As part of its ongoing product overhaul, Chrysler plans to introduce a heavily face-lifted successor to its full-size 300 sedan late next spring as a 2012 model. The latest spy shots of an undisguised prototype show the car’s new front and rear fascias. There’s a new grille and headlights with projector-beam lamps and LED lighting strips, as well as a new front airdam and hood.
The revised taillamps are more detailed and upscale in appearance, with new chrome accents. The revised rear bumper shrouds dual exhaust pipes. The 2012 Chrysler 300 is expected to offer the 3.6-liter Pentastar V6 as its base engine. Eventually, the automaker also plans to install an eight-speed automatic transmission built under license from ZF, but not until 2013.
Chrysler provided the first glimpse of the revamped 300 more than 20 months ago, in an early 2009 pre-bankruptcy filing with the U.S. Treasury. After management control of the company was handed over to Fiat, additional details of future products were handed out to investors and the media, including the news that Fiat plans to merge the Chrysler brand with its own Lancia line.
Just like they did with the redesigned Sebring, which now carries the name 200, Chrysler’s marketing team is preparing us for the launch of the 2012MY 300 with a special dedicated website that includes numerous cropped images of the firm’s most important new model.
The pictures appear to confirm Chrysler’s styling turn to softer and less muscular shapes and design elements on the outside combined with more elegant and upscale interiors, as first seen on the Sebring’s replacement.
Along with the design makeover, the 300 will benefit from a reworked chassis and of course, the addition of the company’s new Pentastar V6 with a displacement of 3.6-liters. A 5.7-liter V8 Hemi with rear- or optionally all-wheel drive will complete the initial offerings with a more potent SRT8 model expected to be introduced down the line.
2012 Chrysler 300
From what we’ve heard, the new 300 will make its world premiere at the upcoming 2011 Detroit Show in mid January, though it is possible that Chrysler will release more information and pictures of the car before its first public outing in motor town.
If there was a bright spot during the last, bleak decade of Chrysler’s history, it is the success of the handsome, full-size Chrysler 300 sedan. From the moment it went on sale in 2004, the 300 proved wildly popular with ballers, enthusiasts, businessmen, and family guys alike. Now the time has come for the 2011 Chrysler 300 to relieve its successful predecessor, and we were able to catch one out on an R&D jog as it prepares, reinvigorated, to reenter the full-size-sedan fray.
2012 Chrysler 300
Still swaddled in cladding, the 300 prototype leaves much yet to the imagination, although everything we can see agrees with the rendering of the 2011 Chrysler 300 we posted back in February of 2009. The car’s thick-waisted proportions haven’t changed much, even as the new grille is canted back much more than before and the lower hoodline leads into a body that rises slightly from nose to tail. No one should be surprised that the gangsta-chopped beltline continues, but the fixed quarter windows in the rear doors are new for 2011. Chrysler has said in the past that one of the goals for the redesign was to address visibility issues, and so this new car has more glass and thinner pillars. Rear fender flares match the bulging front wheel arches that carry over from the current model, and the 300’s designers have cleaned up the tail, which now integrates exhaust finishers. Finally, from certain angles, portions of the lighting elements can be seen; the headlamps contain integrated HID bulbs, while stacked taillamps similar to those of today’s 300 will be lit by LEDs (at least on some models).
2012 Chrysler 300
The most welcome improvements, however, likely will appear inside the car. Indeed, the weakest aspect of the current 300 is the low-rent interior, and although our images don’t capture the new car’s interior, more recent Chrysler products—the new Jeep Grand Cherokee and Dodge Ram being the prime examples—have been blessed with cabins that can handily hold their own within their segments. We have no reason to believe that as Chrysler’s flagship, the 300 won’t boast equally massive improvements in quality and design. (Check out the new Charger’s interior for an idea of the 300’s appointments.) No word yet on the bulk of innovations or interior features for 2011—we do know the car will feature a seven-inch touch screen in the center console—but we expect the environment to remain cushy and conservatively styled, with the most luxe models boasting leather and genuine wood trim, and a wicked SRT model bringing sportier detailing and aggressively bolstered seats.
Tags: airdam, automaker, automatic transmission, bankruptcy filing, bulbs, charger, chrysler 300, chrysler brand, clean, design elements, design makeover, detailing, dual exhaust, dual exhaust pipes, engine, exhaust, glass, headlamp, headlamps, headlight, headlights, hemi, hid bulbs, initial offerings, launch, led light, led lighting, lighting, lights, management control, marketing team, new car, picture, pictures, product overhaul, rear bumper, rear fascias, spy shots, taillamps, transmission, u s treasury, wheel, zf
