Summer of 2008 went by and I was in need of a "new" winter car since the Buick was now gone. After having checked around a bit my choice became a 1999 Chrysler 300M with about 90000 miles on the meter. Prices for these kind of "environment monsters" nowadays are pretty favorable and you get a lot of car for the money.

Early fall 2012 on my way to work something broke with a bang and I couldn't quite understand what it was until  I could have a look and see that the lower plate that supported the spring had separated from the strut on the front left side and was now laying on the top of the tire. Fortunately with no sharp edges and also the fact that it had been raining probably saved the tire. The car was grounded a couple of months after I bought the Magnum but I decided to fix it and let the wife take over. Bought two complete struts on eBay from USA at about $320 including shipping which at the time felt like a good deal. I replaced them without problems at the end of 2012 but the car was again not used until July of 2013 when the wife began driving it.

After 2676 miles something broke again and I was very surprised to find that the top mount of the new strut on the left side had broken leaving the shock absorber without guidance at the top and off course also the steering of the car became unpredictable.  See pictures here. Alliance Automotive who sold the parts didn't take responsibility despite lifetime warranty, or to be correct I would have had to return the bad parts at my expence and also pay for shipping of the replacement parts which really wasn't an option. Unfortunately I had thrown away the broken original struts but I found a  used top mount on a salvage yard which I could use. After another 1385 miles the same thing happened on the other side. I now gave up an we bought another car (Volvo) for the wife. The car was again grounded over the winter 2014/2015. I was able sell both the summer and winter wheels which both had nice after market aluminum rims (I still had the original wheels) so I got a few bucks back.

On May 6 2015 the car went to car heaven.

The last journey.