2013 Chrysler 300 Motown Edition: Detroit Music Heritage Looks Good [2013 Detroit Auto Show]

Chrysler's ad campaigns of late have focused closely on the connection its cars have to the city of Detroit, and now the company is introducing a special-edition 300 that comes with its hometown's vibes baked right in. Literally. The 2013 Chrysler 300 Motown edition's style bumps to the tune of the music it is named after. Of course, an ad campaign featuring the new sedan is up and running; fittingly, the spot features Berry Gordy, legendary founder of Motown Records. But back to the car.  In the Motown days, cars seemingly had more chrome than painted surfaces, so Chrysler slathered the Motown edition 300 with as much of the shiny stuff as possible. There is added chrome bumper trim, chrome mirror caps, chrome door handles, chrome side-glass trim, and a Mopar grille with seven thick horizontal slats rendered in—you guessed it—chrome. The sedan rides on 20-inch polished aluminum wheels and the 300's available "touring" suspension. Chrysler added black-painted accents to the exterior badges, and also fitted Motown fender badges. Buyers can choose between four groovin' colors: Bright White, Gloss Black, Deep Cherry Red, and Jazz Blue. Even though the 300 Motown's exterior gets a blast from the past, the interior is future-classy. We certainly wouldn't have objected to a pastel-colored, vinyl-wrapped interior replete with tons of chrome, ribbed seat patterns, and lots of gizmos whose names end in "-O-Matic," but the Motown's digs are pretty sweet. The seats are wrapped in Pearl White Nappa leather and accented with black piping and stripes; the white seating stands in stark contrast to the the rest of the interior, which is all black. The dark theme is further broken up by piano black trim on the center console, the steering wheel, and the door panels. Instrumented Test: 2012 Chrysler 300S V6 8-Speed Automatic Instrumented Test: 2012 Chrysler 300 SRT8 Long-Term Test: 2012 Chrysler 300C Hands down the coolest feature on the 300 Motown edition is the 100 songs' worth of Motown music that comes pre-downloaded onto the UConnect infotainment system's SD card. It's a nice touch that actually connects with the special-edition car's thematic inspiration. Buyers can drink in the sounds of old-school Detroit through the available—and decidedly new-school—10-speaker Beats audio system. Also new-school is the 300′s powertrain: The Motown edition comes only with Chrysler's excellent V-6/eight-speed automatic combo. The sedan's available 5.7-liter Hemi V-8 probably is closer to what the cool cats in the Motown era would have driven. Regardless, the 300 Motown edition still is quite cool, and it will be quite affordable when it goes on sale early next year for $33,990. from Car and Driver Blog http://blog.caranddriver.com

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