Chrysler 300 K - An Arse for Every Seat

Old cars in great shape can be expensive but $28,000 for a Chrysler 300 K? That, friend, is all the money in the world. I can't imagine who in their right mind would pay that kind of money for this thing.  For crying out loud, man, it isn't even a convertible!  Well, as we say in the car biz, "there's an arse for every seat". Please don't attempt to school me on the virtues of this car. C'mon, now. At the end of the day, it's nothing more than big Plymouth.

The Chrysler 300 "letter series" were high-performance luxury cars built in very limited numbers by Chrysler from 1955–1965. Each year's model used a new letter of the alphabet as a suffix (skipping "i"), reaching 300L by 1965. Many consider these cars to be the muscle car's ancestor though much more expensive and exclusive.

 

What would I buy in 1964, my birth year incidentally, if I was of the means to purchase something new and expensive? I can almost certainly tell you it would not be this car. Although it checks boxes on many things I hold near and dear, like a big V8, rear wheel drive, hardtop, and a being coupe for starters, I just think this car too darn ugly to be taken seriously. Allow me to digress for a second...why is it on a lot of older cars the wheels never line up in side the fenders? Look at that. It's like car's wheel base is wrong for it. Weird.

 

 

The weirdness outside flows inside too. A square steering wheel? Really? Chrysler had a round wheel too for columns that tilted. Our "loaded" 300 K apparently lacking the up and down column. Hope you're tall enough to see over this box seeing how you're probably going to sink to the floor pan on these fifty year old seats. This car also does not have a power seat.

 

 

Here's some good stuff; the optional, 360 horsepower, "Cross Ram" 413 Wedge V-8 with two four barrel carburetors. This beauty no doubt helping to push the asking price of the entire car up, over and above what any sane person would or should pay for it. Twenty Eight Thousand. Will that be cash or check?

 

 

Some of the 300's are quite handsome and indeed, some parts of this car are intriguing as well. Take this neat grill in front of that lusty 413. This works. Too bad just about everything else on the car does not.  

 

 

Appreciation of styling is as subjective as anything. The styling and proportions of the 300 K are odd, weird. Something is not quite right. It reminds me of the bizarre designs of American Motors cars of this period and that's not surprising seeing how much cross pollinating the big three did back then (today too) with designers and engineers.

 

More proof in the pudding that back in the 1960's, General Motors, at least stylistically, really had it going on.