Browse over 9,000 car reviews

Chrysler?s E490 is dressed to impress


Now an appropriately styled limited-edition version of the Chrysler 300C 'E490' show car will be in showrooms by the end of the year.

Chrysler Group Australia-Pacific, managing director Gerry Jenkins, expects a more modest version of the E490 concept to slip into the range below the 6.1-litre SRT8.

The car will be built in-house at the same factory that builds the 300C in Graz, Austria.

CARSguide understands one of the biggest stumbling blocks to its development has been the car's rorty exhaust note, which does not meet drive-by noise regulations.

However, Jenkins reckons noise is not the issue, saying the company was trying to figure out the car's marketing and positioning in the line-up.

Despite this, DaimlerChrysler is pushing ahead with plans for the E490, as well as increasing the accessories available through Chrysler's Mopar performance division.

"Certainly there is customer interest in the 6.1-litre HEMI SRT8," Jenkins says.

But Jenkins reckons all 300C owners should have the option of personalising their cars.

"At the bottom end there is a customer who wants the utility and functionality of the 300C, and somewhere in-between there is a customer who wants the base vehicle but wants to dress it up and personalise it," he says.

Jenkins says that personalised 300C sedans and wagons could eventually account for 15 per cent of overall sales of the car.

Buyers of the 300C spend about $12,000 dressing up their cars. "A lot of our buyers are already taking their cars to the local car shop and dressing them up," he says.

Now Jenkins wants a slice of the action — and the 300C is not the only car in his sights.

He says there is huge scope for customised Jeeps and Dodges.

He is looking at German company Startech, which sells a range of high-end cosmetic enhancements for the three brands.

"They do a little bit of tuning but we're more interested in the cosmetics," Jenkins says.

The E490 got its name because of its power rating — 490 horsepower — in pre-metric terms, which equates to 365kW, 48kW more than the standard SRT8.

After the jet-black car appeared at the Melbourne Motor Show in March, Chrysler dealers were inundated by interested buyers.

The company took a $74,990 SRT8 Touring and added a huge cold-air intake system and modified exhaust.

A $6380 Alpine audio system was added, along with XPH 20-inch Cruise alloys, dark window tinting and E490 badging.