Originally Posted by
Turbo_Turtle
I had a murdered out 2021 300s as my first ever rental with National. The tech who was renting it for me (This was before I got promoted and could book my own travel.) was excited to see it as he knew in the past some teams were banned from having them because so many people crashed them doing stupid stuff. I didn't know about that till later. 😅 Funny guy.
I liked the way it drove and it had the basic safety features that most of the chargers lack. The V6 does well enough and it is pretty comfortable. The Alpine sounds great, too. But yea it is kind of rough on gas. (Although I use a company card for that so I'm not too concerned with that beyond raising a few eyebrows if I rent guzzlers consistently... So I try not to.) The S model suspension is stiffer and as a result a bit less comfortable on rough roads.
Interestingly enough I have only seen ONE of these at CLT since March 2022. I didn't get to nab it as someone was getting into it right as I was walking up.
I think Enterprise Holdings ( at least for Canada?) has recently purchased a bunch of 300s for its fleet... Last year a manager told me they don't really buy them anymore and if you book a LCAR you will probably get a BMW 3 series. However, in the last few months I have seen a sudden increase in them. And even in the city in popular tourist places I have been seeing more 300s lately that are obviously rental cars judging by the barcode stickers, but they could also be from Avis/Budget and Hertz/Thrifty/Dollar. However, I think only Enterprise puts the bar codes on the windshield.
I didn't know the suspension was softer on the Touring-L trim -- I might try that out. I thought the S trim was soft enough...
Speaking of accidents, I have a feeling this one that I rented has been in a minor accident before. When I was checking the car for damage I noticed the front bumper was a bit misaligned, but I didn't find any actual damage/scratch, and hence I think the front bumper has been replaced or taken off for repairs.
Originally Posted by
Nitehawk
I'm not sad to see it go. It should never have been classed as an LCAR. When it was new and cool it was PCAR, yet now it's old and not cool and it's an LCAR.
I've enjoyed some rentals in the C version with the Hemi, but the suspension is soft and the interior was never that nice. The AWD system is not great in the snow, but it's much better than no AWD. I do prefer RWD to FWD, so I would choose this car over a Cadillac XTS (another crappy LCAR, in my opinion). The XTS is now long gone.
I've been renting 300's since the first gen (2005-2010), funny that the second gen lasted 14 years, but first gen only lasted 5. I'd be surprised if rental sales didn't make up at least 50% of 300 sales for the last decade. Lots of people have driven lots of 300s. End of an era.
How did you like the 300 when it was first introduced as a rental car? Was it anything special or something that people fought over on the aisle? How did it compare to like the Taurus and Impala as I have always thought the Chrysler 300 was above the Taurus and Impala. I am too young to have had a chance to ever drive a rental Taurus or Impala (only turned 25 "recently" )
There was a post recently that the new LCAR for this summer is the CT4/CT5 for Enterprise/National. I think these are going to be more of a true luxury car even though they are smaller. I think the % going to rental car fleets is probably a lot higher than 50%. All the 300s I see on the street are either the old generation or a brand new 300 with all the car rental barcodes.
I think another reason why they may have been moved to a "LCAR" is that I think a lot of renters who don't care/like cars are impressed with getting a Chrysler 300.