The mission statement for Curbside Classic is simple, but effective. Every car has a story. Sometimes that tale relates to the origins of a particular model in its historical context. Other examples include our always fascinating COAL entries, where the ownership experience is chronicled and our connection to our beloved vehicles documented. The vehicles featured in this post tell a story solely based on their appearances, with one being slightly more ostentatious than the other.
When the 300 first appeared in 2005, it garnered a fair amount of praise for its distinctive styling. It was proof a traditional three-box style sedan could still turn heads, and the car gained a sort of celebrity-like status for a short period of time. Fast forward ten years and you can see the results of those (second?) owners and their efforts to customize their cars to varying degrees of success and tastefulness.
Exterior wise, this particular 300 has a professional looking two-tone paint job that showed no signs of wear when I stumbled upon the vehicle, so at least it has that going for it. Your personal tastes may vary of course, however my gut tells me that the paint scheme is sound while the actual colors involved are not. I think black and white would have been far more effective towards going for the modern gangster vibe the car already gives out in stock form. My gut also tells me that chrome b-pillar and c-pillar attachments are a no go, but in this particular application they don’t look too bad.
The interior is another story. Two cardinal sins are being committed here: that leopard print dash cover and the probably fake wood dash bits applied to literally every place they could possibly go. I was curious as to how much all that applique cost, and my findings took me to this Amazon listing where a similar looking kit would set you back a cool $220 dollars. The leopard print cover? Looks like it cost about $40 to purchase here, at carid.com. Fun fact: the motto of that website is “Define Your Vehicles True Identity.” Obviously the car does not get a say when an owner wants to modify its identity, and I can say with confidence the 300 shown above would have most likely vetoed the changes if it did.
Our second featured car is a first generation Chevrolet Cruze. Although the current generation is set for an all new replacement very soon, the Cruze retains an attractive exterior that in no way looks outdated. At this point, it looks like the Cruze ends General Motors streak of building mediocre entry level sedans.
As for the modifications, all of them are very tasteful. My favorite alteration is the simplest: that black Chevy bow tie with the silver border fits in nicely with the surrounding paint and the black mesh grille. Those headlights look good too, and a visit to carid.com yields an aftermarket light assembly by a company called Anzo that bear a striking similarity to the headlamps shown above and cost about $664 for both. A search for matching fog lights was not successful, but my hunch is that they are also non-OEM equipment.
As for the rear end, it looks like tail lights were replaced, as the factory ones have a white and amber line running along the bottom for the reverse and turn signal indicators. The exhaust tips and diffuser also look aftermarket as well. And another black bow tie for the trunk, in addition to a sweet decklid spoiler. Quite a good showing for nice, subtle modifications.
Unfortunately I wasn’t able to find exactly who makes these tail lamps, but similar ones go for around $500 dollars per pair. Not too bad. I also came across these:
Pretty cool, right? They compliment the Cruze quite well, and while those rapid fire blinks sure don’t seem legal, the sequential turn signals are nifty. One potential downside is their resemblance to the rear lamps on the current Nissan Sentra, but I could hardly fault a Cruze owner for installing a pair. They look good. And for $399 a set they won’t break the bank.
Two different cars, very different modifications. Likely two different personalities. Would any of you modify your car in similar ways to what you see above, do you prefer a bone stock appearance?
Bone stock cars just age better. Nothing looks more dated, more quickly than modifications inspired by ephemeral fads.
Even those aftermarket lights tend to be poor quality, they generally fade and dull more quickly than OEM units. Factory stock 300’s are already becoming a rare sight. Almost every one I see now has an ugly aftermarket grille.
You mean that these aren’t really Bentleys?
Yeah, a stock (and I mean STOCK) 1st gen ‘modern 300’ is likely a future “classic”, When I hit the lottery, I want one and a ’92 Cadillac Brougham, all stock no “donk”!!!
All that add-on crap just looks stupid. Leave it stock and give the engineers (if you can even call GM engineers that) who supposedly worked hard on the design (again, probably not at GM) their due.
Well said. My favorite grill is the 06-07 heritage edition. It was the same egg crate style but chromed.
+1!
