Chrysler’s LH sedans were deservedly lauded for their combination of absorbent ride quality, stable handling and interior space, but they were not the makings of a sustainable comeback for the Pentastar. Quality left something to be desired, and powertrain refinement was nothing to write home about. Well, guess what didn’t change when the second generation cars were released? This is why I’m surprised to see this yellow LHS, shot by SoCalMetro, used as a taxi in Mexico and this dark indigo 300M, found by T-Minor, serving as private transportation in Austria.
Europeans love American landyachts as classics because they offer a unique experience and distinct style. Cars like the 300M, which claimed to offer a sporting alternative to import luxury sedans, never made it big there, on the other hand. Yes, the Chrysler handled well enough, but then so did your average McPassat or Audi, and while cars like the Nissan Maxima (QX in Europe) were derided by the European press for being dull, they offered a good driving experience and superior quality. So why choose a car like this? Was this Austrian family that determined to stand out?
Unfortunately, durability wasn’t a strong suit for these cars either and combined with bad resale, many are already in junkyards. I have to wonder how long this will last doing taxi duty in Mexico. Looks like it’s had a decent life, but it was cars like these which formed the second phase of Chrysler’s ’90s renaissance. Neither the LHs, nor the concurrent Neon or Stratus offered the freshness their predecessors and quality wasn’t drastically improved, if at all. This, despite all the boasts over inexpensive and rapid development of new models. No wonder Daimler moved in.
I think Chrysler was doing alright then Mercedes Benz came in trashed the place and left, but I agree that Chrysler’s short comings would have caught up with them.
The taxi duty is the more inappropriate setting since the mechanicals are going to fail if not before the suspension first. I saw one of these cars in great physical condition come into a scrap yard this week on a flatbed and the next day I saw the remains of the carcass.
Yeah, I also can’t see these lasting long in taxi duty.
Aren’t most cabbies in Mexico old Nissan models – called the Tsuru (crane in Japanese), an earlier generation Sentra /Sunny?
The last time I was in Mexico, we saw a variety of different cabs, including Panthers. However, we were in a Nissan – I thought it was a Sentra, but the badges were missing off the back.
Probably is one. Nissan has a big assembly plant in Aguascalientes.
I’ve ridden in a few Tsuru cabs as well as a couple of Dodge Shadows.
Before the Tsuru came along the cab of choice in Mexico was the VW Beetle. Mexico City was the last holdout for them but they were finally banned as taxis there for safety and emissions reasons.
I think Mercedes-Benz was doing alright then Chrysler came in trashed the place and left. The DaimlerChrysler Benzes are pretty much the most cheaply made, least reliable and rustiest of the bunch.
Well that started in the mid-1990s before the marriage from Hell after Mercedes Benz made a terrible replacement for the W124.
Except that Daimler was making all the decisions. All Chrysler provided was the cash to keep things afloat when the Daimler Benz half of the “merger of equals” was hemohraging money in the early years of the tie-up.
I’m just gonna say that I’m surprised that I actually saw at least 10 300Ms for sale on Craigslist when I just did a search. Maybe they all survived on the halfway decent-ness of the 3.5 V6 alone, but the 2.7 Concordes and Intrepids must have sludged themselves to heart attacks long ago.
I don’t want to press my luck, but after knocking on wood, I’ll say this much, there is at least one 99 green Intrepid out here with the 2.7 that is still performing daily duty. I am under the impression that using only synthetic oil will immensely help keep the oil sludge from building up and flowing to lube where necessary.
We had two bought for under $3k each at about 5 years, but the champaign one blew about 3 years ago. Am I kidding myself a to what snythetic oil can prevent on this 2.7 v6 ?
I dunno, all I know is I had a co-worker with a 2002 Sebring with the 2.7. She was really proud because she’d just moved to California and bought a convertible.
It already had the telltale blue smoke coming out of the exhaust pipe and it blew up this past summer. Her’s was right at the 120K mark, so part of me thinks that the previous owner did as well as they could with it, and sold to an unsuspecting buyer.
That would also explain why the 300Ms I saw still seem to holding somewhat decent used prices ($2,200 – $3,500) from the quick sampling I saw. The 2.7L cars probably cost less than a bucket of chicken at this point.
Want to see fanbois defend the 2.7? Just go to Allpar.com
The narrative is like, “it’s a pretty good engine if you use only synthetic, and change it every 1000 miles, and always let it warm up an hour before driving, and let it cool down for an hour before shutting it off, and never drive it in hot weather, never drive it in cold weather, never put anything in the trunk or carry more than 2 passengers, never use the AC, and flush the cooling system every week, and never drive it during a full moon, and………and……..
