Renting 300C, Magnum or Charger

How do I rent a 300C, Magnum or Charger? Want to test drive... and,
yes, I know, fleet vehicles are anemically powered, but it's the rest
of the vehicle I'm interested in.

Want to know which agencies rent them, and how to maximize my chances
of getting one of those three instead of a substitute.

Thank you kindly.

 

I've gotten Magnums from Dollar Rent-a-Car, one was a nice 3.5-powered
one, the other was a pathetic 2.7 powered one. Dollar is a
mostly-Chrysler fleet. Thrifty has a pretty high percentage of Chryslers
as well.

 

I rented a Magnum from Thrifty at Edmonton Airport.
Dreadful Car, very poor visibility, bad road holding and gulped gas.
Glad I rented rather than bought.
Keith

 

Not my impression at all. The 2.7 powered one I had was HIDEOUSLY
underpowered, but got good mileage. The 3.5 had plenty of power for most
uses, though I'd buy a 5.7 Hemi with MDS to get the acceptable mileage
and >300 horsepower. Both of them handled superbly in spite of having
the smaller wheels than the Hemi version gets. Rear visibility isn't
great, but it sin't terrible either. The windows are small, but well
placed. If I do get a new car within the next couple of years, it WILL
be a Magnum. My biggest complaints are that the interior is fairly
spartan, and I'm not sure the A/C system is adequate for my climate. It
seemed to take a long time to cool down, and the temps were only in the
high 90s when I had the 2.7 rental. Neither had auto climate control, so
maybe the full ATC climate control system has more cooling power.

 

You'll have to call the rental agency directly to guarantee that they'll
hold a 300C for you. Making a reservation on a website won't do it. Do a
Google search for Chrysler 300C Rental to find out who rents them.

BTW renting a vanilla 300 is pointless. The Hemi is what makes the 300C.
The performance of the C makes up for the deficiencies of the 300. I
have the 300C AWD and I love it but if I had a 300 I'm sure I'd hate it.
The car has awful visibility because of it's tiny windows. The Nav system
has a poor user interface and a terrible data base. And the trunk is
smaller then you would expect on a car this size (although it's still
fairly large). However it's handling is great, the acceleration is
breathtaking, and it can stop on a dime. The handling and stopping
features are tied to the C packages so if you get a 6 cylinder 300 all you
would have is an ordinary car with bad visibility and a small trunk.

 

Of course it "gulped gas". What do you expect from a 3.5-litre engine?

It seems that particularly NAs love big engines (who wouldn't) but also
wonder about fuel consumption.

If the price of petrol were to double tomorrow you'd be singing a different
tune.

Small wonder that most cars in Europe are 2 litres or less.

DAS

For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling
---

[...]

 

You might be surprised. When my mother had to give up driving last year I
bought her Buick with a 3.8 l engine. I was amazed at its gas mileage, 39 mpg
on the highway, much better than a lot of small cars. My Honda Civic, which is
about half the weight and has less than half the power, gets only a little
better than that.

 

With what engine? 3.5 or 5.2?

LOL. You think 3.5 is a large engine?

You guys in the UK have mostly engines under 2.5L because
(historically) you were taxed an insane amount based on engine
displacement, even engine bore, and also you tax automatic trannies
because your gov't thinks they're evil. If it wasn't for that, you'd
have more 3 and 4L engines in cars.

We also love out automatic transmissions too - but I think that most
people under 40 (here in USA/Canada) at this point who grew up as
teenagers driving/owning shit-box 4-cylinders (like VW's) with manual
trannys tend to also look for manual trannys in new cars they buy
now. People over 40 are more likely to have had only
automatic-transmission cars at home while they were growing up, and
tend to not have ever learned how to drive a stick.

People with large vehicles justify it because of the friggin kiddies
(they need the back seat, or the 2 back seats, the baby shit, the
perception of saftey in their land slugs. They buy a $40k vehicle so
they can shlep $300 worth of kid-shit to the cottage or the grand
parents place for the weekend.

They need 4 and 5L engines to move those 4500 lb vehicles around.

