Thread: Not much fun
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Old Apr 12, 2007 | 05:52 AM
  #13 (permalink)  
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Doyen
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 62
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From: Houlton, Wisconsin USA
Default Re: Not much fun
Originally Posted by RPM
Sheldon - how do you like your Crossfire so far?
I do love my new Crossfire, but with caveats. I did find a buyer for my SLK and the new owners picked it up last Saturday. Hated to see it go, but I can’t afford to have two similar toys. Because my Crossfire is a 2006 “Special Edition” it is mostly a base unit so that are quite a few things that the SLK had that I will miss on the Crossfire. The AMG Sport package was very nice indeed, and I will certainly miss the retractable hardtop. I’ll also miss the Bose Premium Sound System, the “Homelink” garage door opener, the headlight washers, heated seats, leather interior, and a bunch more things. But, the tradeoff is that I now have a brand spankin’ new car. I spent a year looking for the right SLK for me and after all that time I had to make some compromises. Because I wanted the “Sport” package it somewhat limited me in colors. I really wanted a Firemist Red one with a black interior, but could never find one that fit my other criteria, so settled for silver which is a classic Mercedes color. Now I’ve finally got the color combination that I originally wanted in my Blaze Red Crossfire with black top and interior, and I now have the 6 speed, which is a huge plus for me as I really value performance over luxury.

Everything on the Crossfire that is Chrysler is just a step down from the Mercedes equivalent. The cruise control looks the same but is not nearly as precise or smooth. The manual transmission is a bit “notchy”, the radio (at least on the Special Edition) is terrible. They could have at least put a port for plugging in an MP3 player. Where the SLK had carbon fiber on the dash, sills and console the Crossfire has really crappy plastic. It is definitely a step down from the Benz, but I do love it and am enjoying the heck out of it, well, except for...

When I first saw the car it was still wrapped from the factory and fresh off the truck, and that day the dealer sent me home in it to keep overnight. When I got home and pulled the key out of the ignition it was so hot that I was afraid there was a short. The next day when I took it back to them it didn’t do it again and they felt there might have been something in there from the factory shorting it but they couldn’t find anything when they checked and it hasn’t done that since. I bought the car the next day and waited while they finished all the prep work and cleaned the car. When I went to drive it off the lot it wouldn’t shift out of first gear. I had to leave it overnight and picked it up the next day. The shift linkage had apparently come apart and they easily fixed it. Then last Friday I was out and about in it and when I got home I pulled in the driveway and noticed the engine sounded extremely loud, as if it were still running at 3,000 RMP or so. Looked at the tach and it seemed normal, so popped the hood and the coolant fan was spinning madly away. I thought that was odd, shut the car down and didn’t drive it all weekend because I had a customer project I had to get done over the weekend. Monday I had to run some errands and fired it up only to find the same problem so instead of running my errands I drove to the dealer and sat there for two hours while they tried to figure out what was wrong. They finally re-flashed the memory in the computer or some such thing and the problem went away. So, in the 700 miles I’ve driven it so far it has already had its share of problems.

Do I “like the Crossfire”? Simply… YES, I do. I’ve owned well over 100 vehicles in my life and there have only been a few that I can’t stop staring at. This is one of those. I love the looks. I love the Mercedes V6 with the 6-speed and am having a blast running through the gears. For what I paid for this thing ($23,600 new) I feel like I’ve gotten the deal of the century. In spite of it coming in just shy of the SLK in some areas I am quite happy. I plan on putting in an aftermarket sound system and will be adding a Wind Restrictor soon. Then I’m thinking a Borla exhaust system would be a nice addition and I plan on enjoying this car for a very long time.
 
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