2005 Car of the Year Winner

From the evening mist appears a gleam, the shimmer of tailored chrome, the diamond-glint of jeweled headlamps. A silhouette materializes, broad-shouldered, muscular, yet equally cool and elegant--like a champion athlete dressed for awards night. Heads turn. Conversation halts in anticipation. The valet unclasps the velvet rope.

Department of Interior
Power locks, keyless entry, A/C, cruise, power eight-way driver's seat, tilt/telescoping wheel standard on all models. Touring adds leather-trimmed seat and shift knob.

And into the spotlight rolls the all-new, rear-drive 2005 Chrysler 300 four-door sedan, a suave and splashy new arrival from the DaimlerChrysler corporation and our enthusiastic choice for 2005 Motor Trend Car of the Year.

Allow the paparazzi its flurry of flashbulbs while we share a few revealing quotes from our logbook. "Bold. Brash. Beautiful. Bentley meets Boyd Coddington--love the hot-rod look." "Far exceeds its competitors in style, fit and finish, and daring. Ballsy, with a big payoff." "Extremely compelling combo of power, responsiveness, room, and refinement." And this comment that sums it up best: "The rejuvenation of the great American full-size sedan."

Limited adds heated front seats, trip computer, six-speaker audio, steering-wheel audio controls, dual-zone auto climate control. 300C gets Boston Acoustics stereo, tortoise-shell-style accents, power tilt/telescoping wheel, premium leather, rain-sensitive wipers. Options include Sirius Satellite Radio, GPS navigation, power-adjustable pedals, front and rear side-curtain airbags, rear-parking assist, 388-watt premium sound system. Sadly, no champagne cooler.

Yes, there's a hint of irony here. After all, the 300 springs from the merger of a domestic and a German automaker and uses many parts of Mercedes-Benz design. Yet there's no question that the 300 fits a bygone American-sedan mold: big, powerful, unabashedly audacious. See those tailfins soaring skyward from the rear deck? Well, of course not; they're not there--not literally, anyway. But through a combination of other expressive styling cues--a prow as commanding as a steam locomotive's, clipped front and rear overhangs, pumped-deltoids wheel arches, tall, creased-slacks sides, a beveled, tank-turret greenhouse--Chrysler's new four-door radiates a buoyant swagger the likes of which we haven't seen on a large American four-door since the can-do, rocket-age rides (such as the original Chrysler 300s) of the 1950s and 1960s.

Ralph Gilles, 34, design director at Chrysler and the man largely responsible for the look of the 300 (and sibling Dodge Magnum--see later in story), attributes his styling sensibility to two primary influences. "Giugiaro--those 1980s Bond movies and the vehicles in them had a direct influence," he says. "And former Chrysler designer Bob Hubbach, who was key in the early sketches of what became the 300. The GTS Viper was Bob's as well. The original Viper was one of the reasons I came to Chrysler--it just shocked and excited me so much."