Chrysler has played an important part in America’s relationship with cars. Despite being such an iconic brand, Chrysler is not known for making great cars nowadays. That’s why the Chrysler 300, being a pretty good car, couldn’t save Chrysler from being in the last place in a recent study on car quality. 

Chrysler is dead last in J.D. Power’s quality study

J.D. Power recently released its most recent quality study. J.D. Power looked at over 100,000 brand-new cars in the 2021 model year from 32 car brands and surveyed owners in the first 90 days of owning their car. Then, J.D. Power ran the numbers and gave cars, and their automakers, a PP100 number. This number stands for problems per 100 cars, and the lower that number, the better.

The automaker with the lowest PP100 was Ram. It averaged a PP100 of 128. According to J.D. Power, a stereotypically reliable brand, such as Lexus, had a PP100 of 144. Overall, the industry average across all brands was 162. Unfortunately for Chrysler, its PP100 was 251. This meant that Chrysler was in the last place. The company was also one of a handful of automakers that had a PP100 of over 200.

A PP100 of over 200 essentially means that, on average, each car will experience at least two problems. So, not only was Chrysler in that club, but it was also the worst-rated brand in that club. This is despite the Chrysler 300 ranking pretty well, according to J.D. Power.

The Chrysler 300 scores well, but not well enough

Ultimately, an automaker’s ranking is determined by how many problems its cars have and how many cars it made for that model year. For example, Ram’s lineup is minimal, so the brand will have few issues as long as its trucks have few issues. On the other hand, Chrysler makes many different cars, and overall, its cars didn’t seem to do too well on J.D. Power’s quality study.

The main exception was the Chrysler 300. It almost won an award for having the fewest issues in its segment. The 300 is in the large car segment, and it was ultimately in second place on J.D. Power’s quality study. Unfortunately for Chrysler, the Nissan Maxima won, so Chrysler didn’t go home with any awards. Third place went to the Dodge Charger, so the 300 has plenty to brag about.

An overview of the 2021 Chrysler 300

As many people know, Chrysler, Dodge, Ram, and more are all owned by Stellantis, so this isn’t the worst news for Chrysler. But, it does show that, while Chrysler struggled on J.D. Power’s quality study, the 300 is a worthy car. After all, the 300 is a luxury car, and Chrysler could put extra effort into making it as good as it could be.

At a starting price tag of about $31,000, the 300 isn’t ridiculously expensive, but it has a lot to offer. Since it’s a luxury car, comfort is a priority. The 300 is spacious and lined with leather. Not only is it a comfortable car to be in, but it also has quite a few good engine options. It starts with a 3.6-liter V6 that gets almost 300 hp, and there’s an optional V8 that gets over 360 hp. The 300 has quite a few smart features on board, too.