Saw My 1st 300C on the Road Today

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From comments I've heard among acquaintances, the 300C appeals to those
who prefer the "formal" designs such as the K-based Dodge Dynasty and
New Yorker, which were swept aside in the mid 90s by "Cab Forward." As
such, it seems to have an upmarket appeal compared to cars of the aero
design, now nearly universal among the smallest and cheapest cars,
though the "high body" style is catching on. To me, the proportions of
the 300C look a bit strange now, except from the rear quarter, where the
it looks "right." Perhaps that's because perspective from that angle
minimizes the visual effect of the slit-like rear door window.

That same angle of view is where the second generation LH always has
looked awkward, where the front fender meets the A-pillar.

I brought this up because the issue of the 93-97 LH style "holding up
better" was mentioned to me by a well-known Mopar guru in some casual
correspondence, and I have been thinking about it ever since. What I
felt at the time of its introduction was that the 98 Intrepid,
specifically, was an outstanding example of a totally new and fresh
"shell" or contour, with the surface detailing being almost as totally
evolutionary from the old design, yet all fit together in a unified
whole. Perhaps what has made the 98-04 LH body look less fresh now, is
that so many other cars have since followed up with lines that were, if
not intentionally, then effectively imitative. It's kind of like they
changed over from imitating the 86-95 Ford Taurus, directly to the 98+
LH body.


One car whose design grew on me over time was the first generation Ford
Taurus, especially the station wagon, which to me looked like an
overinflated blimp. In just a few years it did not look so radical any
more, and I began to like it.

 

Yes, I know what people mean when they say "gangsta" image. Obviously you don't
know what I mean when I question you about the "gangsta" image being associated
with the 300C. "D Unit"? Is that the unit between the "C Unit" and the "E
Unit"? Quite honestly, I have NEVER heard of a group called "D Unit". Possibly
my kids could tell me. As for "Fifty Cent" - I have a few Kennedy's laying
around but no Franklins, so if "Fify Cent" is a group I have no idea about it.
Guess I'll have to ask my kids on that one also......... and on this reply I am
being completely honest, not just a "little"!

What this whole issue that we have bantered back-and-forth boils down to is the
fact that what you posted was not interpreted by me in the way you posted it.
As such you could not understand what I was posting because your mindset was,
nor will it ever be, the same as mine.

Again - I do NOT claim there is NO "gangsta" image in the entertainment
industry but I would still like to know how you associate it with the
300C........and I do not care to visit "their" websites, thank you, because I
see enough of "their" disgusting attitudes without having to go searching for
it.

RP

 

Gentlemen, please! Here are the facts of the matter:

1) There is a popular rapper named Fifty Cent. He has had a couple
of top ten hits.

2) He has a group of associates called the "G Unit". They have just
released a record.

3) G Unit requested, or was persuaded to request, a new 300C Hemi
which appeared in their video.

4) The Wall Street Journal cited this as evidence that the 300 may
turn out to be very popular with younger people, many of whom
look to "gangsta rappers" such as Fifty Cent and G Unit for
stylistic inspiration.


Acceptance by a younger, "hipper" crowd is critical to the success of
nearly any car nowadays. Sportiness and youth appeal are seen as
mandatory qualities, even if their potential buyers are usually not so
young (an example would be Mercedes-Benz ads in the US which usually
feature couples about fifteen years younger than the average real-life
M-B customer).

In any event, the "gangstas" are often not so much setting trends as
simply picking existing trends out of the aether and writing them
large. Consider, as an example, the dramatic swing in the sales ratio
of Rolls-Royce and Bentley during the Nineties. Where the Flying Lady
used to outsell the winged "B" by two to one, now the ratio is six to
one in Bentley's favor... and all the rappers started featuring
Bentleys in their lyrics and videos shortly after the change started.
Since rappers are too rare to account for a significant percentage of
customers, even for such a small firm as Bentley, presumably the
rappers were just saying what we all knew, namely that Bentley had
captured the public's imagination and was taking off.

If you don't want a gangsta image for your 300, select standard
finish wheels

 

If you don't want a gangsta image for your 300, select standard

Yes, but Wal-Mart sells the 'spinning' hubcaps for $30 for a set of 4 15"...

Yes, you too can be hip and stay within a budget...

 

You must've missed my quote from the article about the C being featured
in D Unit's video from the article, and hence my reference to the
"gangsta" image, but I see now that you have apparantly gone back and
picked up that context from my original post. I truly misinterpreted
where you were coming from, and I apologize for that.

Yep - miscommunication. (However you did kinda escalate pretty quickly
into strong personal attacks, but I guess I kinda started it by my
implying that you were being dishonest when it now appears that you were
simply being naíve - and I don't mean that as a putdown - some things I
wouldn't mind being ignorant of.)

Oh - maybe you still haven't picked up on it - I though you had. The
300C was featured in the D Unit video, hence the "gangsta" association
with the 300C (possibly with a behind the scenes commercial deal from
Chrysler to feature it, but then again, maybe not). My point, without
really saying it, was that I thought it a bad idea for Chrysler to be
actively promoting the connection if they had had a hand in having it
show up in the video - that they could actually (statistically) lose
some sales. Again, if you go back to my original post, you will see
that I quoted from the article about the 300C appearing in the D Unit
video, and that is apparently what you missed in your original response.

On that we're agreed - apparently you share my disgust for certain
things.

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

 

Fortunately nobody else has your eyes!

 

I know there's been many cars I didn't like the looks of when they

I'm not that old but it happens to me a lot. I'm glad to know you really
didn't understand what he meant. I thought you guys were being buttholes.
But if it's never happened to you, naturally you wouldn't understand what he
meant.

