New car?

[dodge man]

Kind of off subject, but I'm looking for suggestions for a new car. We currently have a Chrysler 300C, about 60,000 miles on it and are thinking of trading for a new or low mileage used car. We like the car buts its devoloping a lot of rattles, partly due to the paved but rough rodes we live on out in the country.

Yesterday, we drove a 2006 300C SRT8. I kind of wanted to drive it for the heck of it, but the wife didn't like it, it rode a little rougher then her current car and she didn't like the sport bucket seats. I loved it, wicked fast, but its her car so its out. It had 9000 miles on it and they wanted $28k. It seemed very resonable since it was probably a $40,000 car new.

We also drove a Cadillac CTS. 2009, 3200 miles, 40k. We really wanted to like it, but it was a little smaller than our 300C, noticable less power, and just didn't impress us. Rode great, very quiet, but just didn't stack up against our current car.

We also drove a 2009 Challenger RT, 12,000 miles, 32k. This put a smile on my wifes face, but I think its too sporty for her, and we have a 12 year old daughter, and 15 year old son. The kids would love it, but my wife it worried about them climbing in the back seat. I think her biggest dislike is it just doesn't fit the image she wants, she said it will make her look like she is having a mid life crisis. I was impressed with the ride, firm but good, the power was great, and the trunk was huge.

We have also been looking at new 300C's, but the price has climbed. We got our car for 30k in 2005. It seems like the same car today is 40k. The only real difference is side airbags are on them now. I'm also afraid it will end up with the same rattles our current one has after a few years.

I guess we are looking for a larger midsized sedan leaning more on the luxary side. Any suggestions? My wife is pretty pick when it comes to the stuff, even going out of her way to get the exact color she wants.

 

[Diamondpilot]

Take a look at Lincoln. They are very highly rated, in the top 5 for customer satisfaction.

The company I work for dumped all of our Caddys and GM product last year after we got $.20 on the dollar from Obama and his boys for products we had delivered prior to the bankruptcy. The got Lincolns for all of our company cars. The execs really squalled because they loved the Caddys, both cars and SUV's. Now they are all in love with the Lincolns. I would say 30% have bought a second one, at a great deal due to the relationship through our company, for the husband or wife. These are guys and gals who could buy anything. Most have BMW's, Audi's, Mercedes, ect. but have grown to love the Lincolns. Trust me they are hard to please, I fly them every day.:thumbsup:


Chris

 

[mustangsallysdad]

Kind of off subject, but I'm looking for suggestions for a new car. We currently have a Chrysler 300C, about 60,000 miles on it and are thinking of trading for a new or low mileage used car. We like the car buts its devoloping a lot of rattles, partly due to the paved but rough rodes we live on out in the country.

Yesterday, we drove a 2006 300C SRT8. I kind of wanted to drive it for the heck of it, but the wife didn't like it, it rode a little rougher then her current car and she didn't like the sport bucket seats. I loved it, wicked fast, but its her car so its out. It had 9000 miles on it and they wanted $28k. It seemed very resonable since it was probably a $40,000 car new.

We also drove a Cadillac CTS. 2009, 3200 miles, 40k. We really wanted to like it, but it was a little smaller than our 300C, noticable less power, and just didn't impress us. Rode great, very quiet, but just didn't stack up against our current car.

We also drove a 2009 Challenger RT, 12,000 miles, 32k. This put a smile on my wifes face, but I think its too sporty for her, and we have a 12 year old daughter, and 15 year old son. The kids would love it, but my wife it worried about them climbing in the back seat. I think her biggest dislike is it just doesn't fit the image she wants, she said it will make her look like she is having a mid life crisis. I was impressed with the ride, firm but good, the power was great, and the trunk was huge.

We have also been looking at new 300C's, but the price has climbed. We got our car for 30k in 2005. It seems like the same car today is 40k. The only real difference is side airbags are on them now. I'm also afraid it will end up with the same rattles our current one has after a few years.

I guess we are looking for a larger midsized sedan leaning more on the luxary side. Any suggestions? My wife is pretty pick when it comes to the stuff, even going out of her way to get the exact color she wants.

