We've had a string of fast luxury sedans in the press rotation lately. It's not really my market segment, but they're fun to play with. Most recently, we had the Chrysler 300C SRT8, which surprised a few of us. After the reaction to the Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8, I was surprised nobody outright hated it.
Want the full scoop? Here's what we learned when GRM played the Chrysler 300C SRT8.
I know I am completely missing the point and fully expect to get boo'd for this suggestion but I have a hard time trying to rationalize spending 50 grand on a Chrysler (and I'm talking about anything they ever made) vs. the 2011 Subaru Legacy GT which undercuts it by about 20 thousand dollar.
I've not spent time in a new Legacy but I remember Subaru having decent interiors, and this thing seems awfully quick, so what am I missing here?
I like the Legacy a lot, but it's a very different animal than the SRT8. Even if their specs are similar on paper, the buying demographic is pretty far apart.
I certainly wouldn't give you a hard time over picking the Legacy over the SRT8, but on the other hand wouldn't hate someone who chose an SRT8. Diff'rent Strokes, eh?
pres589 wrote: I know I am completely missing the point and fully expect to get boo'd for this suggestion but I have a hard time trying to rationalize spending 50 grand on a Chrysler (and I'm talking about anything they ever made) vs. the 2011 Subaru Legacy GT which undercuts it by about 20 thousand dollar. I've not spent time in a new Legacy but I remember Subaru having decent interiors, and this thing seems awfully quick, so what am I missing here?
The Chrysler compliments a driver wearing a bowler hat nicely. The Subaru, not so much.
If you decide that the 300C SRT is the car to take your clubs to the country club and impress your friends, what will their reaction be? What else will $50 large buy? That isn't M5 or E63 money, but it is 5-Series or E-Series money. Is it too loud and brash? Hmmmm.
I would drive one as a DD. Comfy, quick, over-the-top.....................would I spend $50k on a new one.
Not even if I could.
for the audience they were playing to, I'm not quite sure they built the right car. they seem to be playing to the bottom end of the luxury market, and BMW or Mercedes Benz sounds so much more luxurious than Chrysler, and that is perpetuated when you start looking at the specs sheet. it isn't a bad car, though, just slightly mis-marketed.
they SHOULD have marketed it to those who wanted a luxury car with a temper, a car that would coddle you right up until the point it ripped your head off and then machine-gunned your whole family for getting blood on its leather seats. Lower it slightly, flare and raise the fenders slightly to match that lowering, put good suspension on it (swaybars, mainly, maybe full Charger cop car suspension), and make lots and lots of them in black and I think they might have their market pegged a bit better.
Alls I gotsta say is: how much is a comparable CTS/CTSV?
HiTempguy wrote: Alls I gotsta say is: how much is a comparable CTS/CTSV?
Yeah, but that's a GM product. Too much of a handicap for me. I'd buy a first gen Hyundai before driving anything other than a vette, one of the three manuals produced each year.
BTW, I just went to the respective websites. Unless I'm mistaken, a comparably equipped CTSV sedan is about 20K more than the SRT. Though you can't get a stick with the SRT.
Honestly, i think in this crowd the $50k number is pretty iirrelevant.
For as long as there have been srt-8s, the brand new price has been .. whatever.. and the right-off-the-dealer-lot price has been $39k or less. For years there have been piles of nearly-new SRT8s going somewhere in the 30s, so in my opnion that's their real 'new' price seeing as how pretty much everyone i know would let someone else drive the first 5000 miles if it saved them $15k.
I like the 300c srt8 for what it is but cant see myself ever buying one. In fact, i would never buy ANY of the srt LX cars. The mpg is horrid for a car whose only real intended purpose is 'driver'.. /consideration.
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