I like the two-tone on that 300 (but not much else that’s been done with it). At a guess, the burnt orange was chosen to complement the original beige color.
The pricing on those lights reminds me why I never modded a car…the tightwad thing got in the way…
I like that color combo too. It’s a bit awkward at the rear, and chrome B-pillars go a bit too far, but overall I think it’s a big improvement over all beige.
Its unfortunate they inflict beige/gold on cars still.
Agreed. Dark grey too. Just boring, blah colors. I guess that’s for people who don’t have a favorite color.
I definitely like the Cruze’s style more.
My modifications are limited to things that were OEM on a different model, or perhaps in a different market. I think it can look sharp, without looking cheesy.
The goal with my 1st gen Outback was mostly to get rid of all the original gold trim. So first up was replacing the stock 15″ wheels with some 16″s off a WRX. Next, I replaced the gold grill with a Japanese market Legacy grille in a tasteful black chrome. I took off all the gold badging in cartoon-y 90’s lettering, and replaced it with silver badges off of a 2005 Outback. Rounding it off are Japanese projector headlights, side turn signals, and rear lights. The stock plastic “rally look” foglights were replaced with identical sized real PIAA lights too.
All in all, it comes off as “upgraded” more than “modified” IMO, and I think that’s the difference.
No gold!!
Nice looking car, how does it feel to own the only 1990s Subaru in Oklahoma? I kid, I kid, but seriously. Looks like you drove west of Boise City for those photos.
You’re not too far off, I probably only see one other 90’s Outback per week. And correct on location, these pics are in CO and NM, way more fellow Outback’s out there…
WRX wheels
The only modification I have done to my 63 Valiant Signet have been the chrome arrows at the rear bumper ends offered on the 64. 35 years ago.
And just for my sense of absurdity, I ordered the “Blue Bubble” accessory kit for the ONION from a vendor on EBay. Still in the factory plastic. This included roof rails, stereo, key fob and parking pawl surround.
I’ve put the roof rails on a couple of times. A nice contrast to the refrigerator white of my car, but they chop up the already choppy styling. But they lend themselves to the baroque weirdness of the car, which is why I bought them for it.
The surrounds are still in the sealed plastic. Never had a key fob, so that was of no use. One day I’ll try putting them on. That Moskvitch style grey industrial interior could use a hint of color.
The kits also came in carbon fiber, brushed aluminum and leopard print. Leopard print doesn’t belong anywhere on a vehicle. Orange does not go with silver. Or champagne beige.
The factory tail lights look better on the Cruze than the aftermarket ones.
Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.
I’m usually not a fan of such things (and never noticed them before), but those ’64 Valiant quarter panel ‘arrow’ chrome bumper extensions are a viable addition. In fact, I’d go so far as to suggest the 1964 Signet is the best looking of the sixties’ Valiants, and a nice custom touch would be to use a ’65 Barracuda grille in one (specifically, a convertible).
Thought the same thing Rudiger.Though I like the 65 best because of the 64 tail light placement and the lack of the “hairpin” stamping in the front fenders of the 63-64. Add the Barracuda grille and you’ve got the perfect 2nd Gen Valiant !!
Not me. I like the thicker bars of the ’64 grille center better, as well as the square back-up lights. The ’64 grille seems to blend better with the center section than the thinner bars of the ’65. But the ’65 style works okay with the Barracuda’s body-color center section and grille turn signals.
Further, it looks like the ’65 still had the hairpin fenders; they just weren’t as wide or pronounced as the two earlier years. It looks like many of the cars had a trim molding that filled in the narrower hairpin indentation, too, which did a good job of hiding it completely. There was no such filler molding for the wide hairpin ’63-’64 cars.
If the modifications on the Cruze weren’t pointed out in Ed’s write up I would have thought the car rolled out of the factory this way. The 300 looks OK except for the fake leopard covers on the dash and rear shelf. I’m not a big fan of 2 tone paint jobs on modern cars, although some of the factory 2 tone paint on ’50’s cars does look good.
There’s no faster way to kill a car’s resale value than to load it up with all sorts of gaudy gee-gaws.