It happens to "other people".

 

You are so right about imperial. I hadn't thought of that. But, you need to
get over your thinking that the 300 was somehow sporty. It never was. Never,
ever. Fast, yes. At the time, it was the fastest big ol' American sedan ever
built. You could wear your hat in it.

 

I'm with Steve. I think the 94 LHS is better looking than the 1998 2nd gens.
I never like the 300M either. Too short.

 

I guess the Aztek shows that if everybody hates it, that's not quite as good
as a love/hate thing.

 

Here is a link that sums up my impression of the front end grillwork on the
2nd generation LHS.
http://westlakecrs.org/lhs.htm

Regarding the 300M: butt-ugly front end.

 

Joe wrote:

Oh, yes it WAS! It was always big, but the automotive press raved about
the fact that it easily matched or exceeded the handling of many
European "sports cars" of the time. Certainly it was not a "sports car"
and it never tried to be, but it was VERY "sporty."

I would contend that given that the 2-door coupe is a dead duck in
today's marketplace, it was a coin toss as to whether to call a new
luxury sport-sedan "Imperial" or "300" because the two lines are now
combined in one market niche. Sure, I'd RATHER see the current car
called "Imperial" and a second car added to the line with 2 doors, a
pointier nose and tail, and a "300N" badge. Aint gonna happen, though.
The two-door IS dead, as much as I hate to say it :-(

 

I was beginning to think I was the only one... even Stern calls the
first gen LHS a "road toad" and he's usually more traditionalist on
styling than I am.

 

Oops - beware of unqualified generalisations.

- BMW Coupe
- Merc Coupe
- Peugeot 406
- Renault Megane
- Honda RSX (Acura in USA), Accord & Civic.

+ innumerable 3-door hatchbacks.

I have omitted the increasing numbers convertibles as being special cases,
even those with rigid rooves that are, in effect, coupes when roof up.

Reports of the death of the 2-door coupe are greatly exaggerated.

DAS

 

Opened the link. You are right on the money - especially in the middle photo!!!

Yup!!!!!

 

I believe the OP meant that the full-sized coupe is dead.

Here in America, coupes and station wagons (estates) were once the
popular choices. If you had a bunch of kids of a certain age, you got
the wagon; otherwise you got the coupe. General Motors in particular
seemed to focus on the coupe. Sedans were for cops and taxi drivers.

How many of you out there can remember being children placed in the
back of full-sized coupes, often with a couple siblings? It's funny
how people who spent their entire young lives in the back of, say, a
Monte Carlo or Torino coupe feel their children are unmanageable in
anything short of a minivan.

The full-sized coupe was replaced in the United States as an
affordable style statement by the SUV. Most US manufacturers phased
their medium-and-full-size coupes out just as they were phasing their
truck-wagons in.

I believe that the largest five-seater coupe sold by a domestic
manufacturer is the Stratus/Sebring coupe, which is a Galant under the
skin anyway.

Really, if you think about it, the idea of having two identical cars
differentiated only by door count doesn't make a whole tearing lot of
sense. Honda and Toyota, the other five-seat mid-size coupe makers, at
least change the body panels a bit...

If Chrysler comes out with a Charger Hemi Coupe, I think I'd have
to look at buying one. A full-sized coupe is a neat idea.

 

Pfft. Most families bought Caprice Classic or Malibu *sedans* if they
didn't buy wagons. Sure, some families had Monte Carlos, but no, sedans
were the overwhelmingly popular choice for families without wagons. Not
sure where you get your mistaken notion that families bought coupes and
that sedans were for "cops and taxi drivers". That has never been correct.

Probably because 2-door cars are a pain in the ass if you carry people in
the back with any regularity. It means having to unload just about
everyone except the driver so that ONE person can get into or out of the
back seat.

It's worked well for many manufacturers for many years.

DS

 

Large coupes assured that there were no back doors for young children to open
while tooling along at 70MPH (well, my dad usually drove 80-85 most of the
time). I grew up riding in the back of Chevy Impala coupes.

 

"Style statement" is an apt phrase. I have never quite understood the
penchant for paying more for less space and greater inconvenience (in any
2-door vehicle).

Currently I have a 2-door vehicle, but as it's a convertible I forgive
myself the contradiction, especially as I don't drive much (what a waste!)
and don't often carry passengers.

FYI at least the Merc CLK and CL and Peugeot 406 can be considered 'full
size' by European standards. Relatively few are sold, of course, but it's
not a dying breed.

DAS

 

From the sales numbers for mid-sized cars. The GM A-body coupes outsold
the sedans for every year I can find. For most of the mid-late Seventies
America's best-selling car, the Cutlass Supreme, was primarily sold as a
coupe.

Furthermore, when I was a kid family sedans were rare as hen's teeth.
The only sedans in my neighborhood were Mercedes and Saabs. Everybody
else had a two-door. It's possible my experience does not reflect the
world at large, as it was confined to about twelve cities on the East
Coast.

Didn't seem like that much of a hassle, to be truthful.

But according to everything you have posted above, not *that* well.
Furthermore, the number of cars on the market with a panel-identical
two-door option nowadays is vanishingly small. BMW, Merecdes, Volvo,
Chrysler, Toyota, and Honda all use different bodywork on their
two-door cars. Look at a Camry and a Camry Solara, an Accord and an
Accord Coupe, a C320 and a CLK320... Now go back and look at the
two-doors of the Seventies. Not really the same thing.