No doubt you have been seeing these cars more and more over the past year… and their drivers are becoming more and more diverse. Everybody can find something to love about the Chrysler 300, from executive 30-somethings, college bound 20-somethings, muscle car era 40-somethings, on up to even wheelchair hot rodding 90-somethings.

20-Somethings:

Undoubtedly if you ask a 20-something what they liked best about their 300, they will probably mention the style, 22/24 wheel capability, and the word “Hemi” will probably be mixed somewhere in there as well.

The entire line of Chrysler 300’s are toting powerful engines, from their baseline V6 on up to their top of the line SRT-8. The base 300 ($23,000) has a 178-horsepower 2.7 liter V6 with a four-speed automatic transmission. The Touring and Limited ($27,000-$29,000) 300 have a 250 horsepower 3.5 liter V6, with a five-speed automatic transmission.

The top echelon 300 ”C” and 300C SRT-8 feature the infamous Hemi V8 engine. The 300C ($36,000) is good for 340 horsepower while the SRT-8 ($42,000) is even better at 425 horsepower. It is important however to realize that you are toting around a five-seat sedan upwards of 4,000 lbs, so as impressive as these numbers may seem, their 0-60 tells yet another story.

0-60 for the V-6 2.7 is around 10 seconds. The 3.5 gets there at 8 seconds. The 300C is just under 7 seconds, while the 300C SRT-8 can push you back in your seat at 6.1 seconds (Popular Mechanics). So, your going to have to shell out the big bucks (over $40,000) if you want to win any races (at the track of course).

30-Somethings:

The more family/business oriented 30-something crowd will enjoy the power of the 300 just as much as the 20-somethings, but on the practical side, the 300 is a very affordable “luxury/family” sedan. With the base 300 Touring you can get fog lamps, four-wheel disc (anti-lock) brakes, traction control, stability control, emergency brake assist, leather upholstery, and All-Wheel Drive, all for just a little under 30K in most cases.

40-Somethings:

With age and intelligence comes the knowledge that your most enjoyable time spent with a new car is inside of it, so you might as well make the most of it. There seems to be two sides to the 300’s interior… you will either love it or hate it.

For many, the large leather seats are very comfortable, while the chrome interior accents and white face gauges are pleasing and reminiscent of a performance oriented vehicle. The speedometer even goes to 160 to go along with the 300’s overall bulging presence and estimated 150+ speed capability.

Others say that the interior is full of cheap plastics that are not pleasing to either the look or touch. They say the arm rests are harsh, the vinyl material on the steering wheel is tacky, and the tortoise shell accents are unflattering.

Have a look and decide for yourself which side of the fence you fall…

Either way, the Chrysler 300 is a decent car for your dollar and offers something that just about anyone will enjoy!

You read that correct folks… the “Let’s Refuel America” program by Chrysler is currently afoot, and you’ve already lost one weeks time that this program is set to run. From May 7^th to June 2^nd, 2008, Chrysler is offering a guarantee that for the next three years any customer who purchases or leases a qualifying vehicle will not, I repeat WILL NOT have to pay anything over $2.99 a gallon for gas.

As Chrysler puts it:

“These are some challenging times. Fortunately, the Let’s Refuel America Program is doing what it can to help you get through it.”

Kind of makes you proud to be an American, don’t it. I can already see the old red, white, and blue waving across the gas tank of a Chrysler 300.

The way it works, is upon the purchase or lease of a new Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep vehicle, you tell them which credit card it is that you use to purchase your gas. They take that number and set it up so that whenever you use that card, regardless the price or location you are in, you will only be charged $2.99 per each gallon you pump in.

Unless Chrysler knows something that we don’t know, this would seem to be plain crazy. As it stands today, most regular fuel buyers are already paying at least $0.50 over this price. That’s around $8.00 discount per fill up of your average tank.

If you then consider the fact that fuel prices are predicted to reach the $5.00 range at some point in the future… you could expect as much as $5,000 back from Chrysler, depending on your driving needs and habits of course.

But that just seems to be too good to be true. What’s the catch?

