Well hell i'm going to be the first, for the first time in my life !!
The trutch of the matter is that petrol is just soooooo dear in England - we're currently running at 92plt which works out at somewhere in the region of $7.50 per uk gal. ouch
so diesel is the money driven choice.
The car is getting a lot of really good press in England. This is the review
http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/road_tests/index.htm?id=193 that was given by one of the harshest motoring writers in England. If he likes it, it must surely be a winner.
The biggest critiscism that is written about the car over here is the "percieved" lack of quality that the car has against a BMW or a MERC - personally I think thats rubbish as the german cars are between 33 % & 50 % dearer. I think that it is more a case of snobbery in the motoring press.
Goddardzilla was kind enough to reprint some facts & figures from the Chrysler uk website. sadly Chrysler UK got their figures mixed up in the conversion from metric to imperial.
The true figures are:- 376 lb ft torque (goddardzilla said) And 218 bhp.
The true bhp figure certainly makes a difference.
& the price in the UK is £25750 on the road or just over $45000 US. Bloody shocking isn't it. But, the spec list in the UK is a little bit more generous than you get (but not $20000 more generous).
I've driven a Hemi in both the US and over here and I loved it, I hope that the diesel drives just as well.
If anyone is interested, we are going to get the 300c estate (staion wagon ?) next year. Some pictures are available here
http://www.chrysler.nl/web/show/id=764261 the site is Dutch but you'll get the drift. In my opinion it makes the Dodge Magnum look like a bathtub on wheels. But thats just my opinion.
Time to go.
Cheerio from the expensive side of the Atlantic