Only FWD GM I have driven was a DTS last year when I was in Detroit, superb car, traction control off it would chirp the tires from 40mph, several other GM cars I have driven over the years where nice but the super soft suspensions absorbed everything but they also suffered from under steer, and noway I could drive the same way as in my Maxima

 

I've been wanting to drive a 300C, Charger or Magnum to experience how well the Mercedes technology filtered through. Too bad the cord's been cut from the motherland.

Then again, I've always felt that Chrysler has always had the advantage over other (traditional) domestic mfg's (yes I know there are some decent recent GM's)... even if it didn't filter down to all models. I had a '93 Intrepid ES company car that I had ordered (one of the advantages of being the fleet manager for your company) with the relatively rare Level III suspension setup (Emerson Fittipaldi tuned, supposedly). That car was absolutely amazing for its size (larger than 6G Max)... very much in the euro idiom as far as suspension tuning plus decent 225/60VR16 Michelin XGT V4 tires (huge for their day).

Unfortunately, that car was totalled in a nasty wreck...




It was replaced with a '94 model that was absolutely identical except that it only had the Level II suspension standard on the ES model. That car's handling was EVIL... much worse than my '07 Max... floated, wallowed, squealed the tires (Goodyear Eagle GS-A's same size as the Michelins) badly even at low speeds. I couldn't see how anybody could ever prefer that over the other suspension, but Chrysler still made it the standard suspension. They KNEW how to make that big car handle, but somebody, somewhere, decided that the majority of Intrepid owners should not be able to experience it.

Not quite to the same degree, but I feel much the same way about my '07 Max... I know it wouldn't have taken much at all to put the right suspension components to make it a "real" SE, but somebody somewhere made that same type of decision that Chrysler did. At least with the Intrepid, Chrysler gave the opportunity for those that cared to order it with a decent suspension setup. Nissan took away that choice by giving the SE a crappy SL grade suspension with no factory upgrade path.

 

Even with the split of Chrysler and MB, Chrysler still has a deal with MB to continue to use the E-Class platform as well as what else is used in the rest of the line up, 300/Charger owners all have their fingers crossed that this Chrysler model is not a one time thing.

 

The Conti tires are really only good at one thing and that they are (well were) quite. I have since replaced them with Kumho ASX. What a difference.

Got to tirerack.com and ready some of the reviews on the Conti.

 

WOW, i did not see those pictures before, looks painful for the driver

 

I had ASX's on my '03. Was very happy with them, especially at the price.

 

I had scatches on my elbow and a very sore neck... that's all. The car saved my butt... had lots of side crush space. The interior was not as "encroached upon" as the outside suggests:



No side airbags, unfortunately. Those XGT V4's (that you can see folded under the car) were fantastic tires for their day. The whole car was amazing in the handling department for such a large car.

That accident did prompt my wife to want to upsize the rather narrow '87 Max for the larger '95 Max (my first repeat Max aquisition). (Notice that the '95 SE was not my first set of white guages, lol)