Fiat Chrysler Automobiles’ ever-talkative CEO, Sergio Marchionne, dropped his latest off-the-cuff verbal bomb at an event at the automaker’s Windsor, Ontario, plant. The subject" Chrysler’s aging 300, a big sedan that, per Reuters, Marchionne declared could switch from its current rear-drive layout to a front-drive-based architecture shared with the new Pacifica minivan.
The 300, which is loosely based on an old Mercedes-Benz platform borrowed during Chrysler’s way-back tryst with Daimler, is due for replacement sometime beyond 2019 (delayed from its original date of 2018). Ever since the 300’s replacement was announced in Fiat Chrysler’s sweeping five-year plan in 2014?which is quickly becoming the automaker’s six-, seven-, and never-year plan?details surrounding the four-door have been elusive. We know that the Dodge Charger, the 300’s mechanical twin, would also be replaced around the same time, but reports differ on whether or not it would get a version of Fiat Chrysler’s newest rear-drive platform, the one that underpins the Alfa Romeo Giulia. All of this is to say that Marchionne’s front-drive-300 comments in Windsor are really only our latest morsels of at-times conflicting speculation about the next-generation 300/Charger/Challenger. It certainly makes some sense to borrow the Pacifica’s front-drive platform to the 300 (and possibly the Dodge Charger), as it would bring greater economies of ...