I take back everything I sad that was negative about the 300M. I had the chance to see one on the highway yesterday and MAN...it was SWEET looking. Dual exhaust, HUGE rims (look like 18's), low to the ground...the thing looked dropped, but I sure it was stock...also had turn signals in the sideview mirrors ala merc benz. The car was black with grey trim running along the bottom. I was actually jealous that my car probably didn't look that good!

I tried to get him to run with me...I passed him on the left, waited a little while, he looked like he was accelerating up to me, so I dropped it into 3rd and took off...but he didn't follow.

If they made those things with 6spds...well...who knows!

 

The 18" wheels with gray lower panels denote the "Special" trim. It has a slight bump in power and some other cosmetic enhancements. I totally agree, those are sweet looking cars.

 

From what I've heard the extra bump in power is offset by the additional weight in the 18inch wheels and tires and some other new additions on the Special package. Reportedly, it's not much faster than the original.

I read that somewhere..not sure where though.

John

 

Yeah those are some nice cars but I really want to test drive the new mercury's. I forgot the name I think its the murauder (sp) 300 + hp! nice and sleek too..Probably handles like a boat though

 

300M, Special or not, doesn't break the 7sec mark to 60.

"Less obvious is the additional power from the engine, which is not surprising, given the minor 5 horsepower boost. Torquey off the line, the 3.5-liter V6 gets caught flat-footed when the throttle is punched from a rolling start. Mid-range response is strong, but the 300 is a large car, and we extracted a relatively leisurely 0-to-60 time of 7.6 seconds during our testing. In terms of refinement, this Chrysler mill is no match for the Nissan Maxima's sweet V6 of identical displacement. Laudably, we managed to average almost 20 miles per gallon over the 860 miles we drove the car in a mix of city and highway driving"

From Edmunds

The Mercury Marauder has the 2002 Cobra's DOHC V8... Sweeeet!

 

Yeah, it was the special edition. It looked really nice, especially rollin. If they could just drop some weight off the car, they'd have a winner (with a manual of course). The way the car sat on the huge wheels looked really good. I've never seen a stock car from the US look so nice out of the box.

 

I had a 300M for the last 3 years (a 1999 for those of you inept in math lol). It is a Nice car. Handles very very well for a big car. And I do mean big car. I think the only real problem with it is that it is a Chrysler.

Now that I have had my Max for 1 month I can say that I like the Max better than the 300M. The 300M does look better on the outside and I loved the autostick and the white guages that have an indigo blue backlight at night. Classy. But the price is also higher. Loaded is $44k here and the Max is $37k (MSRP). More car for less money. The only good thing is Chrysler has really low financing to try and sell some of them. I wish I had 0.9% financing on the Max.

 

For all the power of the Mercury Marauder, it weighs 4200 lbs, so it's pretty slow. Car and Driver or Road and Track had a test drive and it had like a 7+ sec 0-60 time and 1/4 mile time in the 15s. Nothing to worry about.

As for the 300M, I don't know what you guys are talking about. Hideous back end, typical Chrysler styling, weighs a lot too.

 

My aunt has a Concorde, and I really like that car. It's not incredibly fast, and it feels like it needs a shot of torque, but that engine is so smooth and quiet. I love the look of the car too, and the ride is superb. I love Chryslers myself. I think they should have done much better than they should...I mean heck, Concordes cost about $35K loaded I think. Maybe even a bit less, and you get so much for that money. With GM for example, you could get a Regal I guess...wow. Chrysler to me is so far ahead of GM it's not even funny. It's a shame to see Chrylser doing so poorly. I think GM deserves to be punched in the face. I despise GM and their "quality" work. And yes the 300Ms rear is ugly. I like the LHS myself. That thing is nice .

 

The only problem with the LHS is that it is 10.5" longer and it is all trunk space. The 300M also has the sport suspension and the autostick. And as of the rear end IMO, I liked the rear. I guess its like the Max rear end (and mine). Some people love it, some hate it.

When I was looking for a car then (in 1999) I was just about to lease a Max. I could not find even 1 300M to see. Everyone had LHS in stock and they were just too big. When I went by to talk to the salesman that had sold me my last car (a Sebring LXi Convertible in Candy Apple Red... Nice...) just to tell him that there is nothing I am interested in that Chrysler has, I said "unless you have a 300M?". He told me "there are only 2 in Quebec, 1 near Quebec City and this one" and he pointed to 1 in the parking lot.

It was the boss's wifes demo with 6000kms (~4000 miles) on it. I took it for a test drive and while in the car with my mom I told her "this is my car", I got back and signed for it right then and there. I was not sorry either but this time around I wanted that Max I did not get back then. I guess I was sub-consciously waiting for the 5th gens to come out. BTW... 300M is certainly not fast off the line but it was said to have the fasted 50-70mph time.

 

marauder is also something like 35k. Not even close to worth it.

 

marauder's sweet...but it's not as fast as the impala ss (still my dream car). but, the marauder's prolly really easy to mod like the SS, unlike the maxima.