Then the price jumps to what??? $70-75,000?

Buy an 300 SRT-8 for the weekends, and a 300C as a spare.

... or buy a SRT-8 for about 40 grand, invest about $5,000 on upgrades, and take the other spare $30 grand and make a down payment on a house.

 

I read the Car and Driver article, and as typical, they're $55,000 price cap kept the top-shelf Cadillac off of the comparison. Basically they tested a car with V6 equipment and a V8 engine that was decidedly biased towards understeer to keep the suspension soft... and then complained about it.

Wouldn't one expect a gentler ride in a Cadillac tuned for comfort instead of performance?

Next time, bring out the big guns...

Hopefully a full-book AWD STS-V against all comers.

My opinion hasn't changed. It's the finest true production car I've ever driven.



Chryslers... for the love of Pete...

 

From the way that article read, it seemed like they wanted all these cars to handle like ***** to the walls sports cars, ride quality and tire noise be damned. They should have tested the CTS-v if that was their perrogaritve. Its about the same size as other cars in that test(on the smaller side of that range though). And it would have blown the doors off all those other cars by a long shot. Granted, the interior isn't as nice, but I think it would have won that comparision test by a wide margin.

 

It's not that I can't tell the difference, but I think you might be right when you say that I don't get the difference - as in, I don't get why I'd ever spend an extra $30K to buy a loaded STS over a 300C SRT8, when that difference would buy me a small hunting cabin on 20-40 acres in the U.P. When you start talking about getting nice wood and better panel fits, or building a nice pole barn, I think I know which one I'll pick.

It comes down to value, and frankly I don't see the value in a luxury car (or luxury SUV, for that matter). I drive to work in a 14-year-old Caprice, my wife's got a 4-year-old Accord, and so perhaps I'm not the person that's going to be most-receptive to your ideas of automotive snootiness despite the fact that we've got the household income to put much nicer machinery in the driveway.

Can I understand and respect the difference between a $40K car and a $70K car? My employeer's customers would tell you that I can, given the compliments that my co-workers and I have gotten for sweating the details. Does that mean that those details are worth a goddamn penny to me? Nope. $30K would buy me a lot of nice machine-shop tools that'll still be churning out custom parts for my projects well after your STS has depreciated into the sort of fancy used car that teenage boys use to pry open the legs of unsupecting girls.

What's really funny to me, though, is that you've got the same attitude of the Germans. When I was over there last week, I heard no end to the comments that the Japanese are eating the American car companies for lunch. But yet suggest that the same might be happening in Germany as well, and their comments echo yours nearly exactly - the Asians aren't worth consideration. You may not be respectful of Lexus, Infinity, and Acura, but I can damn well assure you that the boys at Cadillac are using them as benchmarks.

 

They eat the leaves not the wood. I believe there is plantations of Eucalyptus tree's in California so maybe the Koala's are safe for now.

 

I think Top Gear did the same comparision between those three. From memory they rubbished the 300 C.

 

Haven't seen you post in awhile.

 

You make a very excellent point.

 

technically it was a vauxhall monaro and a normal 300c and they put in a jag supercharges stype for england to have a car. They loved the vauhall

 

Thats right, thanks for clearing that up!

 

Actually, isn't Eucalyptus an extremely fast growing "junk" wood?

Of course, Koala's are cute but have big, sharp claws - how do you think they climb trees? - and a nasty odor.

 

I believe you are right, they where blamed for the extent of the bushfires in LA a few years back yeah??

 

First, the rough equivalent of a $30,000 Chrysler is a $30,000 Buick. Let's say, for the sake of argument, that Chrysler was just full of engineering skill when they made the 300 family of cars, I mean they really hit it out of the park. Do you, as a technical individual, think for a second that that can make up for a $20,000 deficit in sales price relative to engineering, features, quality of materials, etc...???

The simple answer is no, it can't. Car companies design to a cost target, much like a mass or fuel economy target, and that target is immutable as a law of nature.

So, where do the corners get cut? Well, if they're smart, they do so in things you can't see or touch or easily understand as a consumer.

Cadillac didn't have those constraints with the STS. The interior is literally flawless dimensionally. Big money got spent on the leather. The car is quiet as a tomb because all the right sound deadening is in all the right places. The engine does exactly what is asked of it, without harshness, when it is asked. State-of-the-art powertrain, chassis and electronic control systems are present. Every electronic convienience is there.

The evidence is right there in the two cars. It takes a little digging, but it's there, and no under $40,000 Chrysler can match it.

Now, if you decide that the extra money isn't worth it to you, well that's a personal choice and one I understand... I do own a Camaro, you know... so I'm no stranger to the "big motor + fields of plastic" formula.

Obviously, for the less money I could buy a GTO, but the STS is just something else entirely...

And until you really drive both, I don't think you'll get it.

BTW - Chryslers don't stack up well with Lexus or BMW or MB either. It's not just Cadillac.

Now a Buick, on the other hand, they stack up well with a Buick for sure.

 

What does a STS offer that can't be had on a Chrysler 300C? Nothing that I know off.

The sad truth is that Cadillacs are dramatically overpriced.

Keep in mind that the Sigma is a partially failed, low-volume standalone platform project. Chrysler's LX is spawned from Mercedes' latest E-class platform (not the last-generation one as DCX claims) and enjoys all of the economies of scale of a true shared platform.

 

Using that logic, the BMW 5 series must also be overpriced....as well as a similar Benz, Lexus, Infinity, etc.

You'd have to wonder who in their right mind would buy one of the traditional luxury cars at all, given the 300 has "everything" you could ever want for tens of thousands of dollars cheaper.....oddly enough I doubt many perspective Benz owners cross-shop the Chrysler.....