I NEED MORE HP...but my financial situation SUCKS!!!

[Fairfax300ondubs]

Hey everyone. So, here is my situation. I saw this 300 across from where i work at a ford dealership last summer. It sat there for months, and finally i went over and asked about it. It had 20's on it, looked so good, i couldn't help but buy it. About three months later the 300 Tourings (which is the model i bout) started going down in price, which resulted in me having some negative equity in my car. Right now, i owe probably about $3K more than i could get for a trade in (if not more than that in negative equity). I have been trying to trade it in for a 300C (I WANT THE HEMI!!!) but its looking like thats not going to be an option as a result of my negative equity. So, my situation has left me with this question...has anyone supercharged a 3.5 liter touring edition 300? If so, how much would this cost, and how much power would i get out of it? If i'm not going to end up with the same amount of power as at least a 300C, then its not worth it to me to do it, but if i can get around that same power, then i might think about it. So, if anyone knows anything about anyone supercharging the 3.5 ltr engine in the touring, let me know. Thanks a lot everyone!!!

[AlexDestructive]

trade your 300 in for an SRT4... more power.

[CUEBALL]

It would cost you your negative equity plus some... not outrageously expensive, but more than 3000 bucks.

look here for some insight.

[crhemi]

Just wait, save some money and buy a higher milage C when you can afford it. I want an SRT8 but I am upside down too!

I do love my modded 300C though...

[Fairfax300ondubs]

Originally Posted by AlexDestructive

trade your 300 in for an SRT4... more power.

HAHAHAHA, no way i'm going to trade my 300 in for an SRT4!!! I want to look good, even if i'm not going as fast!

[Fairfax300ondubs]

Ya, well, i was offered $20K for my trade in back in March (when i thought i owed $27 for my car still, turned out it was more like $24K). Then, i found a 06 300C, pretty much perfect condition, 8K miles, for $25K, so i went to check it out, test drove, drove beautifully, THEN they estimated the trade in value of my car (after i returned my car back to stock...i.e. took off the rims, the grill, the CAI, and took out the stereo, replacing all those items with the stock items)...i almost puked when i heard their offer...of only $13K. I laughed at the guy in his face, turned around and walked out. I don't see how a car orginally costing $29K, that is 1.5 years old, with 28K miles on it can be only worth about 47% of its orginal value?????? (and i see my car selling, with WAY more miles on cars.com for anywhere from $18K all the way up to one that about $27K) But ya, i was hoping i would get an offer similar to my previous offer, take the $2K or $3K of negative that i would have and just up my monthly payments $30 bucks or something, but that offer, i thought, was WAY off!!! Guess our 300's resale values are dropping FAST!!!

[Timeless]

Always check kbb.com for the trade in values...then subtract another 1-2K for dealers that really want to stick it to ya on trades.

Chrysler kills the resale value by selling to rental car companies. You'll notice that the higher resale vehicles never are sold to rental car companies.

My 300C which I am selling is 2.5 years old. Cost me 41K (My bad for having to have it when they first came out and they were scarce. Could have waited another 6 months and gotten it for 36-38K), and now the trade in value is 24K.

Which is why I am selling it to a private party and hoping to get about 27K for it...but will most likely get 26K by the time it is said and done.

[AlexDestructive]

Originally Posted by Fairfax300ondubs

HAHAHAHA, no way i'm going to trade my 300 in for an SRT4!!! I want to look good, even if i'm not going as fast!

hahaha SRT6 maybe? they are discounted as much as 10k off sticker for new ones at my local dealership.

[AWD_Guy]

I appreciate you guys who had to have the 300 when it came out. when I started shoping I noticed that their worth dropped substantially when you take them off the lot. Seems like 40% is the average depreciation over the first 30k. After that they seem to level off and only drop a 10% or so every 30k after that.

I jumped in the "curve" with a 30k lease vehicle and it appears I'll never be upside down on it. Which is a rare accurance anymore. Any time you buy a new car you are pretty much going to be upside down on it unless you drive it very little.

The way I look at it, I try to minimize the amount of money I'm paying to drive a mile. The 300 is not the cheapest car to own, per my calculations takinging into account, depreciation, gas mileage, insurance, and maintenance it cost me around .30 cents a mile to drive my 300c. I had a 98' subaru legacy before this and it only cost me around .09 cents a mile to drive it. Big difference, and when I was driving 500 miles a week to work I had to have something economical. Now that I'm driving the 300 150 miles a week I'm actually spending the same amount of money but I'm looking much better doing it

I know this doesn't answer your original question but you might just have to bite the bullet and either stick it out for a while or trade down to something cheaper and faster. If you can't afford to go upside down by 3k, you most deffinately can't afford to replace an engine or tranny which unfortunately is a very real possibility right now with the limited tuning ability out for the v-6 guys.

[Fairfax300ondubs]

No, i could have afforded the $3K hit, but the $8K hit from their original offer for my trade in is no good!

And as far as the SRT-6 goes, i would never be caught dead in one those, not only am i completely against the idea of a two seater car (aka mazda miata's, S2000's, BMW Z4's, SRT-6's, etc...), i just think that the SRT-6 is one of the ugliest cars on the road, i can't stand them. Just my personal opinion.

Anyway, i'm sure i'll just end up hanging onto my car for a long while and hoping that a year or two down the road i can afford to step up to the hemi. It wouldn't be such a problem if i didn't mind getting a higher mileage 300C, but i really don't want to get another car unless its either new (which is the way to go because of the lifetime powertrain warranty) or a VERY low mileage used 300C.