 

most dealers will let you rent one for 24-48 hours.. usually for free.. i
just did that with the Dodge Ram 2500

 

Having visited London for a couple of weeks last year, I'd hate to see you
guys driving around with faster cars. You make NY taxi's look like careful
drivers. By the way you are driving on the wrong side of the street
although it is convenient for mailmen.

 

Hi...

Durn, I have to ask... how can it be (more) convenient for mailmen?

I agree that they're driving on the wrong side of the street, but
the driver also gets in the wrong door... still ends up away from
the curb. (or kerb, as I believe they spell it)

Ken

 

Actually I am wrong about the mailmen. But wrong sided cars, when used in
the US, are convenient to mailmen in rural areas so they can easily reach
the mailbox on the right side of the street.

 

The people delivering around here just drive the wrong way down the road.

 

You don't expect me to overlook this gratuitous, inaccurate criticism, do
you? ;-)

You raised the subject, not I...

We drive on the correct side of the road, and have been doing so for 2000
years, whereas Americans follow the regime imposed by Napoleon on Europe
when he occupied most of it in the 19th C. Before then many regions drove
on the left.

To this day about one-third of the world still drives on the left, notably
AU, Japan, the Subcontinent and other chunks of Asia.

http://www.i18nguy.com/driver-side.html#countrytable

So, YOU drive on the 'other' side which is, of course, correct for you.
After all, you would not want to drive on the left in NYC, would you, though
other contributors seem to think that people DO drive on the left in some
parts of the US?...

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

[...]
By the way you are driving on the wrong side of the street

[...]

 

No. We in Europe and much of the rest of the world have 'small' engines
because of the high price of fuel. As I indicated in my earlier post.

I have never heard of taxes on auto gearboxes, neither in UK nor in Germany,
for example. Cite your source/s. I have never heard any member of the UK
government express any opinion on the type of transmission. Have you been
smoking wacky 'baccy?

As it happens I personally much prefer automatic. When I was young I used
to scoff at auto... until I went to the States when I was 21 and hired a car
(which, of course, was auto). Although I have had some manuals I would
never get one now unless forced. Haven't had one for maybe 20 years.
'Course I hire them all the time. Too dear to hire autos in Europe. And
manual reminds why I prefer auto, especially as I live in a metropolis.

DAS

For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling
---

[...]

[...]

 

You are thinking of LLB's (Left Lane Blockers - or Bandits or
Bastards...); hypocritical selfrighetous bastards who think it is their
God given right to drive slowly and well under the flow of traffic in
the passing lane (the leftmost lane of a highway with two or more lanes
going in the same direction) of an interstate or other expressway. Not
sure which lane you guys in the UK use for the passing lane on your
expressways, but I'm willing to bet you have people with the same LLB
mentality there...

 

After all, you would not want to drive on the left in NYC, would you,
though other contributors seem to think that people DO drive on the left in
some parts of the US?...

I don't think anyone wants to drive through NYC ;-)

Ken

 

We happen to call them left-lane-dicks. We have plenty of them here in NJ.

Ken

 

I meant postmen & women...

(Previous post had alluded to them.)

Yes, we also have the LLB equivalents. Of course. People who don't go back
into the left lane when not overtaking and blocking other overtakers are
known as roadhogs. Not so serious when we have three lanes each way.

And we DON'T allow (legally, anyway) overtaking on either side.

DAS

For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling
---

 

Engine displacement doesn't correlate to fuel efficiency very strongly
with modern combustion chamber design and engine control systems. All
external things being equal (including driving style) a 2-liter and a
3.5 liter would get within a few percent of each other installed in the
same vehicle. Case in point, the Magnum with a 2.7 gets barely any
better milage than a 3.5, and in the real world may get worse mileage
than a 3.5 because the 2.7 has to be flogged continually. If the Magnum
has a gas mileage problem, its got more to do with weight and frontal
area than with engine size. Personally, the gas mileage numbers I'm
hearing (23-25 highway with the 5.7 Hemi) are great for a car of that size.