It's here at last, or at least it will be soon - the saloon car everyone should have been aspiring towards for years. It has class, style, performance, running costs you can live with and a chameleon-like ability to fit in with your mood whatever it may be. This is the Chrysler 300C kitted out with the three-litre V6 turbocharged diesel engine, it'll be on the shelves in January, and having driven a pre-production model on British roads I'm left oozing with enthusiasm.Picture the scene. The hills of North Wales in the autumn, a gentle breeze breathing up through the sunlit golden woods that line the flanks of the Horseshoe valley, an empty B-road snaking along the line of the river before rising up the hillside to emerge into the bracken and slate moorland of the high tops.There's a car hammering up the hill. A gunmetal grey saloon, square and solid-looking with double twin headlamps and a gaping grille. It looks like a Bentley Arnage but with a more focussed expression of intent, a lower roof-line and wider flared wheelarches. It's accelerating round a long sweeping curve, climbing towards the clear blue sky, the rising note trumpeting from its twin exhaust ports suggests no signs of stress in the engine, the suspension holding it just off the level as its Pirelli P7s cling tight to the damp tarmac.That's me in the heated leather driving seat with a big grin on my face. I'm feeding 218bhp to the back wheels through a five-speed automatic gearbox, being hauled ever quicker up the slope by 376lb/ft of torque. This car is giving me everything I've ever wanted from a saloon and it's hard to believe it's finally here.It does the sprint to 62mph in 7.6 seconds, it'll keep accelerating uphill to well beyond the national speed limit, it returns an official average of almost 35mpg, it's big enough to take five adults the length of the country in comfort and it looks even classier than the Arnage which costs more than six times as much.The 300C is being built for Europe in Austria. This punchy and smooth diesel engine is new and comes from Chrysler's sister company Mercedes-Benz. Although the current flagship of the range comes with a monstrous 5.7-litre V8 Hemi petrol engine its advantages over the diesel are limited and its running costs are verging on the prohibitive.The CRD is just 1.2 seconds slower to 62mph, its top speed of 143mph is just 12mph slower, yet you'll get 12 more miles from a gallon of fuel and if you don't go dipping into the bag of optional extras you'll also save yourself over seven grand at the showroom. All of this means Chrysler expects it to be the big seller of the family, accounting for 85% of the 2700 units it expects to sell in the UK next year.Don't think the diesel gets downgraded kit either. It handles just as well as the Hemi on the road since all the rest of its major mechanicals are shared with it. The gearbox is also shared with the Mercedes-Benz E-Class and the suspension is derived from the E-Class layout.Out on the twisting roads the big Chrysler handles better than I expected it to. Dashing off down the my first straight, the suspension felt soft and spongy, but as soon as I'd pulled off into the rollercoaster countryside, I was surprised to find the suspension held on more than acceptably. You always know that you're riding almost two tonnes of metal so you're not going to go chucking the 300C round like a sportscar, but it's all kept under control by the Mercedes-sourced Electronic Stability Programme, traction control and, when it's time to rein in, ABS.Basic spec on the CRD is below that on the Hemi but you can have the extras added if you feel the need. The main missing attractions are the sat-nav (£1400), the sunroof (£850), the Californian Walnut trim (£275), the upgraded stereo (£250) and the 6-CD autochanger (£400). Line 'em all up and you're still four grand better off.Even without the extra goodies, the interior is a place of gentle elegance in which you can smile away the woes of the day. There's leather seats all round, dual-zone climate control, a classy centrally mounted analogue clock and brushed silver dials that light up with moon-like luminescence after dark. Back seat passengers get their own air blowers. But what this car has that nothing else has is individuality and, to my eye, more style than the rest of them put togetherIt remains to be seen how reliable the 300C is, but other current Chrysler products have no major problems so there shouldn't be anything to worry about. Residual values will probably depend on whether the rest of the world agrees with me on its aesthetic appeal.Second opinion: The Hemi version of the 300C is still the most exciting, and the 3.5 V6 petrol car has more appeal in real life than it does on paper (see road test), but for all that I reckon the diesel is the one to go for. Compared with the others in the range, the diesel still goes well and handles well. It's also not far behind on refinement, and way, way ahead on fuel economy. David Finlay. Engine 2987 cc, 6 cylinders Power 218 bhp @4000 rpm Torque 376 ib/ft @2800 rpm Transmission 5 speed auto Fuel/CO2 34.9 mpg / 215 g/km Acceleration 0-62mph: 7.5sec Top speed 143 mph Price From £27925.00 approx Release date 01/10/2005
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