Magna to Build Chrysler 300C Models in Austria

Wednesday 12:34 pm ET

DETROIT October 27, 2004; Reuters reported that DaimlerChrysler on Wednesday said it will start building its hot-selling 300C sedan at a plant operated by Magna Steyr in Graz, Austria, early next year.

Magna Steyr, a unit of Canadian automotive supplier Magna International Inc., will assemble various offerings of the 300C, including right-hand-drive versions and a diesel-powered model that Chrysler will introduce late next year, the company said in a statement.

It said a wagon version of the car, known as the 300C Touring, will also be built at the facility in Austria.

Some 8,000 of the cars will be built at the plant in 2005, according to a source familiar with Chrysler's production plans, and they will be sold in Europe and elsewhere outside North America.

Chrysler -- which had already announced overseas marketing plans for the 300C -- has said previously that international demand for the car was outstripping supply by about 30 percent. That prompted Chrysler to hammer out a recent agreement with the Canadian Auto Workers union to add a third shift at the Brampton, Ontario, plant where the car is built.

Europeans have mostly shunned North American-built cars, which they deride as oversized, gas-guzzling land-yachts.

Chrysler executives have said the ride quality and handling of the 300C were tuned to European tastes, however.

The 300 series aimed at European showrooms will include six-cylinder gasoline engines as well as diesels and -- despite skyrocketing fuel costs -- a 5.7 liter V-8 Hemi.