After something BIG - 300c Touring??

[Kentish]

I'm after spending upto £10k on something large and was initially thinking it had to be the likes of a RR Vogue or a Discovery 3 but....

I'm quite fancying a 300c Touring though

They appear to be quite good looking at reviews but I'd like some real life feedback from an owner or an ex-owner to give a balance perspective.

So, has anyone owned or does anyone own a 300c and what are your views on it please?

[jbi]

They are very underrated cars.

Drive and handle very well, a great selection of engines and lots of room inside.

Probably one of the better looking cars of recent times as well

[Patrick Bateman]

My dad has one.

Haven't driven it but it looks good, is massive, has masses of room, massive presence, is pretty nice inside and comfy.

[Kentish]

I believe the CRD is the Mercedes engine too.

A couple of local private hire companies use them now and they don't tend to plump for thirsty and unreliable cars generally

[CraigyMc]

Odd.

I drove one from Barca to Andorra and back a few years ago, and was surprised at how small it was inside (lack of room for luggage).

That might have been because I had 4 passengers, but I suspect various other big estates would have been better.

C

[AdeTuono]

There's a lot of hate on here for the 300C if you do a search, although much of this has been direced at the idiots who adorn the car with Bentley badges. So, at the risk of having to hand in my PH membership, I admit to having bought one last week. It's got the mesh grille, but NO BENTLEY BADGES!

Needing an estate car to transport three large (two of them very large) dogs, but with some pace and comfort for myself, there's very little else on the market. I definitely didn't want a BMW, Audi or Mercedes, but like the rest of my cars, something you don't see on every street/driveway, and the 300C fit that criteria perfectly.

It's too early to give more than a quick summary, but being as this is PH, ignore the diesel and go for the Hemi, either 5.7, or SRT 6.1 for a bit more performance. Even the smaller engine gives sub-6 second 0-60 times, even when weighing 4000 lbs! The fuel consumption isn't too bad, with 20 mpg (US) around town (24mpg UK), I'm taking it on a longer trip tomorrow, so will let you know how it goes. It's very comfortable, with all the toys you could wish for. Not sure what the options are, but mine has most things you could ask for, electric everything, built-in Sat-Nav, good ICE etc etc. Many complain that it's all cheap plastic. I don't know, I haven't looked at it's competitors for comparison, but it's squeak & rattle free, and I don't spend much time caressing & biting the dash anyway. It's not the biggest in the load area buy any means, but I'd need the back seats down in whatever I bought, so that's not an issue either. Reliability is, by all accounts, good; if they're used as taxis, I guess it must be. VFM? 07, 33,000 miles, main-dealer, 1-year warranty £8400. I'm happy.

[Eighteeteewhy]

Cool looking estates, but the black ones do look a bit like a hearse.

[jbi]

Eighteeteewhy said:

Cool looking estates, but the black ones do look a bit like a hearse.

they have road presence

[Pvapour]

i like them, we looked at the top 5 wagons a while back to replace the RR, but the opening for loading at the rear of the 300c was woefully smaller than competitors, but then its the raked roof line the makes it look no probs if not important to you but worth a mention we ended up keep the RR as nothing came close for lugging, except maybe the Chrysler Voyager

[Ozzie Osmond]

Yup, happy to recommend.

[BLUETHUNDER]

jbi said:

they have road presence

That's not a 300c. That's the Dodge Magnum.

[BLUETHUNDER]

I have had a 300c since sept. A very good car and has done everything I have needed of it. I have the Startech edition. And as been said before rattle free and a very compliant ride.

[jbi]

BLUETHUNDER said:

jbi said:

they have road presence

That's not a 300c. That's the Dodge Magnum.

It's the same car with slightly different trim

[Kentish]

Thanks for all your views folks.

This is nice (even though it's black and I agree with what was said above about them being like a hearse) but I still like it

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/3833777.htm

[TomTheTyke]

If you actually saw the car in the pic above parked like that you would think bad luck for whoever's tied up inside that warehouse, probably about to get 'whacked.' Very cool car.

[Amateurish]

I've had a couple of 300C Tourings. Personally, I think the saloon looks better, but both have good road prescence and stand out against the A6, E Class and 5-ers.

The 3 litre diesel is punchy and I got a reasonable 30mpg in real world conditions. Handling is pretty dire, and the auto box very slow. I quite liked the interior, and things were improved considerably after the facelift in 2008. The touch screen nav is very good. I never had any reliability issues over many 10s of thousands of miles.

As others have said, it's not as big inside as you might expect.

[Amateurish]

The SRTD model was launched towards the end of production and was probably the best model to get. It came with the diesel engine and all the fancy trim from the SRT including very nice sports seats.

[clonmult]

I've got a 2001 A6 Avant. A colleague has a recent 300C touring.

The 300C looks massive, but is actually about the same size. And it very definitely doesn't have anything like the load carrying ability of the Audi.

[Pesty]

Kentish said:

Thanks for all your views folks.

This is nice (even though it's black and I agree with what was said above about them being like a hearse) but I still like it

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/3833777.htm

That says sold did you buy it?

Led here by Ad because I just bought one too.

Wanted a touring but the more i looked at them th emore the saloon grew on me so I decided to get whichever nice one came up first.
went over budget like I always do but very happy with it.

[Patrick Bateman]

Not as big inside as you'd expect?

Are you 6'8?

There's more room in the back than a 7 series.

The difference between the A6 and this with the seats folded down is less than 40 litres worth, the Hearse has got more room with the seats upright though.