Open-air mafia: 2010 Chrysler 300C
Sure, it may seem like a stretch, but when Chrysler develops the new LX platform, the idea of a retractable-hardtop sedan is certainly on their minds.
The current front-engine, rear-drive platform will be due for a refresh towards the end of the decade and Motor Trend maintains that in order to make the most (money) from the LX's evolution, DaimlerChrysler needs to use the new platform to underpin as many vehicles as possible.
Currently, the LX is only found under the Dodge Magnum, Charger and Chrysler 300C, but as the market evolves, so will D.C.'s offerings. The new 300C will undergo a thorough redesign by 2009, utilizing the new platform to its fullest extend, which may include the aforementioned retractable hardtop.
Earlier this year, rumors were swirling that DaimlerChrysler would partner with ASC, who unveiled their own version of an open-air 300C at this year's Detriot Auto Show. Unfortunately, the conversion proved to be too expensive to adopt on a large scale and was also a cloth top, versus the retractable hardtop design that's currently in vogue. Forward progress is being made however, as D.C. is collaborating with the Canadian parts supplier Magna Steyr on the development and production of a "vario-roof" design.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
DPC car videos 1:27PM (9/10/2006)
This will be the official rappers car in music videos.
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offroadwarrior03 1:55PM (9/10/2006)
maybe for the rappers who cant afford a bentley
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cheezedog420 5:22PM (9/10/2006)
First off, this car is for anyone that can afford it. And while it is likey that some rappers will buy the car, and throw it into there video's, it is just as likey Chrysler will give a few to some rappers to appear in there videos for marketing purposes.
Why give it to away to rappers? Think about it, There is alot of ways to sell a car. And one of the better way is by getting someone to emulate there hero's. If your kids see there faverate rapper singing about slapping bitches, smoking bluts, and drinking 40s on the hood of a Chrysler 300, they probably won't want to actually slap women, smoke weed, and drink themselfs stupid, but when it comes time to buy a car, what are they going to want to buy as there first car?
And just because your not into rap does not mean your safe from this tactic. If you like Basketball, football, Hockey, or even down hill tobaganing. Someone out there, thinks your going to buy something because your faverete whatever has one.
In 1970 GM was rolled out a massive campain to sell Chevy Camaros using then retired 3 time Gold Metal ski Champian Jean-Claude Killy and Now infamious Football's O.J. Simpson. They went all around the nation to pettle the new for 1970 Camaro. (What do Chevy Camaros have to do with a down hill skier, and Football player? I don't know, but maybe they both had mullets back then.) And it worked since They sold more Camaros in 1970, then they sold in 1969.
(Read more on this Exploit in the 'The Gonzo Papers, Vol.1 The Great Sharkhunt,' By Hunter S. Thompson. Chapter, 'The Temptations of Jean-Claude Killy.')
And this is not new thing getting worse sort of pattern eather... All we have is more divertions for marketers to try and market to. In the early 15th century, Giovanni De'Medici (a banker in Florance Italy,) convicinced a ex-pirate Cossa who was then elected Pope John XXIII, to hand the entire Papal account to the Medici bank. Now from this little turn of events, the Medici bank became known as the Bank of god.
What does God know anything about money? Who knows, But if you believed in God around 1410, you then banked at the Medici bank. And despite being a sacrareligious, anti-crist, marketing ploy it worked, because god was the only divertion you had in 1410! The Medici famialy became the 3rd richest famialy in Florance by the time Giovanni De'Medici passed his inheratiance on to Lorenzo de'Medici.