My wife has a new Ford Taurus SHO and it is the best of both worlds...stupid fast (I have a '69 Mach 1 SCJ, I know fast) V6, great sporty, but not too firm ride, lots of room, good gas mileage, we are very impressed with it.

 

[turbo36]

My wife has a new Ford Taurus SHO and it is the best of both worlds...stupid fast (I have a '69 Mach 1 SCJ, I know fast) V6, great sporty, but not too firm ride, lots of room, good gas mileage, we are very impressed with it.

+1 :thumbsup:

 

[Egon]

Just start looking at other cars till the sedate mid aged one comes home with you.

Lexus, BMW, Mercedes, Volkswagen

and off course, the short bed 4x4 four door PU's.

 

[Bird]

Take a look at Lincoln

And if the Lincoln is a bit too expensive, try out a Mercury Grand Marquis.

 

[dodge man]

I've thought about the Lincolns. Sorry, the Tarus SHO doesn't do it for us, but I've, read good things about it. The Mercedes and BMW's are a little out of our price range I think.

 

[Dmace]

The Chrysler 300's underpinnings (suspension, transmission, etc...) are directly sourced right from Mercedes and it's basically an E-class underneath. If you are going down roads rough enough to make that suspension rattle in 60k miles then any of the others will be worse in even less mileage. Especially a car like the Lincoln Town Car / Mercury Grand Marquis, that car has been pretty much unchanged since the mid-90's and it shows. Look at any comparison test by Motor Trend, Auto Week, Automobile, etc... and the Lincoln/Mercury is typically in last place with the Chrysler or Buick in first.

Also, was your 300C AWD or RWD? The AWD version like many others tend to be harder on suspensions and have stiffer setups from the factory. The Chrysler 300C is the leader of the full-size sedan class, I bet the others will leave you even more disappointed. Find out what is rattling which is most likely bushings and end links and replace them with aftermarket MOOG parts. They will last longer and give a better ride.

That Ford Taurus SHO looks impressive! I bet it certainly has a huge fun factor but still too new to know it's reliability. If you don't need such a large car, the Ford Fusion/Mercury Milan is receiving high marks from testers and available in AWD.

 

[Diamondpilot]

I should clarify. When I was talking Lincoln there is not 1 Town Car of the 60 plus our execs have. They are all the new stuff like the MKS, MKX, MKZ, MKT, and a few Navigators.

I agree the Town Car is really showing its age but the new stuff rivals anything BMW or Mercedes is making at a much better price point. The Navigator is starting to show its age a little also.

As for the Mercury's I have personally, well my wife, owned a 2004 Mountaineer and a 2006 Milan. Both were great vehicles. The Mountaineer was ordered the way we wanted it with the 4.6V8, all wheel drive, 3.73 gears, ect. It had 68,000 miles when we traded it on the Milan and the tires still had half the tread. Only thing I did to that truck was front brakes, oil changes, and took it in for a recall on the back hatch. It averaged 18mpg and towed 5,000# to 7,000# about 10 times or 1,500 miles. Not much but did get some work duty. Mainly my tractor and my Dads Corvette and did a great job. The Milan we leased for 30,000 miles and turned in at the end. Zero issues with it and the all wheel drive was amazing. She took that car through snowy roads my 4x4 Diesel F-350 with factory tires I would have had trouble with.

Chris

 

[CurlyDave]

We have had two Toyota Highlanders. When the first one got to 100k miles I wanted my wife to get a new car because she drives a lot alone and I don't want her to have car trouble.

First one now has 120k miles and I drive it whenever I want better mileage than my truck. No problems.

Second one is 65k miles and again no problems. We have AWD on that one and it just keeps going. The accelerator issues are greatly overblown.

If you want a sedan, I would look long and hard at the Avalon and Camry. Maybe not exciting, but no surprises either.

 

[mustangsallysdad]

My wife has a new Ford Taurus SHO and it is the best of both worlds...stupid fast (I have a '69 Mach 1 SCJ, I know fast) V6, great sporty, but not too firm ride, lots of room, good gas mileage, we are very impressed with it.