The sludge excuse is just that, an excuse and an attempt to push off the responsibility on the customer. The problem is the timing chain tensioner is improperly designed and the chain is weak. Lots of them that failed are clean as a whistle inside.
With the first gen LH cars, and infact most 90s Chryslers, the quality was there, but the quality of materials sure wasn’t.
Maybe I’m entirely making this up, but I thought the design of the 300M was somewhat done with potential European sales in mind. It is essentially just a Concorde with a foot of overhang taken off of its nose and tail, and a slightly tauter ride.
EDIT: Wikipedia at least says I’m not crazy. “It was 10 inches (254 mm) shorter than the Chrysler Concorde to make it exportable to Europe as a sports sedan, and was priced above the Concorde.”
“The 300M also fit the European “5 metre” (16.4 ft) size class for exports to Europe,[1] unlike the substantially similar, yet larger Chrysler LHS. It had the same wheelbase as the Dodge Intrepid, Eagle Vision, and pre-2002 Chrysler Concorde, reducing its length by cutting front and rear overhangs.”
Yes, I remember reading that when they came out. Still didn’t make for a convincingly world-class product, though.
During this era, Chrysler/Jeep was a surprisingly strong brand in Europe. This started with the gen1 minivan, which was very popular; I was utterly surprised to see how many there were over there when I was over in 1999. And the Jeep Cherokee was of course also big. And both the minivans and the Grand Cherokee were of course built in Austria by Steyr-Magna.
So it made sense for Chrysler to send over other models to fill out the product line. I don’t know how many 300s they sold, but it probably amounted to enough to make it a worthwhile undertaking.
Same here, I last visited Europe (France, Spain & Italy) in 2000, and I was astounded at the number of Chrysler Voyagers and Jeep XJ’s that were around. The only other American brand with 1% their coverage was, strangely, the GM minivans.
The Cherokee and minivans, I get. But the Neon, which wasn’t popular, makes more sense than this. My two cents.
Why not? There’s always been a segment of the population, especially in certain counties of Europe, that kinda likes big Ami cars. These were actually quite well suited, except for the lack of a diesel engine. A lot of car for the money; Mercedes S-Class sized.
Not everybody buys on objective parameters; in fact, most don’t. Just like semi-exotic European cars appeal to many here, so do semi-exotic American cars over there. tit for tat.
And actually, the Neon would not make as much sense over there (although it was probably sold), because it was in a class where there was too much direct competition. What made Chrysler successful in Europe was by offering cars/jeeps in classes where they didn’t have much direct competition.
I know in the UK at least the Neon suffered an image problem. It, and most Honda’s, had a reputation as “pensioner’s” (elderly) cars that it didn’t suffer from in the US.
But certainly trying to sell a Neon against a dynamically superior in Opel in Germany, or Fiat in Italy, was always going to be an uphill battle. Like Paul said, American cars have a certain “swagger” cred in Europe, but that really on works on “real” (i.e. big) American cars.
Yes, this is true and Paul is correct about the Neon’s position in Europe. I would like to mention, however, that the Neon’s dynamics were very good, quite possibly superior to those of an Astra or Bravo/Brava (at the very least, on par), though not in ZX/306 territory.
Perry, as I said earlier, American cars in Europe are/were never generally sold on objective parameters (the minvans excepted), but because of their image, which just didn’t work with the Neon.
“And actually, the Neon would not make as much sense over there (although it was probably sold), because it was in a class where there was too much direct competition. What made Chrysler successful in Europe was by offering cars/jeeps in classes where they didn’t have much direct competition.”
Exactly. What the Americans does best in Europe is providing niche products. Both the Chrysler minivans and the Jeep Cherokee had no direct competition in their fields. There were other minivans, smaller and larger, but not minivans in *that* size and for *that* price. The same with the Cherokee, there was offerings both up and down, but none doing better in that particular price spot. They were both sweet spots in the market, and I wouldn’t be suprised if they are to most common American cars on European soil since WWII and the ubiquitous Jeep. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were twenty to thirtyfold the nearest American competition in sales.
I’m not denying that, I just wanted to point out one of the Neon’s strengths and that certain cars weren’t necessarily dynamically superior, all considerations of image put aside.
Actually, I do think the Neon takes most of its appeal off its American-ness, especially the second generation. Compare it to a Astra or Bora from the same period and it’s undeniably different, if mostly from image. Those who liked that image but could not afford the price/fuel at our prices for a big American car could still get themselves a mini-300M Neon. Remember it wasn’t cheaper to buy than the European competitors and cost more in the long term since resale value is practically zero.
