Conor Twomey reports from the US on the pheonomenon that has put Chrysler back on top
Armed with a fresh North American Car of the Year award and the prestigious Motor Trend COTY gong, the Chrysler 300 is riding high in the US right now.
Indeed, the whole company is knee-deep in success at the moment, with accolades and cash rolling in the door as its genuinely cool cars and trucks roll out.
But what makes the Chrysler 300 so interesting is that, unlike last year's award magnet, the Toyota Prius, the 300 isn't particularly advanced or chin-strokingly clever. It's a three-box saloon based on old architecture and ordinary mechanicals - and yet everybody absolutely loves it.
What is it about the 300 that gives it such sweeping appeal? Many Americans concede they'd buy an American car if the quality was better, and this is one area where the 300 excels.
Although it's too soon to get proper JD Power numbers, early indications are that the 300 is a solid and well-made piece of kit. This is thanks, in no small way, to the amount of Mercedes Benz parts used in it. It's based on the previous generation Mercedes E-Class platform, so Chrysler was able to save wads of cash by keeping the best bits - the well-balanced rear-drive set up, peppy V6 engines and excellent five-speed automatic - and ditching the undesirable stuff such as the re-circulating ball steering and soggy body control.
As a result, every 300 feels thoroughly developed and mechanically sound, more so than just about any other US domestic car, Cadillacs included.
Inside, all the behind the scenes stuff is ex-E-Class as well. Why bother redesigning the electric seat adjusters, the complex climate control and the wiring loom when Mercedes' stuff works fine already?
Not that I'm trying to suggest the 300 is merely an old man in a new suit. The 300 has a personality all of its own thanks to two rather important elements - its "hemi" engine and its styling.
It was 1951 when Chrysler began producing "hemi-powered" luxury cars - so called because of the hemispherical shape of the cylinder heads which were much more efficient than the flat-head combustion chambers of the day. By the late 1950s, hemi-powered cars were pumping out a whopping 390 bhp in showroom spec.
However, when Chrysler began using wedge-shaped "pentroof" cylinder heads in 1959, the name was abandoned. It was reintroduced in Chrysler's 1965 NASCAR racer and the next year a new "street hemi" was unleashed on the public, appearing in the Plymouth Road Runner muscle-car and producing 425 bhp (though owners swear it was closer to 500 bhp).
Sadly, the spiralling cost of oil and insurance in the early 1970s killed the hemi engine and the whole muscle-car genre of which it was such a big part. But its reputation has lived on with enthusiasts and armchair experts.
Nowadays, the terms, hemi, is just a marketing tool - a name given to the company's 340 bhp, 5.7-litre, V8 engine despite its non-hemispherical cylinder heads. It's not a high-tech device but when petrol costs €0.37 per litre, it doesn't need to be. It's powerful and smooth though, and makes a distinctive sound that's more cultured than rival V8s. The hemi name was re-revived in the latest Dodge Ram pickup, with a "Has that thing got a Hemi?" ad campaign that seemed to irreparably sear the word into the cerebral cortex of every male in the country.
Suddenly, a Ram without the $800 Hemi engine package wasn't a proper Ram. The effect has percolated down to the cars as well, with the hemi-powered 300C accounting for 40 per cent of the car's sales.
It's a similar story with the Dodge Magnum, an estate version of the 300 aimed at suburban, rather than corporate, America.
But what really set the Chrysler 300 apart was its looks. It's unashamedly American, muscular and mean, yet managing to be well proportioned and pretty at the same time. It doesn't try to ape its European or Japanese rivals and instead uses a whole array of unique styling features not found anywhere else in this conservative segment.
The huge grille dominating the front is flanked by angry, purposeful headlamps. Several owners said they like the elegant and classy looks of the car and compare it to the Bentley Arnage, which isn't the stretch you might think. The flanks are tall and slabby and the glasshouse is very narrow for a family car - Chrysler's homage to the chop-top conversions that were so popular among hot-rodders in the 1950s.
The 300's designer, Ralph Gilles, clearly drew inspiration from the company's past models without blatantly robbing the graves of its ancestors as other companies has been doing of late.
The car has liberal amounts of chrome and was designed to take massive 20-inch "Dub" wheels without needing major modifications, two aspects of the car that have made it very popular with the trendy urban buyer.
And, it can't hurt that the 300's well-publicised African-American designer is often seen posing next to his own, Dub-shod 300C in newspapers and magazines. Through a combination of careful product placement and the fact that the car has the right street look, the 300 has replaced Paris Hilton as l'object du jour in the latest hip-hop and rap videos.
Chrysler's PR people have made the 300 resonate with the thirtysomething Generation X buyer by making it part of the hip-hop culture they emulate so strongly.
For budding bling-blingers, the good news is the base 2.7-litre version looks almost identical to the range-topping 300C, so if you add in the $4000 cost of some 20-inch alloys to the $23,370 base-price, you could be cruising like Jay-Z for well under $30k.
For everyone else, the 300 is simply a fine car to drive - refined, cosseting and extremely comfortable. Some of the cheapy interior plastics and slightly soft handling disappoint but overall it's difficult not to love the 300, particularly when it's the hemi-powered 300C loaded with toys and seriously rapid.
European versions will handle with more vigour and roll on wider tyres, but they won't be nearly as good value as they are in the US. The 300C costs just $33,100 in America, which is around €25,500 at current exchange rates. Expect an Irish 300C to set you back twice that.
The Dodge Magnum, the 300's wagon sibling, has a more aggressive Dodge face and sportier suspension set-up, but sales have trailed the 300C by a considerable margin partly because Americans would rather buy a handsome Dodge truck than a plain Dodge wagon.
To counter this DaimlerChrysler has just unveiled the Charger, a saloon version of the Magnum estate and a close rival to its own 300, though naturally the Chrysler spin-doctors don't see it that way. The Charger is another once-revered muscle-car name that's been dusted off for marketing purposes.
Concessions to the original Charger are limited to a coke-bottle kink in the shoulder line and R/T badges. Purists will argue it should be a 2-door coupé, like the original, though everyone knows it's perfect for those Gen-X buyers who grew up dribbling over the original car but who now have the bother of a family to cart around. Prices will be competitive and its success is almost a certainty, helped greatly by the news that Fifty Cent has ordered the first customer car for his collection.
So, while the 300 and its siblings really don't do anything radical, it's not difficult to see their appeal. Good quality, decent refinement, lots of power, entertaining handling, red-hot image, great value and drop-dead looks are all standard. It's a simple formula, really, but very effective. Wonder why nobody thought of it before?