Just another data point: Yesterday I stopped by the dealer I'm likely to buy from. They'd had one (white autostick) Crossfire in stock for at least six weeks, and just received a new shipment of at least six more, in various combinations. Practically the first thing the salesweasel said when he saw me come in the door was, "hey, if you take it today, I can give you $2000 off sticker."

Now, this is a dealer who has been selling them at list all along (ie no dealer markup), and they were supposedly having a special one-day event (they had a mobile broadcasting truck from a local radio station on the lot - big whoop). But given the way I've seen Crossfires sitting on several lots for the last month or six weeks, and having heard about the abyssmal August sales numbers, I strongly suspect that my need to wait until late this year or early next year to buy is going to result in a much better deal.

On a more personal note, I finally had a chance to drive a manual Crossfire yesterday. I've read really mixed things about the manual, but all I can say after driving one is "$#&! the automatic!" The weasel also let me take it off the (dead straight) main road, up a nearby twisty hillside. It may sound cliched, but the only words I can think of to describe the handling of the Crossfire is "on rails". In fact, I think that term must have been invented in anticipation of this car. Now, I wasn't familiar with the road, so I wasn't exactly pushing the car to an extreme, but I wasn't going easy on it either, and there was basically no body roll at all, and the damn thing felt glued to the road. The 350Z didn't feel nearly as good when I drove it, though that might have been my fault, since I seemed to have an inordinant amount of trouble with the transmission on that car. So change my order to an SSB Manual, or perhaps a Graphite. And give me a bib so I don't ruin all of my shirts drooling on myself for the next few months until I can actually buy a Crossfire.

Cheers,

Greg