Pretty much bone stock for me. Aftermarket add ons typically look tacky, imo, and sort of give off the wrong vibe, i.e. you are ghetto or trailer trash. Things like those stupid stick on chrome pillar add ons, or fake Buick-esque ventiports, rims, grills, etc. just make a 300 turn ghettofabulous hooptie really quick.
I have a 2014 300c, and I admit, I have thought about putting an old Town and Country hood ornament on it. The crystal ornaments made for cars look ridiculously small even on the little LeBarons so it would look even sillier on the big 300. The van’s ornament looks to be the right size. I just can’t bring myself to do it though, even though I love hood ornaments I have an even greater aversion to “customizing” a car.
I rented a Chevy Cruze out in California a few years back. It was a decent little car, but I really fail to see the point in wasting $1K + on cosmetic “upgrades” for what is basically the upper tier of the General’s penalty boxes.
^ This. Dominic, Allpar featured a 300 in a “Do You Like This Paint Job” type of thread. Rat rod flat black. Looked like a “Salvage Special Edition” 300, a burnt out carcass on 20″ wheels. Being on a flat bed tow truck would have made the “customized” creation complete.
It’s a good thing the stock design of the 300 over-powers even modifications of questionable taste. Much like the 95-2002 Cavalier: you can still see a good looking car underneath the sad sack front end mash up and the cheap plastic wall to wall expansion of the tail lights at the rear.
Yep, that’s pretty much what I think when I see those sorts of 300s. Nice lines, even with all the crap that’s been tacked on.
The worst 300 I’ve personally seen was a newer 300c that the guy had that stupid chrome stripping around every door and the trunk lid along with the same stuff spelling his nickname on the rear bumper. Then the tacked on chrome B and C pillar covers, aftermarket big rims and what looked like an old Packard cormorant hood ornament. I didn’t get a really good look at that, so it was probably just a flag pole eagle but Packard was the first thing to come to mind because it was the first thing I could think of that had a bird hood ornament. So damn tacky, but still, the car underneath all of that looks good!
I can beat that, Dominic. When I still lived in Memphis, I saw a 300 painted tutone forest green and viper green. Not even close to the same shade or tones of green, mind you. And it was jacked up and donked on 24″ or so full face chrome wheels with so many cuts and lines in them they just looked liked crinkled tinfoil. BARF.
I have seen a 300 SRT-8 in ratrod flat black with a huge rootes style blower sticking out of the hood and the rear door handles shaved, giving it a coupe look. Now THATS a hot looking 300! I love customs but not when theyre done by someone who has no vision, taste or sense of what brings out a car’s lines. But opinions are like A-holes…
That color scheme does sound awful and pretty much any time you put big rims on any car its going to look stupid.
I definitely would say the Cruze is more aligned with my tastes, modification wise, I utterly abhor that foosey two tone scheme on the 300 and the chrome pillar inserts everyone seems to add to them are tacky and completely ruin the design.
I share LTD’s approach, I’ve made A LOT of modifications to my Cougar, but every single one is sourced from other factory stock cars that just happened to fit, including wheels.
The Cruze is so subtle that it could LOOK stock unless someone really studied it.
And the Chrysler 300 is so much more subtle than most modified ones.
The extent of my modifications was on the order of (on my 1976 Dodge Aspen Custom) putting on the chrome grill from the SE trimline, in place of the matte silver stock one. After it rained and the grill caught some road splash, you couldn’t tell the difference!
The 300 just became Chryslers effort in the local RWD sedan market nothing special apart from having turbo diesel and a bit underwhelming in the braking and handling areas, I see them here blinged up quite a lot usually big chrome wheels to remove whatever handling abilities they had and a matt wrap, maybe I should shoot some for the cohort, the Cruz suffers from being anonymous amongst a sea of other Aisian cars I overlook every day modofied or not, neither car is an attention grabber sorry.
Chrysler never sold the 300 in the U.S. with diesel. As I understand it, Chrysler even sold a Dodge Magnum with a 300’s front clip as a 300 wagon in some markets. I’m surprised no car customizer in the U.S. has duplicated the 300 Estate….or have they?
You see 300’s and Magnums with the old front clip switcheroo all the time. I think the Magnum’s front clip looks good on the 300. I really don’t prefer one over the other on that car. But the Maggy had its look right all along.