Lorenzo de'Medici In turn did not just keep banking with the Catholic Church. Just as we have our Hollywood today, Renaissance Florance had it's artists. And If you know anything about art history, you know that Lorenzo De'Medici took the 'bank of God' marketing gimmic, and used it to start marketing artists like Botticelli, Donatello, Ghiberti, Gozzoli, Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael. And because of that, we have the Mona Lisa, the statue David, Lamentation of the Death of Christ, Procession of the Magi, the Birth of Venus, And the Sistine Chapel which contains over 300 diffrent bible storys painted in Fresco. All of this is now considered Classic artwork... But in its time, nothing more then a marketing gimmic for the Medici bank, and/or the Catholic Church.
http://www.pbs.org/empires/medici/index.html
In any case, if your in Marketing, you should be forced to study Florance Italy Durring the Renaissance. Because as far as Im concerned the whole Renaissance movement is world greatest marketing gimmic, But that has nothing to do with the car.... Other then it illustrates there is a circle of marketing that makes sure you will know the car exsists.
Well, I like the 300C when it came out. (I Don't nessary need one, so I don't want it, But I do apprecate it vary much.) So when they did the the 300C Helios Convertable concept, I had a vary similure reaction. I don't realy like convertables, nore do I need one, but I really apprecate all the good design packed into this one.
But lately, Chrysler has been runing alot of it's product with that Trojan Ribbing job on the hood, and lost whatever philosophy of design it had established with the 300C. (Don't lie, The new Chrysler Sebring looks like turd, and The new Chrysler Aspen looks like a ford Explorer.) And to top it all of, the Dodge brand is starting to look better then Chrysler. Look at the next Dodge Avenger which shares underpinning with the Chrysler Sebring. Yea, the Dodge Avenger looks 10 fold better then the Chrysler Sebring, Because the Dodge does not look like a Saturn turd with extra chrome corn bits.
So who knows what they are going to do to the 300D, And god help them if they make the Dodge more appealing then Chrysler. People can tell, when something is half baked, and They just don't have a Plymouth brand to pettle crap styaling to people.
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Seabass 7:21PM (9/10/2006)
^
You spend waaaaay too much time on the internet.
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ramsport47 7:39PM (9/10/2006)
#3...didn't they teach you grammar in school?
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Clarence 8:27PM (9/10/2006)
I can't see a market for this car. It's sort of an older folks car. Sure there will be some older widow glistening in gold jewelry and huge roundy ear rings out there spending her husband's fortune with a red 300 4-door convertible but who else is gonna buy it?
Here's an idea. Cut the rear seat area off the 300, bring it together and make it a two-seater and call it the Fifth Avenue Touring. Oh, and the widow above will buy this one too.
You photo shopper choppers people can do it. Please.
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epp_b 9:50PM (9/10/2006)
Wow...as if it wasn't flobbery and heavy enough as a hard top! How many railway tracks did they have to pack inside the doors of that thing?
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CoreyW 11:14PM (9/10/2006)
#1
Comments like that really don't push any buttons, it just make you look really stupid.
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Jack Yan 12:23AM (9/11/2006)
If LX is based on an old Mercedes E-class platform, will the next platform be the current E-class’s one?
(Thank you to the moderators for deleting the swearing in three comments.)
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Jack Yan 12:30AM (9/11/2006)
DPC, in comment 1, agreed! If they can keep the styling bling, it will happen. However, if they merely evolve the styling and don’t make it as shocking (relative to the competition), then no self-respecting rapper would want one.
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Fabulo 3:09AM (9/11/2006)
Perfect for drive-bys.
ChezzeDog? Who let you out? Come back in, you forogt your meds.
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WillDaThrill 3:48AM (9/11/2006)
Get used to it, this is just a place to pick fun at someone/something you don't like. The only thing you have to do to get them to sing a different tune is to put a country star in the seat. Then this car will become the stereotypical bloggers favorite car. Little do they know that these cars may be in a lot of rap videos, but there are more country club attendees driving this car than anyone else.
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Corey W. 10:23AM (9/11/2006)
WillDaThrill,
I'm also staring to see a lot of them as rentals and corporate taxi cabs.
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WillDaThrill 4:16AM (9/12/2006)
Exactly, but you put one popular car in a rap video or minority based advertisment and it becomes a negative stereotypical car to some people. I think it's because they liked the car so much but they're so afraid to be attached to anything that had rapvertisment applied to it. You should have seen the posts when they said Missy Elliot was doing a commercial for the Commander; those closet racist went nuts.
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