Road Test: Chrysler 300C 3.0 V6 CRD SRT Design 5dr Auto

A month ago, there can't have been many people saying, "Oh, my life is incomplete without a Bentley-resembling Chrysler, but you know I just can't quite bring myself to get one on account of the lack of soft-feel plastic on the armrests. Come to that, the position of the high-mounted stop-light is impossibly shabby."

And so there can't be many people who will rush out to buy one now those things have been fixed. If you were a 300C kinda guy before, you still will be now. If you weren't, this micro-facelift won't have made a whole lot of difference.

On the other hand, the jiggery-pokery to the range might change your situation. New prominence goes to the diesels. They're good. It's a Merc-derived V6 with 215bhp and a smooth-ish auto.

People have been buying the diesel in big numbers, unlike most of the petrol models, so they've been offed from the range. The only petrol 300C that remains is the entertainingly bonkers SRT/8. A V8, 425bhp and a set of 20s do it for me.

So Chrysler has combined the two in a new SRT-Design trim. It has the diesel engine but the looks, the ride-imperiling 20s and the sportified leather-and-carbon cabin of the SRT. And navigation, Bluetooth, iPod connector and integral 20Gb music drive.

I fancy the Touring version. It's rational: it's a diesel estate at a good price. But surely no one will buy it for rational reasons...