I don’t know what’s the story behind it, but this big wheeled, brawny Mopar wagon hasn’t been touring much lately. It just has been sitting there for quite some time now.
The Chrysler 300C Touring was the European equivalent of the North American Dodge Magnum, they were built by Magna Steyr in Austria. The 300C sedans for the European market rolled off the same production line.
Back then, the Mercedes-Benz OM 642 turbodiesel was a popular 300C engine choice in Europe. It was also offered in the contemporary Jeep Grand Cherokee and Commander. A 3.0 liter V6 DOHC 24v engine with a variable nozzle Garrett turbocharger and common rail injection, good for 218 DIN-hp in those days.
Currently, several Mopar products are still offered with a 3.0 V6 turbodiesel, nowadays an up-to-date Italian VM Motori engine. Have a look at some of Jim Klein’s reviews here and here.
According to the information I found, a grand total of 74,647 Chrysler 300C sedans and wagons was built by Magna Steyr. The owner should get this 4,255 lbs Magna-Magnum show on the road again.
I’ve often waited for someone to build one of those in the US. It’d make fascinating viewing at the local Cars & Coffee, and should be easy to build. All you need is one good Magnum, and a wrecked in the rear Chrysler 300.
Sometimes that did happen the other way around. But instead of giving the 300C Touring a facelift, they imported the whole thing.
Do a Google search for “Dodge Magnum 300 front end” and it brings up a very large number of them. It’s been a common swap.
https://www.google.com/search?q=dodge+magnum+wagon+with+300+front+end&sxsrf=ALeKk00DTKvx3-EvZjNnCCCYmWe4VUAAdQ:1622490179428&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiX9q721vTwAhUGs54KHeowDDsQ_AUoAXoECAEQAw&biw=1366&bih=617
I happen to have spotted one curbside in Washington, DC yesterday. I was thinking of making an Outtake out of it as my first post in well over a year, but the subject appears pre-emoted now.
Second attempt to post photos
Likely too large, Robert. Need to reduce below 1200 pixels or one of the two lowest res options if that’s how your system works, they’ll display fine.
Good to hear from you!
Third try, following Jim’s advice
And a side view
Matching color scheme, the Chrysler-faced-Dodge and the building behind it!
I guess the car magazine types would have shot this down, but I wonder how many buyers Chrysler might have scared up for this instead of the Durango clone: Aspen?
It’s a bummer (but not surprising) that this wasn’t offered over here, although the 300C was selling just fine in sedan form, it looks quite good. But smart of Chrysler to pivot to the wagon body as the primary contender in Europe.
Magnum wagons especially (and even the first generation 300 sedans) seem to already be getting thinner on the ground here.
The Magnum was killed off due to slow sales here as part of the Cerberus takeover. But, I think that Chrysler missed an opportunity here. Sure, kill off the Magnum but continue to produce the wagon as the 300.
The Chrysler 300 was being pitched as a lower priced executive car, i.e. a cheaper alternative to an E-class and the 5 series. Lots of style, RWD & AWD, 6- and 8-cylinder powertrain, and the Hi-Po version (SRT vs AMG/M). The only thing that was missing was the wagon variant. Both the E-class and the 5-series had wagon variants. Chrysler should have offered the 300 wagon, and it would have made more profit compared to the Magnum for not a lot of outlay. The Magnum, more often than not, was a base model/fleet sales with the slow 2.7L V6. I see way more of these in the junkyards than Hemi powered cars. The Hemi was a niche/halo car for the Magnum. But as a 300 wagon, 3.5L HO base, Hemi, and an SRT version would have lined up nicely with the E350, E500/550 and the AMG version.
I have a photo on my PC of a similar, or maybe the same car, with some snow on it.
Frontage
Ha, I thought I recognized that car, it’s from my Winter Beaters of Iceland post from some years back. I was wondering about that car when I saw Johannes’ post this morning.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/uncategorized/iceland-classics-the-winter-beaters-of-reykjavik-iceland/
IIRC, that one has the C300 stock/standard wheels.
I’ve always been a fan of the 300, but unfortunately here in the UK at least, they went through a period of having tons of Halfords chrome slapped on, wheels that weigh twice as much as the original and…. Bentley badging.
Personally I would love to fit a Magnum front end to a UK spec car and go subtle.
Problem there: no Magnum headlamps suitable for left-hand traffic. One of the reasons why the 300 front end was used to make the export-market 300C Touring, rather than just doing a badge-job on the Magnum, is the 300C’s modular headlamp optics made it easy and cheap to put together all the variants: halogen and HID versions for the American market, for the rest of the right-traffic world, and for the left-traffic world. It would have been much more costly to do that with the Magnum’s lamps.
Ah, that’s interesting to know. Thanks Daniel, you learn something new every day on this site!
I have seen imported US spec Magnums in the UK though. Although how the headlamps have been modified, I do not know.
Usually that’s a case of slack work by an MoT inspector who either genuinely or convenient£y doesn’t know that the American flat-across dipped beam cutoff doesn’t mean the lamps are suitable for use on either side of the road.
Is that in terms of the aim of the headlamps between low beam and high beam? I’ve never considered that in terms of left hand vs right hand drive.
All low beams are asymmetrical. The ones for right-hand traffic direct most of their light downward-rightward; the ones for left-hand traffic direct most of their light downward-leftward—in both cases, the bulk of the light is directed away from oncoming drivers’ eyes. This is built into the lamps’ optics; it’s separate from the matter of (whether and) how the lamps are aimed, so one can’t re-aim a left-traffic lamp to make it into a right-traffic lamp. It’s also still the case even for those American low beams that appear to have a straight-across cutoff at the top of the beam, without an upkick; the light under the cutoff is asymmetrical.
There are some lamps that can be adjusted to provide either a left- or a right-traffic beam: certain projectors have a movable cutoff shield to achieve this, and some (mostly French) very old pre-halogen reflector lamps had a rotable bulb seat to achieve the same function. And now we’re seeing matrix LED headlamps that can digitally shift between left/right traffic—some of them even do it automagically in response to GPS indications of what country they’re in.
High beams are symmetrical, same for left- and right-hand traffic.
They were left alone here. Other than bigger wheels now and then, as seen in the pictures for example, I can’t say that I ever spotted them with more optical tuning crapola.
Now the PT Cruiser, on the other hand…
Oh, the PT Cruiser is the biggest offender here, for sure!
Most RHD UK spec Dodges and Chryslers tend to get covered in too much Americana by a certain demographic. Stories of them being laughed out of American car shows abound.
I think the only cars that escaped this were the Neon, Voyager and the rebadged Lancias.
There was a whole series of Chryslers, Dodges and Jeeps offered on the Euro-market back then. The optional diesel engines came from VM Motori, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen (the 2.0 liter).
I’ve often thought about importing one of these from Europe into the US once the 25 year exemption is up on these cars. I love my Magnum, and I also love the torque and mileage that my hubby gets out of his E350 Bluetec, which is a variation of the same engine that is in these cars. I would be a fun, different car to have.
As has been mentioned above, the 300 front end swap is somewhat common on US market Magnums. It is literally a bolt on affair, since the body lines at the door are the same between the Magnum and the 300. During the pandemic, I actually performed the swap on my Magnum SRT8. The only part that was new was the 300 SRT8 front bumper, everything else was from a junkyard donor car.
Maybe it’s time for a COAL update on this car….?
Well done, and IMO COAL-update-worthy for sure!