In many ways, the 300 is the best of what the Chrysler brand has to offer. As a flagship, it's a testament to how far the brand has come; it is the automaker putting its best leather-trimmed, chrome-clad, Beats Audio-powered foot forward. This is why we chose the spacious, comfortable 2014 Chrysler 300S for the long cruise from San Francisco to the Los Angeles Auto Show. Upon our arrival at the show, we were greeted with the unveiling of the 2015 Chrysler 300 and, suddenly, our ride wasn't the latest and greatest. However, the current model isn't automatically made obsolete just because a new model is just around the corner.
More premium than luxury
Let's start in the cabin, arguably the most important area in a luxury sedan. A massive dual-pane sunroof (a $1,595 option) brings light into the 300S' dark cabin and highlights our example's Ambassador Blue heated, leather seats with "S" embroidery, a nice complement to our Jazz Blue Pearl exterior paint. The materials you'll find on the dash and doors are quite good -- high quality plastics all over, a soft touch rubbery dashboard, and leather for the seats, steering wheel and "touch points" -- but they are missing the woods and metals that would separate a premium sedan from a luxury one. There's excellent levels of road and wind sound dampening, which leaves the 300's cabin quiet when cruising.
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Really poke around -- maybe stick your fingers into the sunglasses holder -- and you'll find a bit of cost-saving cheapness hiding here and there, but you'd really have to be nitpicking to complain about something like a sunglasses holder. I came away from my many miles behind the wheel of the 300S noting the cabin's excellent fit and finish, everything feels solid to the touch, and there's no rattling or buzzing while on the road.
In the center of the dashboard, you'll find the Uconnect 8.4N infotainment system with the navigation upgrade. The Uconnect system is one of our favorites, featuring a large, responsive 8-inch touchscreen and a full host of digital media sources. We've got USB, Bluetooth audio and calling and more, all funneling into a standard 552-watt Beats Audio system.
I don't expect to convince audiophiles biased against the Beats brand based on their experiences with the visually distinctive headphones, but this system is quite good. Unlike the headphones, you can tweak the EQ to tune out a bit of the Beats signature bass bias and end up with a decent-sounding stereo that works well with compressed audio sources, such as MP3s and satellite radio. Alternatively, you can just crank the volume and enjoy the boom-bap. From their places around the 300's well constructed cabin, the system's 10 speakers (including a trunk-mounted subwoofer) can get teeth-rattlingly loud without much distortion or any buzzing from the interior panels.
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If a well put together cabin with excellent sounding stereo with lots of audio sources is all that you're looking for from your 300S, the 2014 does an excellent job.
A $995 upgrade to the well-organized Uconnect infotainment system adds Garmin navigation with SiriusXM traffic to the mix. I'm also a fan of this navigation software and was pleased by its smooth voice destination entry, logical route selection, and its tendency to actively to avoid traffic when pathfinding. However, the route calculation was a bit on the slow side during my testing. If I missed a turn, it could be two to three blocks before the software would catch up with fresh instructions. This is possibly due to the software thoroughly re-evaluating the entire route, resulting in better routing than a simple a "get back on track" recalculation would, but it could also just be because this is an older generation of the Uconnect hardware and software than we've seen, for example, in the new Chrysler 200. Whatever the reason, it is slow enough to be annoying.
Next year, we expect to see a newer version of Chrysler's Uconnect apps make an appearance in the 300, bringing Internet-powered audio streaming, Wi-Fi hotspot connectivity and more to the dashboard. This newer version of the infotainment and navigation software/hardware will likely look a lot like what's already there and should keep the excellent organization intact, but with better nuts and bolts. Car technophiles and infotainment addicts should probably wait for the next generation.
Plenty of Pentastar power
Under the hood of our example, I found Chrysler's Pentastar V-6 engine. The 300 has been powered by this 300-horsepower, 260-pound-foot of torque mill since 2011, but this was my first time taking it for a spin -- having previously only driven the 6.4-liter SRT V-8 model.
Where the SRT feels awesomely excessive, this V-6's powerplant feels just right for the large sedan. There's plenty of passing power when you need it and respectable levels of acceleration around town. On the highway, the V-6 runs smoothly and quietly and returns decent fuel economy. The EPA estimates our rear-drive 300S is good for 23 mpg combined, which breaks out t0 19 mpg city and 31 mpg highway.
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This isn't the latest luxury sedan to be 'imported from Detroit,' but it's still pretty great
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