Like others here, I “modded” my 92 Civic hatch with parts that were used in other markets. I “dumped” the front turn signals for clear units with amber bulbs and the rear lights for Japanese market two-color lenses. Because the engine/transaxle was swapped for Integra units, I “Plus 1’d” the wheels but went with black steel wheels with Integra look-alike wheelcovers.
I considered adding aftermarket spoilers front and rear but stayed with the semi-stripper look.
IF I keep my Versa, I’d de-emblem it and maybe have a good paint shop do something custom to wake up the white paint a little, but I agree. The gaudy aftermarket stuff doesn’t last. JC Whitney taught me that one big time.
The colors on that 300 work, but its definitely not to my taste. Ive seen quite a few with the upper half painted black and the cut line usually follows either the beltline or that characterline right thru the door handles….and when it continues front to rear, it looks good. That tangerine under, black upper…that’d be nice.
But this thing is horribly executed. The fact that the orange section drops down over the whole rear fascia makes the trunk look like its been clipped short. And the shape of the colors makes me think of the ass end of a garbage truck. Any additional chrome doo dads would be best inside said garbage truck. And for me, any factory chrome should be either blacked out or done in a charcoal grey. That dimestore pimp interior is gag inducing. And whoever took the time to do all this work to the car didn’t even bother to swap out the factory wheels? The whole thing is just hokey, and as a fan of the LX cars I despise seeing them defiled in craptacular ways.
Im all for customizing your ride. You spend money on it, make it yours. But do it right. Trends that are here today and gone tomorrow will make you a laughing stock. Its better to choose your battles so to speak. Scissor doors and spinner wheels looked like total crap even when it was in style, but now its an unforgiveable eyesore.
The Cruze…why bother? As was mentioned, its an El Cheapo appliance penalty box. Use it to get from point A to point B as you either keep the miles off your ‘real’ ride and subject it to daily drudgery or save up for something better.
*disclaimer*–opinions are like A holes and this is mine!
Now THIS is a clean, well executed 300 with attitude:
Lose those wheels for something racier/more muscle car, black the chrome and this is my dream 300. Chrysler should have built this and called it the 300 Fury from day one!
I dunno. I think it makes more sense to go with the Dodge Challenger and Charger if you want a sporty or muscle LX car as the car’s design language is already decidedly sport.
The Chrysler is more luxury/near luxury in its design language and its name heritage is performance luxury. I would think the perfect 300 would be a 300c with one of the big SRT v8s or even the Hellcat v8 but with absolutely no outside badges saying what is under the hood, and no “S” for sport. Just the regular luxed out 300c but with a hell of a lot of engine. It would be the ultimate sleeper.
I don’t know, the black one has a real bankers hot rod vibe to it, same kind of blend of Luxury and High performance the Mark VII LSCs had, but to modern standards.
Not fond at all of the blue one though, color is too gaudy and the wheels are tacky.
I’m not sure whether I should admit it in this company, but I couldn’t pick what was changed about the Cruze until I read the text. Is a ‘meh’ car still ‘meh’ if you can’t pick the mods?
I do like the exterior of the Chrysler though. If I had to drive one, I’d be happy with that – though I’d lose that dash mat so fast…..
EVERYBODY in my neighborhood swaps the original lights for ones with LED’s. It does not matter if LED’s were invented at the time the car rolled off the line. It looks stupid on 99 percent of applications imho.
I like the 300 a little more. At least the owner tried to make it distinctive. The Cruze owner wants an old car to look like a new car and that’s just not done with a couple of new lights.
Just my opinion of course.
The concept of a two tone job is OK, but the execution seems to be lacking most of the time. That 300 COULD look good with a black/platinum two tone, similar to what Cadillac did on the late 70s square Seville Elegante series.
There’s also the issue of what to do with the seam where the colors meet…cover it with a pinstripe? Leave it raw? Do you repaint the whole car, and shoot clear coat over the whole shebang, or did you just add the 2nd color to an existing finish? The clear and color will want to chip and peel if you leave a hard edge, which will make the whole thing look like crap in no time.
That’s my car.When did this happen? why is my car on here?