By the way, the wife's SHO is also AWD...and let's not forget...Ford DID NOT take any bailout money, DID NOT lay off thousands of workers, DID NOT pull the plug on our local dealers and DID NOT shut down a bunch of assembly plants...THEY DID take the fiscally responsible route and do what was necessary to keep their product line moving, keep the price points reasonable, keep small dealerships open, continue contracts with all of their ancillary vendors and manage to turn a 2+ billion profit this quarter...pretty impressive in this economy and you have to love the fact that they thumbed their noses at the government bailout with all of the caveats that came along with it...as Frankie would say "They did it their way"...my kudos and business goes to Ford. Go BIG BLUE!!!

 

[dodge man]

Lots of good suggestions. Our 300C is RWD. You are correct, the 300 is basically a Mercedes under the skin. The problem is, the desgin is Mercedes, but many of the componets are different materials. Say the Mercedes componet is made of alumuminum, the Chrysler componet may be make of steel. I have replaced tie rod ends already. Rattles can be hard to find, it seems like the component almost has to be ready to fall apart before it becomes obivious. I have gotten on some 300C forums and the rattles are common. People get them fixed, but often have to throw a lot of parts at them before they find the problem, often under warranty. Ours had been out of warranty for a while.

I have looked at Toyota products. Great cars, my boss had an Avalon, but they don't excite me and the wife doesn't like the looks. What we like about the 300C is the size, options, looks and power. What we don't like is all the rattles.

Maybe its just me, but I see the end of this kind of car coming soon. Same thing for a lot of the pickups. I don't see how they can survive with the upcoming CAFE standards.

 

[Diamondpilot]

By the way, the wife's SHO is also AWD...and let's not forget...Ford DID NOT take any bailout money, DID NOT lay off thousands of workers, DID NOT pull the plug on our local dealers and DID NOT shut down a bunch of assembly plants...THEY DID take the fiscally responsible route and do what was necessary to keep their product line moving, keep the price points reasonable, keep small dealerships open, continue contracts with all of their ancillary vendors and manage to turn a 2+ billion profit this quarter...pretty impressive in this economy and you have to love the fact that they thumbed their noses at the government bailout with all of the caveats that came along with it...as Frankie would say "They did it their way"...my kudos and business goes to Ford. Go BIG BLUE!!!

Very well said. They will be the only current US manufacture to get mine or my family's business. I want to reward those who have a clue and do it right.

As for the Dodge/Chrysler product line my experience has been they have the best styling but the product just seems to lack the quality. I loved the looks of my 2500 Hemi but all the little issues drove me nuts. It was always something. I know they have a price point to meet but it seemed to me like they spent all the money on design and not materials.

Chris

 

[Bird]

I have driven a number of 4WD vehicles (even owned one), but I can't recall ever driving an AWD vehicle, except very short distances in Subarus (just moving them in and out of the shop). But everything I've read and heard about them makes me think I would really like that Taurus SHO; just can't afford it. I've never been impressed by the "looks" of any Taurus, but I've driven several, including ones both of our daughters used to drive, and really liked the "feel" (handling and performance), and "looks" is about the last thing I consider when buying a car. I'm too old to care about impressing anyone with what I drive.:laughing:

 

[mustangsallysdad]

I have driven a number of 4WD vehicles (even owned one), but I can't recall ever driving an AWD vehicle, except very short distances in Subarus (just moving them in and out of the shop). But everything I've read and heard about them makes me think I would really like that Taurus SHO; just can't afford it. I've never been impressed by the "looks" of any Taurus, but I've driven several, including ones both of our daughters used to drive, and really liked the "feel" (handling and performance), and "looks" is about the last thing I consider when buying a car. I'm too old to care about impressing anyone with what I drive.:laughing:

365 HP and 350 lbft of torque out of a V6...it's a blast to drive.

 

[CurlyDave]

Same thing for a lot of the pickups. I don't see how they can survive with the upcoming CAFE standards.

The pickups are a tough issue.

