out beyond your comfort zone to reach it, or exit to grab and haul it back with you.
Apart from that, it’s a grand car. Couldn’t live with one though – we're much too shy.
The numbers:
Price: R539 990
Engine: 2987 cc, DOHC, 24-valve, 60-degree V6, turbodiesel
Power: 176 kW at 4000 rpm
Torque: 550 Nm between 1800 and 2800 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 7,8 seconds
Maximum speed: 232 km/h
Real life fuel consumption: About 8,8 l/100 km
Tank: 72 litres
Fuel: 50-ppm diesel
Warranty and maintenance plan: 3 years/100 000 km
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SA Roadtests
South Africa
ctjag8