Let me answer inline.

1) Maintenance, expensive or no different than any other car? Possibly the highest cost of any vehicle I've owned, and I'm 65, I've owned 24 cars/vans/trucks/motorcycles. Tires run $1000 a set and last 12,000 to 20,000 miles. If you drive the car like my dead grandmother would, you can get 30,000 or so, but why drive the car like that - just go get a Camry. I have had a "tire budget" since July, 2009 when I bought my first Crossfire. I average 16,000-19,000 miles on a set of tires - I bought a sports car and I drive it like one - so this cost might be ON ME, not really on the car.

2) Oil changes, DIY, corner garage, or do they have to be done at a Mercedes dealer? I do all oil changes at home , the Crossfire is as easy as my old Ford Ranger, I just slide the pan under it and change oil. MB dealers, most of them, will refuse the car for anything other than an oil change. See my sigline about Chrysler dealers - if you are going to take the car to a dealer for ANYTHING, go buy some other car so you are not on here complaining that no dealer can fix the car - we already know they cant, its not a Chrysler product, it's a Daimler Chrysler product and they do not exist anymore.

3) What about standard maintenance items like brakes and rotors, readily available or hard to find? The Chasis is R170, so 2003 Mercedes SLK320 parts fit and that's what I buy. Not expensive and not hard to find, just don't order/search for "Crossfire" parts, you have a 2003 SLK320, tell the parts guy that.

4) What about the cost of replacement parts? Not a problem, when it comes to body or Crossfire-specific parts, there are none available so the cost is zero, unless you buy used parts from "parts cars", prices are moderate to high but unless you hit a deer, what parts do you need? Then engine is from the SLK320, so parts under the hood are no issue unless you try to buy "Crossfire Parts", in which case you did not read item 3). AS TO BODY or CROSSFIRE SPECIFIC PARTS - EXAMPLE: When water leaks into the trunk and ruins the CLP/SSM, a used one will run $200 and this should include the last three feet of wiring harness, many of us have "parts cars" we can sell parts from. (Or just don't leave the car outside in the rain.)

5) Should I be worried about a 21-year-old car's seals and rubber components being dried out? Any really low miles car that has been stored outside is a money pit. Mine has 73,000 but has been garaged its entire life. I bough it (my third Roadster) with 21,000 miles in 2015. It has required four alternators and one convertible top. Had I not bough a cheap, used, NAPA Valeo alternator ($149), I'd only have changed the Alternator once, a brand new Bosch ($329) fixed that permanently. If you buy cheap parts, you will hate this car.

What about the overall durability of Crossfires? The engines cannot be destroyed, I bounced off the rev limiter dozens of times a day at the Dragon meets with my second one, never had an engine issue (but I ran 5W50 oil). There are issues that are fixable with the automatic transmissions, and I'd change fluid every five years - but the manuals are issue free.

What are the best Pros, and worst Cons of being a Crossfire owner? Pros: It's a fun car that can take curves at twice the posted speed limit. Mechanically it is sound if you get past the automatic's "conductor plate" nonsense. The owner fraternity is populated with a tremendous group of good people; if you are not going to Crossfire driving and social meets, you are missing why so many of us have had so many of these cars, myself included. And without that fraternity, I would have moved on from Crossfires years ago.

Cons: Tires are expensive, premium gas is not expensive but the retarded mind acts like it is. The cars are getting old, many of us have replaced the factory sound system (which was crap on day one, today, many heads have failed), the convertible top runs $1200-1400 (parts and labor included) and most cars today need a new top, they are 20 years old.


As to the convertible top: a new top will last 15-20 years, you pay almost as much for tires that last 20,000 miles - so crying about the cost of a top is childish - this is not a "con" of the car, but of the owner. The car you are looking at needs a top if it has not been replaced in the last five years. Just be prepared, that's all I'm saying.


SUMMARY:

If you go to dealers for car maintenance, you will spend a lot of money on this car.

If you go to dealers to get the car fixed, you will sell the car the first time you take it in, because they will either refuse it or not be able to fix it. This car is a melting of SLK320 and a body by Chrysler, assembled in the Karmann plant. It is an orphan insofar as MB and Chrysler dealers go - there is NO factory tech support for it, for that reason, we here have created a fraternity that supports the car. We have garages/shops in PA/KS/AR/FL/GA/SC/TN/MI/IL/CA/TX that network together to help owners. There is a network here that extends to Facebook for this purpose.

If you are a bit of a DIY person, this group can help with anything that comes up.

Read my sigline.