1996 Impala SS walk around and test drive with Chris from Chicago Cars Direct. Manufacturers risk a lot when resurrecting a fabled nameplate. Yet, after a 25-year hiatus, Chevrolet brought the Impala SS name back to the marketplace in ’94. Introduced at the 1993 Detroit auto show, the…

Detailed test drive and walkaround of a 2006 Chrysler 300 C SRT8 with Chris from Chicago Cars Direct. If the economic downfall of 2008 had happened just a few years earlier, the Chrysler 300C SRT8 probably wouldn’t exist. Think about it: when the nation was on the verge of .00/gallon gasoline and people were doing everything possible to get out of their fuel-sucking SUVs and into smaller, more efficient vehicles, a 425-horsepower flagship sedan with a free-breathing 6.1-liter Hemi V8 doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. But then again, did it ever? The 300C SRT8 is the product of a pre-castrated Chrysler. This was a time of Viper-powered Rams, Hemi-powered Jeeps and SRT-badged Neons. “You want it, you got it.” Chrysler wanted the 300C SRT8 to start a new trend of muscle sedans a land where quarter-mile times reigned supreme, and booming exhaust notes were all that mattered. This trend never really caught on (save the Cadillac CTS-V, which has been honed to be one hell of a machine), and at the end of the day, Chrysler was left with a big, heavy, powerful sedan that didn’t offer much in the way of refinement and carried a near-000 price tag. But despite its flaws and there are quite a few we still think of the 300C SRT8 as a guilty pleasure. It has all the ingredients of an American muscle car wrapped in a four-door, luxury(ish) package. We’d probably never buy one or recommend buying a new one to a friend, but if we’re totally honest, there’s still something about the …