Originally Posted by HDDP
All the major mechanicals are "off the shelf" Mercedes Benz SLK '2002 generation. Engine, Drivetrain, Chassis, Suspension, Brakes, Transmission, Electronic Management... The car was "rushed" into production immediately after the marriage of Daimler & Chrysler. The interior was designed by a firm in Orange County, CA. This is a paraphrase from the Director of Crossfire Operations, Andre' Amoit during a lengthy conversation I had with him over a year ago... He also stated that many of the specs and engineering information was very slow in coming from the engineers at Mercedes and they were reluctant to share them with their "American" counterparts in Detroit...
Also, had some interesting conversations with the gentleman, who's name escapes me now, that was responsible for generating / converting the parts catalog from the Mercedes SLK parts to the Chrysler parts catalog.
So, that 39% quoted in the article is, in my humble opinion the vehicle... The rest of the stuff is just accessories and appearance...
That being said, I completely disagree with the original poster of this thread... This is the MB SLK320 / 32 And the Director of Crossfire Operations agrees...
Well... I would have to agree with HDDP!
Think about this everyone; most of the Engine, Drivetrain, Chassis, Suspension, Brakes, Transmission, Electronic Management were duplicated from the SLK series; as HDDP has stated and has been proven throughout my experience with the Xfire! In fact most of the parts you can find for the SLK can be used for the XFire. That is why some of our SLK cousins visit this forum so frequently, and most mods that are preformed or found, can be generally migrated between product lines.
I for one would be happy to disenfranchise the Daimler name with Chrysler, but I'm happy to say that the CrossFire was one of the few moments that Daimler and Chrysler got some things right; even if they screwed up on the merchandising, and support of the vehicle!
Just my humble opinion,
XFH