An awful lot of very small businesses rely heavily on the sheer handiness of a full size pickup. Contractors, Farms & Ranches, Maintenance, etc.

I just don't see how the government can shut all of these people down.

 

[Bird]

I'm sure it won't shut anyone down; however, I expect pickup trucks to go up in price. The Ford Transit Connect seems a bit odd to me, still, but I'm seeing more and more of them used by businesses in this area as delivery vehicles. I expect the other manufacturers to have something similar in the near future to compete with them.

 

[Dmace]

Ford DID NOT take any bailout money, DID NOT lay off thousands of workers, DID NOT pull the plug on our local dealers and DID NOT shut down a bunch of assembly plants...THEY DID take the fiscally responsible route and do what was necessary to keep their product line moving, keep the price points reasonable, keep small dealerships open, continue contracts with all of their ancillary vendors

Give me a break!
Do you really think that Ford didn't lay-off thousands of people and Ford didn't shut down plants just like the others? It wasn't blasted all over the news but they laid off thousands of workers and shut down hundreds of plants (even the Chicago plant temporarily) just the same.

I am so sick of people trying to play the "Ford didn't take a bailout" card. YES THEY DID! The only difference is Ford took money in the form of small loan subsidies for making fuel efficient vehicles which means not only are they taking a loan but they ARE NOT PAYING INTEREST ON IT! At least GM and Chrysler are paying back the loans with interest so we the tax payers are making money off the bailouts eventually. Plus with the bailout money, the US government got majority ownership in stocks that they can sit on and sell once the two companies are profitable again. Ford will never make us any money! They will just continue to get free interest loans from the US tax payers and spend it.

HERE READ UP!
Ford Takes $5.9 Billion Government Loan

On a side note Dodge Man, take a look at the Hyundai Azera too. It's about the same size wise with a good 263hp V6 base engine and about the same price. Hyundai right now is what Toyota was back in the early 90's where they make great vehicles for a good price until the name is well known.

 

[Diamondpilot]

Give me a break!
Do you really think that Ford didn't lay-off thousands of people and Ford didn't shut down plants just like the others? It wasn't blasted all over the news but they laid off thousands of workers and shut down hundreds of plants (even the Chicago plant temporarily) just the same.

I am so sick of ignorant people trying to play the "Ford didn't take a bailout" card. YES THEY DID! The only difference is Ford took money in the form of small loan subsidies for making fuel efficient vehicles which means not only are they taking a loan but they ARE NOT PAYING INTEREST ON IT! At least GM and Chrysler are paying back the loans with interest so we the tax payers are making money off the bailouts eventually. Plus with the bailout money, the US government got majority ownership in stocks that they can sit on and sell once the two companies are profitable again. Ford will never make us any money! They will just continue to get free interest loans from the US tax payers and spend it.

HERE READ UP!
Ford Takes $5.9 Billion Government Loan

Night and day!:laughing:

Chris

 

[mustangsallysdad]

Give me a break!
Do you really think that Ford didn't lay-off thousands of people and Ford didn't shut down plants just like the others? It wasn't blasted all over the news but they laid off thousands of workers and shut down hundreds of plants (even the Chicago plant temporarily) just the same.

I am so sick of ignorant people trying to play the "Ford didn't take a bailout" card. YES THEY DID! The only difference is Ford took money in the form of small loan subsidies for making fuel efficient vehicles which means not only are they taking a loan but they ARE NOT PAYING INTEREST ON IT! At least GM and Chrysler are paying back the loans with interest so we the tax payers are making money off the bailouts eventually. Plus with the bailout money, the US government got majority ownership in stocks that they can sit on and sell once the two companies are profitable again. Ford will never make us any money! They will just continue to get free interest loans from the US tax payers and spend it.

HERE READ UP!
Ford Takes $5.9 Billion Government Loan

On a side note Dodge Man, take a look at the Hyundai Azera too. It's about the same size wise with a good 263hp V6 base engine and about the same price. Hyundai right now is what Toyota was back in the early 90's where they make great vehicles for a good price until the name is well known.

"shut down hundreds of plants" ??? Do you have a source for that? You lost your credibility with that one!