2008 Chrysler 300 Touring from North America - Comments

The car is as perfect as you can get. It isn't a Rolls Royce, however for the workmanship in the auto it might as well be. I haven't had any problems with the car, it runs perfectly.

The car is great looking, and performance for this kind of a car is awesome as well. I have driven many Chrysler products, and I can tell you that it is as good as previous vehicles I have had, if not a lot better in quality, and performance.

I have have read many reviews where people complain about reliability, or build quality. I have the 3.5 V6 with the convenience package and the car is absolutely beautiful and a joy to drive, and is in line with other cars or better on reliability.

I average 30 miles to the gallon on the highway, and around 21 in town. I had a 2006 model and it was a great car as well. I have looked and compared, and the Honda Accord at the top level can compete with the Touring, and the Touring is cheaper and just as reliable, and in most areas more fuel efficient for a large sedan.

I am the original poster of the previous post. Doing an update since I purchased the car.

In other posts you will see negative comments against the dealers they bought their car from or took it to for repairs or updates.

The sales team where I bought the car worked hard to get the deal done for me. I had door seals that didn't match up on the passenger side doors, and a broken rear vent (the car was a Hertz rental), and honestly I didn't feel they should have to replace the rear vent because obviously the 7 months at the rental place is what caused the damage. However the dealership where I purchased the car from ordered the parts for the rear vents and door seals; also they put the WI (Wireless Interface) on the car and found 3 modules that needed to be updated, transmission, radio and center cluster. They did all the needed updates, and repairs at no cost (car still under warranty).

The car is as perfect as it can get, and I am extremely happy with it. Only things I hated them changing on the car is removing the second intake manifold metering valve and they replaced the Mercedes transmission with the Chrysler 42RLE transmission. I am not bashing the Chrysler transmission, however it just doesn't have the same level of refinement that the Mercedes transmission. However overall this car is still much better then most available on the market, and is sad now that Chrysler is yet again facing Bankruptcy, I hope all works out for this amazing (yet some times stupid) company.

Do you mean to say that they had to replace the transmission on your vehicle? Or are you just saying that in general, when they switched model years, they quit using a Mercedes transmission and started using a Chrysler transmission? I'm interested, because replacing a transmission would be a fairly significant detail on a new car.

The answer is no. Chrysler was using the 42RLE transmission for the base models and limited areas in the Touring line, in the beginning of the introduction of the new 300. From 2005 to the end of 2007 most (if not all) Touring line and up had the Mercedes designed transmission in them. At 2008 and up, the only way to get the Mercedes transmission is to buy a Touring or Limited model with all wheel drive, or a 300C or SRT8. This move was done to save the company money. I was told the 42RLE is $1800 cheaper to produce then the Mercedes 5 speed, they also removed one of the hood support struts (which will cause hood alignment issues down the road), removed the 2nd tuning valve in the intake manifold.

While some of what I have listed is minor, the biggest mistakes are the removal of the 2nd intake manifold tuning valve and the discontinued use of the Mercedes 5 speed on the regular Touring models.

Again, I still love my car, it's awesome. I have people I don't even know all the time comment on how nice it is. It's just hard to accept the way they have re-designed a already perfect product, when you know it can and was better in the beginning.

Again the dealers have been very nice, I have gotten all needed updates for the transmission software, got door seals fixed, vents fixed and some body moldings, all has went well. However if I was to grade the 42RLE's performance, I would have to grade it as an "F", because it is substandard compared to what it replaced. As a suggestion, I would recommend any 300 Touring model or above from 2005 to 2007.