An uncle actually owned a 300M for a while, he felt it was classy. Opinions may vary, but it definitely has stature on the narrow roads over here. Most of all that big butt it had.
Yes – compete in a niche market segment.
I regularly see a Neon on my daily travels here in Germany. I haven’t seen it move in 4 weeks, but it is here. I’ll try and snap a picture of it.
I haven’t run across any LHs here, but I do regularly see third-gen Chrysler minivans and newer Jeeps. Strangely, the Chevy Venture is here, sold as the Opel Sintra. Most of those I see look quite bad.
Chrysler seemed to be on a roll with the new Cherokee out this way they were and remain quite popular the Neon was offered and sold but I cant remember when I last saw one they got a bagging by the Aussie motoring press described as being neither sporty nor economical for a small car.
I had a Mk2 Neon in the UK for 5 years. It was ex demo and was a bargain loaded LX. Never had any problems but the 3 speed + lock up auto was a little disapointing.
edit: I think Daimler tried to do to Chrysler what BMW did to Rover. IE kill it and absorb the market share.
I can confirm everything Paul said. The Neon, from what I can remember, was thought of (in Austria) as cheap and nasty, on the same level as the Koreans of that era. In its class even the lower price it was not enough to offset this (and sensible Austrians buy VW Golfs and Boras anyway). Neither was it offered with the all important diesel. The vans and Jeeps were, as mentioned, the right size. Chrysler lost most of its van sales once it went one size bigger with the 4th generation – these things are as big as a VW Transporter, which is the equivalent size wise here to the Chevrolet Express, and is thought of as commercial vehicle. They were just too big…
Considering that the Chrysler minivan and Jeep Cherokee probably had their genesis in the mind of some Renault engineering think tank (Espace, anyone?), it’s not too hard of a stretch to see how well they’d do in Europe.
nope; the Chrysler minivans and the Renault Espace were launched in the same year (1984.)
I never implied the one followed the other. If anything, I implied the idea may have come from some of the same individuals.
They did comparatively well in Korea, too, and still do.
Mopar was the only US automaker that offered a full line of cars and SUVs through official Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep dealerships back then. And those dealerships were certainly not thin on the ground. Four, six and eight cylinder gasoline engines and diesel engines from VM Motori, Mercedes and Volkswagen (and some Renault diesels in the earlier years). They fully understood and accepted that : no diesels = no sales.
I clearly remember the PT Cruiser with a Mercedes diesel and the Dodge Avenger with a Volkswagen diesel, for example.
Quite right. But did the 300M get a diesel? I don’t remember it doing so.
No, the later 300C was the first big Chrysler with a diesel.
Volkswagen’s 2.0 liter TDI engine (140 hp) in the engine bay of a Dodge Caliber, without the plastic cover. (Photo: Brendy from Belfast)
I believe the final-generation Seville got shrunk a bit for the same reason.
Chrysler NZ brought in a 300M for evaluation – it featured on their stand at the NZ Motor Show that year (I don’t recall the exact year). I remember studying it intently – I loved it! They were publicising how it was designed for the European market so could be ideal for Euro-leaning New Zealand. It was LHD though, and without a RHD version was never going to be a goer here. Then again, if they had an inkling the designed-for-RHD 300C was around the corner I can understand why they’d wait.
I’m kinda hot and cold with the LH cars, the 300M was fairly attractive, since it basically looks like a melted version of it’s successor, the 300C. But I just can’t warm up to the cab forward proportions and Neon grade interior plastics they used.
I always liked the 300M’s unique exterior styling. The high deck lid was easily the best looking of all the LHs. While the “cab” section between the wheels, which was shared with other Gen2 LHs, gave it’s midsection an overly bloated appearance, at least the front and rear styling made it decidedly less obvious than the LHS/Concorde with their more bulbous and elongated ends. Despite its wide stance and short overhangs, the 300M never looked all that sporty. The short, low hood was a big reason for this.
The interior styling was also nice for the time, but was let down by the horribly cheap plastics. I know we criticize cars for having cheap plasticy interiors a lot around here, but the 300M/LHS’s interior was among the worst ever for upscale cars during this period.
I’ve always heard rumors that the 300M would’ve been sold as the second generation Eagle Vison, had Eagle not been dropped. Other than Wikipedia, I can’t find much info on this. I wonder how an Eagle front end would’ve looked on this.
