I liked the Acuras but too small :-( Still can't make up my mind of parting with the M just yet although the thought of having 345 HP makes me seriously consider one. On second thought, I have received a ticket in 10 years Ken -- "Now Phoebe Snow direct can go from thirty-third to Buffalo. From Broadway bright the tubes run right Into the Road of Anthracite" Erie - Lackawanna
In addition to a monster engine the 300C has monster brakes so you decelerate as fast as you can accelerate. When I want to feel what it can do I slingshot around a semi, you can go from 75 to a 100 and then back to 75 in the time it take to pass the truck.
You know, we always refer to HP but many of us, including me, forget about how good does the vehicle stop. Good point. I noticed a local dealer has just received two Charger Daytona today. One Yellow and the other Orange. I still haven't seen the 300 SRT. Is it a limited production car? Ken
The 2005 Impalla I rented didn't maintain constant speeds going down hills on cruise, it increased speed on steep hills and I had to brake.
I experienced that with the Magnum I rented for 2 weeks. I have no idea why you need such power or how you avoid speeding tickets. I have trouble keeping my LH 3.3L at a reasonable speed of about 10KPH above the legal limit. That's up to 110KPH limits speed, so I go 120KPH. (100KPH ~= 60MPH) Do you have higher speed limits than ours? As for the LH 3.3L acceleration I can't use it all because of traffic in front of me. Also it's hill climbing performance is very good, it's a real stump puller. I'm talking hills in the Western Canadian mountains, including the secondary roads that climb up to our ski hills.
A body weakness of the Ford 500 is that the rear of the rear door forms the front of the rear well well. At least they cover it with a plastic strip. Several other vehicles have this body design cheapness, including the Chrysler Sebring (door seal exposed to the wheel crap), and some new GM SUVs. I have not seen this low cost body design on a "Japanese" vehicle.
That's it. The Smart is just too expensive as a second car in Canada. For just a bit more we have a Sebring which can replace our LH first car if needed. If we were cash strapped a Toyota Echo would be our choice; more car for much less than the Smart. For us a second car at least needs room for two people, two sets of golf clubs and pull carts. There was some advertising here that the Smart reduces pollution. What crap, not with our current diesel fuel. The Smart actually is quite polluting with our current diesel fuel. OK in a few years with better diesel fuel. The main use of Smarts here seems to be commercially with painted on advertising. It's quite noticeable, being so different.
That is pathetic for cruise control. I can't remember what it was like in the last car I rented in NA. No hills probably, around Toronto... In Europe I very rarely rent auto as it is much more expensive. My own cars are automatic and I don't have this problem, even on my 1993 model. Well, they are always from a specific brand (Chrysler's sister...). DAS For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling
If you hate FWD why don't you dump your LHS. It's too long anyway. I did have torque steer in my 2.2L '81 Horizon Charger, but very little with my 2.5L '86 LeBaron sedan and none at all with my '95 Concord. With the engine axis aligned with the car axis as with the LH/LHS and some other Chrysler models how can you have torque steer? My wife's very powerful 2.7L Sybring has the engine transverse and we notice no significant torque steer, even when driven hard. Very well designed. My driving experience has now been about equally split between RWD and FWD. I'll not be returning to RWD with my current driving needs. Occasionally I have a rental car that is RWD, it reminds me what I don't wish to return to. For example RWD just doesn't track as well on slight curves, and a fast pull out from stop turning sharp right spins the inside rear wheel, limiting acceleration. Most recently experienced on an AU2003 Ford Falcon and a 2004 Magnum. When it comes to snow driving FWD makes it no contest. If I lived in a warm dry climate with mostly straight roads I could live with RWD, in fact I'd probably not notice the difference. My Toronto cousin is stuck on Volvos. When Volvo went FWD he was quite upset and was looking at RWD options. Finally he got a Volvo 60 FWD and is extremely happy with it.
