I have been hanging around this forum for the past few weeks. It is great to see the enthusiasm, info exchange, and general decorum on this board. I used it quite a bit in making the decision to buy a Crossfire. Thanks for the help!

Having said that, I'm posting this thread to let existing and future owners know (if they don't already) that there are some great deals out there on these cars right now. If you are coming off a lease ... and you like your car ... you may want to find a new '06 instead of buying the car you just leased. If you need to add another car to your stable, like me, nothing else even comes close for the money ... if a car of this type works for you.
For those of you that paid considerably higher prices than the prices that are a function of the marketplace today, I'm not trying to post a message that rubs it in your face. Just enjoy your Crossfire ... and get another now if it makes any sense. (Hey... I'm trying to rationalize getting another.)

Needing to add a third car to the family motor pool, I was scanning the car ads a few weeks ago just for info and ran across a local dealer advertising '06 Crossfires for $17,995. These were base models, black-on-black, manual, cloth seats --- you guys know what I'm talking about. This price is 59.5% of MSRP sticker of $30.2K. I love black-on-black --- my Saab 9-5 is the way. Test drove the X-fire, walked away, went home researched the heck out it, let the sales guy call me a few days later & had him fax me a deal sheet. Knowing that it was an "ad car" I fully expected some add ons --- and they met that expectation (sealant, destination charge add-back, etching). Offered to let them tint the windows for $150 --- and got rid of the add-ons over the next couple of days over the phone. No trade hassles, no on-site back-and-forth, etc.

Yeah, I probably would have preferred the automatic here in the big city --- but it certainly is a car that is fun with the manual. Yeah, I hate cloth seats, but for a little under a grand you can put Katzkin leather (they have the pattern) on the base (which I believe are) Recaro seats --- and I will. I actually prefer the seats in the base to the limiteds.

This car makes me grin when I walk towards it in my garage; it makes me grin when I drive it; it makes me grin when people look at it; it makes me grin when I look back at it after I've walked away from it after I've parked it somewhere (you know what I'm talking about). Who doesn't need a few more grins?

Where else can you buy anything new (okay ... its a "new" never-driven year-and-a-half old car) for under $20K even close to this German-built, RWD, rock-solid, fun to drive, piece of art like the Crossfire. The base MB SLK starts at $50K. I could go on and on and on ...

With Daimler Chrysler looking like it going to shed Chrysler --- I'm not expecting to see alot more (if any) of these cars ever produced. Based on my buy-in --- how much can I lose over time? For me, this has been my best car purchase.

The dealer I bought from has since changed their ad to read $12.2K off 2006 Crossfires --- and they use a limited coupe with a $37+ MSRP as their example. So you can get this deal on any version. It's just that the biggest bang percentage-wise is on the base model.