“I’ve always heard rumors that the 300M would’ve been sold as the second generation Eagle Vison, had Eagle not been dropped. Other than Wikipedia, I can’t find much info on this. I wonder how an Eagle front end would’ve looked on this…”
It is said that the nose clip would have been the same, the Eagle being the short version of the second generation LHs; if there were no 300M, there would be no “twin” so it wouldn’t matter. Development was reportedly already done when it was decided to kill the Eagle brand. I don’t know where I got this photo, perhaps from Allpar, showing a 300M with an Eagle grill badge. If that’s all they did, it was an easy rebadge for Chrysler. Conversely if this is an owner’s bodge, Is there an Eagle badge that could have been swapped onto a Chrysler 300M?
Sorry it is so small; I sure would like to see a bigger version.
I saw that picture on carspyshots.net, they also had a bigger image that they said was the European-spec Eagle (due to the headlight washers):
This might have call for a CC What If?
LH? Didn`t that mean “last hope”?
no.
Boy do these age badly. I always forget they sold them all the way until 2004, because it seemed like most of them reached beater status by 2010 and as you say, a very high portion were totally junked at barely 10 years old (the Intrepid especially, but also the Chrysler versions). I’d bet the base 2.7-liter engine did a lot of them in, but I wouldn’t call anything on these robust.
I suppose it doesn’t help that upon release of the RWD Chrysler 300 in 2005, these became instantly dated by a decade, stylistically, and resale vales followed. What’s really interesting is that resale values of early RWD 300s (and the Charger) still haven’t really come down because of their distinctive styling and popularity alone, while the Concorde/Intrepid twins were worthless at the same point in their lifecyles (8 to 10 years old).
Yes, the RWD 300 model is definitely distinctive, but I don’t like sitting in them because of the high belt-line and gunslit windows makes it look really confining.
I actually liked the old FWD model 300s because of the bigger expanse of glass just makes the interior feel more spacious inside.
they became so instantly dated in 2004 that two years later, Honda aped the “cab-forward” style with the 2006+ Civic.
I took an Intrepid for a spin when they were new on the market. They were great handling cars. a few years ago a friend of mine bought a used intrepid with the 2.7 L engine. Again I was impressed with the handling and ride comfort of the car.
I would stay away form the 2.7L engine. but this kid learned to make lemonade out of that lemon:
Anyone who knows me knows that I’m a rabid fan of the LH cars from both generations.
I was the lucky owner of two LH vehicles, a 1997 Chrysler Concorde (first car!) and a 2004 Dodge Intrepid, and I have nothing but good things to say about both. They were timeless in styling, comfortable and reliable.
But, I never really liked the 300m as much as the Concorde/Intrepid/LHS. I guess it’s because of the grille, it wasn’t proportioned properly with the large headlights–it didn’t look right. The grille was too small for the rest of the frontal features. But that’s just picky me.
Rumor was this was supposed to be an Eagle Vision…I wonder what would be different if it was an Eagle Vision instead of a 300m?
I cringe when each day passes and I realize that these cars are only getting older, and as for the second generation, many of them died premature deaths (due to the 2.7L, especially the Intrepid, as over half of them came with this engine). These cars are timeless and are an automotive work of art and could still be rolling off of the assembly line–today–with small updates.
When the Charger, Magnum and the first-gen 300 came out, I was crestfallen (though I do like the 2011-current 300, and that’s the ONLY LX car I ever cared for). Chrysler went from their smooth-flowing cab-forward design to boxy and blocky, and the minivans soon followed.
The LX’s are a retrograde step. The LH at least looked the part of how a 21st century car should look IMHO. I’ve never liked LXs, in any iteration, I think they are simply hideous, especially the Chargers. This is especially galling in light of the LH-based ’99 Charger concept, which was beautiful.
I felt similar to both of you when I saw my first LX 300. It looked liked a cheap rip-off of a Rolls-Royce Phantom, welded together by the guys at “Pimp My Ride”. While the LH had a cheap plasticy interior, at least the interior design was nice. The LX failed in both of these categories. The Magnum was even more horrendous with its low roofline and high beltline. I will say though that that IMHO, the Charger wasn’t as bad looking, it was only let down by all the noticeable cost cutting.
The second generation LX cars are much better, although they still aren’t anywhere near my tastes. The interiors are better, but especially in the 300, not up to the standards of other cars they compete with. I know this is weird, but there’s something about the 300’s center stack that reminds me of the shape of a toilet.