• You need to have either a Master Card or Visa to even be enrolled in the program, and debit cards will not count.
• Once your card is activated for this program, it can only be used to buy gas.
• The program only works for regular (87 octane) gasoline, diesel, or E85.
• Mid grade gas (88 to 89 octane) will cost $3.14 per gallon.
• Premium fuel (90 to 94 octane) will cost $3.29 per gallon.
• For purchases beyond the 87 octane gasoline (meaning diesel or E85) the consumer will be charged a $2.00 service fee. (actually there are several scenarios where the consumer can be charged the $2.00 service fee)
• “All SRT models, Sprinter, Viper, Crossfire, Wrangler, Wrangler Unlimited, Ram Chassis Cab, and Challenger models (will be) ineligible to participate in this program.” (darn!)
• The purchaser will be given a yearly allotment of gas they are pre-approved to use each year. Once that allotment is full, the card will not allow anymore purchases until the new year turns over.
• Their yearly allotment is calculated based on the MPG of the vehicle and the expectation that the owner or leaser will be driving only 12,000 miles per year. So in other words, the more gas you guzzle, the more gas you get… obviously not a “Green” program.
  • Examples of yearly gallon allowances:

    Model/Gallons

    Chrysler 300 1,800

    Chrysler300C 2,118

    Chrysler Aspen 2,400

    Chrysler Pacifica 2,118

    Chrysler PT Cruiser 1,636

    Chrysler Sebring 1,714

    Chrysler Town & Country 1,895

    Dodge Avenger 1,714

    Dodge Caliber 1,500

    Dodge Charger 2,000

    Dodge Grand Caravan 1,895

    Dodge Journey 1,800

    Dodge Magnum 2,000

    Dodge Dakota 2,250

    Dodge Durango 2,400

    Dodge Nitro 2,000

    Dodge Ram 2,400

    Jeep Commander 2,400

    Jeep Compass 1,500

    Jeep Grand Cherokee 2,250

    Jeep Liberty 2,000

    Jeep Patriot 1,565

• This program will not be transferable upon selling the vehicle within the 3 year time frame.
• And most importantly, Chrysler has put a clause in the agreement that they may back out and/or change the rules at anytime during those three years. (Yeah, perhaps that aren’t as crazy as it first sounded!)

This is a great marketing idea. Instead of the typical one time cash back incentive… this could be a “gift that keeps on giving” throughout the next 3 Christmas seasons. So, if you’ve been mulling over getting a new Chrysler, Dodge, or Jeep… now is the time!

Engine Shutoff for Naughty Car Buyers-

This gadget is not always such a good one to have on your car… especially if you make a habit of being a few days late on the payment of your bills. On the other hand, for those with poor credit, this handy little device might be an amount of reassurance for the dealer that you WILL pay on time.

This is how it works - for many of these devices, after you pay your bill on time they send you a code number to type into your “black box” and it will allow you a full month’s use of your car. However, if you do not pay your bill, you will not receive a code and your car will sit out in the driveway inoperable until the “repo” person can get there.

The other method is through wireless remote that can be activated or deactivated by the push of a button. But as we all know, there will probably be ways to bypass such devices, and to stop this they will have to dig deeper into your cars electrical system… which means more problems for you!

Just as long as they don’t start putting alarm systems on homes that won’t allow the owners to enter if they forgot to pay the mortgage on time!

Web Access for Your Beemer -

Well, as if you couldn’t have already seen this one coming…BMW is going to be introducing Internet as an option in their vehicle line, called ConnectedDrive. It will use the exact same technology most cell phones use, which really has to make one wonder, why bother.

We are talking about using Edge Technology, so you know high speed should not be a problem. And it won’t be a problem, simply because high speed is simply not an option with “Edge” technology. You have slow, and then you have slow, and if you are really in a hurry, you have even slower.

At least the screen will be bigger that your cell phone and it is situated in the center of the dashboard , so it will be easy to access by both the driver and passenger. It will be controlled by a an iDrive mouse, so detailed maneuvering might be next to impossible.

For safety sake the Internet will not function while in motion, but if you’re ever stuck in a traffic jam and you notice the Beemer in front of you hasn’t moved in awhile… now you’ll know why!