Spent 4 days with a 2020 300S with the 5.7L HEMI from Hertz with about 45,000 miles on the clock. I'm President Circle status with Hertz but this was the best I could get unfortunately upon my arrival in Nashville....there was a Camaro SS that would've been available but someone walked off with the key 
. That would've been a much more entertaining choice. I'll try to keep it consise:
Pros:
-Economy: HEMI got better mileage than I expected...mid 20's for MPG on the highway. Periods of 4-cylinder operation but mostly stayed firing on all 8
-Infotainment: Uconnect was easy to use and worked well...this was my first experience in a Mopar product with it. Still don't like the back-side steering wheel audio controls but that's a personal preference. Last comment on the infotainment is that the Boston Acoustics audio seemed descent...definately have heard better but also much worse.
-Styling: car has good presence...in this case black paint and rims in the S trim looks pretty mean. I found that spending time with it in person it grows on you asthetically speaking. Definitely dated but Chrysler has refreshed enough over the years to keep it relevant.
Cons:
-Powertrain: first time behind the wheel of a 5.7 in any application, but I was expecting more considering the power and torque ratings. I honestly thought it had the Pentastar until I popped the hood. Not a slouch and I know it's a big heavy car but still, felt a little lacking. My wife mentioned when she drove that she missed the power of our MDX
. What was most concerning of all, though, was the horrendous tick that was heard clearly inside under load, especially at lower RPMs. I know these motors are notoriously noisy but I sure hope this particular case was an exception because it was an annoying racket the entire trip. Other than the growl out of the exhaust not a great sounding engine. The 8-speed tranny (assuming the ZF?) was mostly OK but was clunky from time to time on downshifts and banged here and there in the process. If this is the ZF I've heard nothing but good things and hope again that this particular unit is an outlier.
-Interior: frankly it's an oversized car made for oversized Americans...I found the armrests too far away to get comfortable on the longer stretches of road. I'm 6'3" and I had plenty of headroom but apparently too skinny to fill the seat as designed. As far as seat comfort I thought they lacked support and were a bit too firm on longer stretches. Random items: the interior plastics quality was ehh...especially the piano black everywhere, and the gauge cluster looked like it was designed by the makers of Lite-Brite...really cheap in appearance at night when lit and funky design on the tach and speedo that made them hard to see.
. That would've been a much more entertaining choice. I'll try to keep it consise:Pros:
-Economy: HEMI got better mileage than I expected...mid 20's for MPG on the highway. Periods of 4-cylinder operation but mostly stayed firing on all 8
-Infotainment: Uconnect was easy to use and worked well...this was my first experience in a Mopar product with it. Still don't like the back-side steering wheel audio controls but that's a personal preference. Last comment on the infotainment is that the Boston Acoustics audio seemed descent...definately have heard better but also much worse.
-Styling: car has good presence...in this case black paint and rims in the S trim looks pretty mean. I found that spending time with it in person it grows on you asthetically speaking. Definitely dated but Chrysler has refreshed enough over the years to keep it relevant.
Cons:
-Powertrain: first time behind the wheel of a 5.7 in any application, but I was expecting more considering the power and torque ratings. I honestly thought it had the Pentastar until I popped the hood. Not a slouch and I know it's a big heavy car but still, felt a little lacking. My wife mentioned when she drove that she missed the power of our MDX
. What was most concerning of all, though, was the horrendous tick that was heard clearly inside under load, especially at lower RPMs. I know these motors are notoriously noisy but I sure hope this particular case was an exception because it was an annoying racket the entire trip. Other than the growl out of the exhaust not a great sounding engine. The 8-speed tranny (assuming the ZF?) was mostly OK but was clunky from time to time on downshifts and banged here and there in the process. If this is the ZF I've heard nothing but good things and hope again that this particular unit is an outlier.-Interior: frankly it's an oversized car made for oversized Americans...I found the armrests too far away to get comfortable on the longer stretches of road. I'm 6'3" and I had plenty of headroom but apparently too skinny to fill the seat as designed. As far as seat comfort I thought they lacked support and were a bit too firm on longer stretches. Random items: the interior plastics quality was ehh...especially the piano black everywhere, and the gauge cluster looked like it was designed by the makers of Lite-Brite...really cheap in appearance at night when lit and funky design on the tach and speedo that made them hard to see.
