Friday, February 17, 2017
Owensboro | Vincennes | Madisonville | McLean | Princeton | Mt. Carmel | Boonville
Does your vehicle tell your personality
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Chrysler’s 300-C
a quintessential American sedan
BY WARREN BROWN
Blending the best of both worlds
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Classic car hobby explored
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I
THE WASHINGTON POST
t is a big American sedan made by an Italian-American company, assembled in Brampton, Ontario - and originally designed in the United States by an African-American. Such are the twists and turns of “jobs for America.” Americans might be able to keep those jobs as long as Americans are willing to buy those cars in the United States of America. That is neither promised nor guaranteed. Nor can it be ordered or demanded by this new U.S. presidential administration. Take this week’s subject automobile, the 2017 Chr ysler 300-C Platinum. Not many of them are sold worldwide, which is the arena in which most new automobiles have to compete. It would be assembled in America if doing so would make a profitable business case for the car. It doesn’t. Italy-based Fiat Chr ysler Automobiles, which now owns all of
once all-American Chr ysler, has to assemble the 300-C where it can do so at the lowest costs and sell it worldwide for the most money. Chr ysler Corp., once all-Americanowned, couldn’t do that and slid into bankruptcy. That is why it is now owned by Italy’s Fiat. But let’s get to the real thing that controls “jobs for America,” especially in the automobile industr y. It’s sales. That is why Honda, Toyota, Hyundai, Kia, BMW and Mercedes-Benz design and manufacture large volumes of their cars here instead of in their home countries. They don’t do it to please President Donald Trump any more than they do it to displease leaders and workers in their home countries. They do it because they are building and selling many cars many Americans want to buy. It’s money, not politics. Now, let us look at the 300-C, which was designed by the ver y talented Ralph Gilles in 2001 and went on sale in the United States in 2004. Gilles wanted a motorized
urban renaissance, specifically a car that bespoke Detroit funk and European sophistication. He nailed it with the full-size, rear-wheeldrive 300-C, which was a hot number for a while. Some 112,930 300-Cs were sold in the United States in its 2004 debut year. But sales fell to 53,241 in 2016. The second generation of the car was sold as the Fiat Lancia Thema in much of Europe in 2011 and remained as the American-badged Chr ysler 300-C in U.S.friendly nations, Britain and Ireland. The car is sold today in the United States as the Chr ysler 300 (base), 300-S, 300-C, and top-of-theline 300-C Platinum. It is a good car - luxurious, quiet on the road, comfor table, and equipped with all of the latest advanced electronic safety appointments. The six-cylinder 300-C Platinum is even relatively fuelef ficient at 30 miles per gallon on SEE SEDAN/PAGE 3
16.9%* of area households reached plan to buy a new/used car WITHIN IN THE NEXT YEAR!
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