300M In Northampton ???????? (UK interest)

I know I wasn't dreaming, becaause I was driving at the time.

I had just left the M1 to go into Northampton on Saturday at lunchtime, when
my wife let out a gasp of amazement, and pointed across the road in shock -
There was a Chrysler 300M going in the opposite direction. What a fantastic
sight it was - A real headturner of a monster car.

The thing that surprised me the most was the fact that it was UK registered,
albeit 04, AND it was a RHD model, so probably not an import.

To the best of my knowledge, it won't be released here until late September
at the earliest, according to my local Chrysler dealership. They couldn't
even give me a proposed retail price for the beast.

Does anyone know if there are any UK dealerships selling the 300M already?

The Chrysler UK website is worse than useless, with only half the flashy
images displaying at any time.

Cheers,

Dave

 

Are you talking abou the 300C? (yes, it's a monster car alright. It
came right out of Monster Garage it did).

The 300M (based on the LH "cab-forward" chasis) was produced from 1999
to 2004 model years.

The 300 and it's monstrous varients (C, Hemi, etc) are 2005 models.
They're based on the LX "Chopped-Bentley Cab with SUV front end"

Daimler's track record, or ability, or desire to sell Chrysler
vehicles in Europe is negligent, retarded, boardering on criminal (if
you're a shareholder). Vehicles that have no direct corresponding
Merc model, like PT Cruiser or Jeep, fare a little better than sedans.

 

My bad - it was indeed the 300C. I seem to have a dyslexic keyboard. Either
that or I was still SO excited at seeing the beast that all rational thought
flew out the window. I suspect the latter.

 

In the UK the Chrysler range available was 'always' limited, even before DC
days. (I am talking after Chrysler's withdrawal from manufacturing here, of
course.)

Jeep sells pretty well and one sees quite a few PT Cruisers in London (many
with engines not availabe in the US, I suspect). It's only after the
takeover/merger that more models are becoming available, probably because DC
can't be seen to be neglecting (too much) the Chrysler range in Europe now
that it owns it.

DAS

 

It was a pre production version. That's all there are at the present time.

 

And anyway it is imported in UK. Just because it is right-hand drive does
not mean it is made there.

 

Dave didn't mean that, even if it looked like that. He meant -- I am pretty
sure -- that it was an official import via dealer channels rather than a
personal or grey one.

DAS
--
For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling
---

....................

 

The UK, unlike the US or Canada, has a program whereby private individuals
are permitted to import non-UK-spec cars to the UK and do the compliance
conversion work themselves (or arrange on their own to have it done). The
program is known as SVA, Single Vehicle Approval, and that is what the
original poster meant when he said the 300 he saw was probably"not an
import".

 

Probably a 300C.

Not too surprising. They've been making left-hooker ECE-spec 300Cs for
continental Europe for a bunch of months now; I saw a truckload of them on
the highway here in Ontario, Canada, where they are built. Right-hookers
are usually a little behind the left-hookers, but they are beginning to
ramp them up.

At USD $6/litre for nonleaded, I'm surprised anyone in the UK would
consider one.

 

RHD 300C would be one heck of a nice car for a rural mailman.

 

It was indeed a 300C. My mistake.

I wouldn't consider one - I WANT one! The running costs would be pretty much
irrelevant to me, as I already run a 3.3 Grand Voyager, averaging 18-20 mpg
around town with the occasional run out on the open road. Since it's
manufacture in '97, I have covered over 128,000 miles in it, with no major
problems so far, just one serpentine belt shed after I stupidly went WAY too
fast through a deep pool of water. I can't see the running costs of a 300C
being all that much worse - Possibly even better (apart from insurance -
that's going to be a killer!).

Oh, and the price tag on the car itself. I can't see it being any less than
£35,000 UKP when it finally emerges, after all the obscene taxes our
government screw us out of.

Wonder how much equity I have in my house................

Dave

 

Well, you can pay (in the UK) what you claim to be obscene taxes for a
decent (not perfect, but decent) health-care system (and other programs
for improved social wellbeing) or you can pay (in the USA) obscene
medical-insurance premiums to cover hospitals billing (in one case of
which I read) $70+ for a "mucus retrieval kit" that turned out to be a
box of Kleenex.

MB

 

LOL! John Kerry will fix the "low" taxes and "high insurance premium"
problem - yeah - you betcha! Help is on the way! (cough cough)

Bill Putney
(to reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with "x")

 

A decent health-care sytem if you happen to have the right postcode maybe.

And while the government are taking 61p for EVERY LITRE of petrol I buy, so
it bleedin' should be!
Amazingly enough the government thinks that it is fair to charge a whopping
340% tax on petrol. That means that for every £50 you spend, £37 is pure
tax. At 83p a litre (average UK price), the Goverment take 61p in tax. The
retailer makes 2p, the supplier 1p and the oil producer 19p.

And for that, I get to wait in a 12 month queue to see a doctor. In a
hospital built and/or run under the private finance initiative.

Gee thanks.

 

It certainly may vary from place to place within the UK. The system
worked wonderfully for my late parents in SE England.

MB

 

Well maybe Kerry won't start any wars which can't be finished like the one
in Iraq. And, don't tell me it is part of the war on terrorism. It ain't,
no matter how many times Bush says it is.

 

Having the steering wheel on the left does not make it non-UK spec from a
government-regulatory point of view.

A note I found interesting on the UK govt website about importing vehicles
from North America:

"Vehicles imported from North America
Generally speaking, most USA and Canadian design and construction standards
will be accepted as being equivalent to Single Vehicle Approval standards.
There are, however, two important exceptions in addition to the above
left-hand traffic, RASS and number plate requirements.

a.. Many North American cars follow a different convention for the colour
of their external lights. Front side lights, and all turning indicators are
likely to require modification - including the addition of amber front side
repeater turn indicators.
b.. There are no standards on external projections in North America.
Beware of vehicles with features such as "bull bars", non-retracting
mascots, and protruding exhaust pipes."


In particular the last point suggests that the US authorities are less
focused on pedestrian safety (or the car manufacturers' lobby is
resisting...).

DAS

 

Yeah, it happens all the time. Somebody driving a vehicle with big
exhaust pipes takes out two or three pedestrians at the knees as they drive
alongside the sidewalk!

There's a reason why there are no 'standards on external projections' --
they're not necessary!

What will the safety advocates come up with next? This is
getting hard to believe.

You know, I bet we could reduce the accident fatality rate down to
pretty much zero if we just mandated the installation of governors on
every vehicle that limited their speed to 5MPH. Sure, a few drunks
sleeping in the road might still get killed, but nothing's perfect.

--Geoff

 

Also, I would say (for safety reasons if not for legal ones): "Beware of
vehicles with wheels/tires projecting beyond the fenders."

MB

 

We wouldn't need any regulations for anything if people were (a) smart,
and (b) considerate of others. Unfortunately, (a) approximately half the
population is of below average intelligence, and (b) not all of those
who are smart care anything about anyone else.

MB