The thing that always bugs me about that centre stack is that it looks like the middle bit between the vents is installed upside down – ie the clock should be dropped below the screen and the screen should then be lifted so that its bottom edge lines up with the bottom of the airvents either side. #OCD
I’ve seen one 300M(on Dutch plates) in Limehouse East London.I t didn’t look special enough,too much like the Neon.Neons sold in reasonable numbers here but had an image as an old man’s car.I’ve driven a few Neons,not a bad car but a bit bland with none of the American car character.I do have a soft spot for it’s friendly frog like face.It’s been a bit since I saw a Neon in the UK
These cars were typically driven by the more “mature” drivers, not by the younger pedal-to-the-metal Benz / BMW /Audi lease crowd. People who also drove around in other comfortable sedans like a Toyota Camry, Nissan Maxima and Peugeot 605. Sadly this whole breed of easy-going non-German sedans has gone up in smoke.
I found about 20 of them on a cars-for-sale website, none of them looks like an old beater to me. http://www.gaspedaal.nl/Chrysler/300M/?srt=pr
This one stood out from the crowd. It’s very red. (Photo: Van Krieken Import-Export)
“the younger pedal-to-the-metal Benz / BMW /Audi lease crowd”
You have those types there too, huh?
Yes and worse – shadier society members are also quite fond of certain models…
Hell yes ! Years ago Top Gear did a test with an accurately calibrated Cock-O-Meter. Audi won IIRC.
Same here in Austria – those were bought by older Americana fans; country music blaring out from the stereo was almost obligatory. Those were exactly the same kind of guys whose bike – if they had one – was likely to be an Electra Glide. Hence, they were never abused. They also did not seem to fall into the hands of certain members of society like the 300Cs did (ones who did or could not maintain them). My search of the Austrian equivalent of C-List resulted in quite a few hits and prices were not as low as I expected them to be – between €3000-€5000 on average.
Other “Americana Gliders” you saw on the roads in the nineties were the Cadillac Seville and Eldorado, the Buick Park Avenue, the Mercury Grand Marquis, the Ford Thunderbird and the Lincoln Continental.
Still plenty of choice when you want to buy a used one in a well-maintained and gently driven condition. Shiny paint, no scratches or dents. Factory rims. Service history often fully documented. I think that the first owners mainly loved classical music.
At the time, I considered the 300M too chopped off, but like it better now. A realtor down the street bought or leased one, and I recall being impressed with the quality of the interior.
My question is whether that Mexican taxi with the famously brittle 4 speed transaxle will last more than 6 months in cab duty. Or could the old 3 speed have been offered in these in Mexico? A 3.5 and a 3 speed transaxle would be a pretty durable combo.
In a recent Magnum (how ironic) ice cream commercial, there is an LH New Yorker police car! Obviously it’s fake, as the only LH car ever used by police departments was the Intrepid – and it made a pretty terrible police cruiser in terms of reliability.
I saw that commercial thinking the same thing. They were clearly trying to make it look like an American traffic jam despite looking suspiciously like a road in coastal Spain, chock full of every American car they could Wrangle up including the New Yorker Police car which was probably chosen because it’s taillights and upright roofline vaguely resemble a 98-11 Crown Vic.
At 0:08 you can see what appears to be a generic Korean or Chinese SUV (Ssangyong?). Someone on another site says that the black car, also at 0:08, is an Australian Ford. At 0:14 you can very clearly see a Toyota Yaris sedan with non-US taillights.
No, the black car isn’t an Aussie Ford. Looks like a customised Chev Nova to me. EDIT: come to think of it, I’m pretty sure we debated the identity of the cars in that ad here on CC sometime in the past.
Through someone else, I had known a guy years ago who drove a black 2001 Chrysler 300M limited edition. It was a gift from his dad and purchased for around $20,000. I liked the design including touches like the interior clock and the way the instruments would glow, which seemed classy. The interior was roomy and even the back seats felt comfortable. The car was pretty quick too when the guy floored it. In just a few years the car appeared to be making some strange noises. I also heard from someone else that when the owner took the car in to the shop, he got a long list back -which was literally pages of repair work that needed to be done.
I had even pondered the idea of getting a used, dirt cheap, early 2000 Sebring, but a former co-worker who drove one had advised me not to. A brand new Sebring rented in 2007 also had an annoying glitch where a light on the dash kept informing me that the driver’s door was open. I must have opened and closed it a few times to make sure.
One of Mythbusters’ beaters once was an Intrepid that had been a San Francisco taxi. They made a point of showing them buying it from the cab company and Adam having to go in through the rect-um, I mean, take the RF wheel and fender liner off to swap the battery, complaining the whole way about what a stupid design that was.
My neighbor had a 2000 300. It was an absolute piece of crap. He had so many problems with his Chrysler that he traded it for a Lexus, and he has sworn off american cars for good.