Thank you to all for your input. I really appreciate hearing your thoughts. I have been reading multiple forums (fora?) on the 300C for >6 months now, and doing research on the "competition", which I agree are all $20K (at least!) more than the 300C for equivalent size...or, for the same price, the competition is the size of a breadbox. Bottom line, it has no competition in its price range (or anywhere near). And yes, the competition is not exactly trouble free either. All these reasons are why I keep coming back to the 300C.
I also have a muscle car background (ahhhhh..the 68 Plymouth GTX 440cid) and proscribe a high value to being able to get into my car without bonking knees and head. No matter how nice a car is, if it is too small, it is not "nice".
I know the first year of any vehicle is usually problematic...its how the dealer deals with it that is critical. I am also heartened to hear that the usual freshmen problems have known solutions (e.g. I read a detailed post on this forum re a solution to the early alignment problems).
I will keep all of this in mind when I go test drive an SRT8 shortly.
Thank you all,
James