All true and well put. The fact is that even in good times sports cars sell at most around 14K units.
I believe that was around the production of the '04 model and that was strictly the Limited coupe. In 2005 the ranks of Crossfires grew to Limited coupe/roadster, base coupe/roadster and SRT6 coupe/roadster. From what I have seen ti looks like there were somwhere in the range of 30K '05 Crossfires. combine that with the fact that there were still some unsold '04 Limiteds at the time, there is no way Chrysler was going to sell them all under normal conditions. Add the sinking economy and toy cars attractiveness dropped even further.
I Chrysler would have either maintained their production numbers at around 15K, they might have been able to keep the values higher. Because they didn't it caused a glut of cars and the ensuing free fall of prices.
This is a simple case of having one's head up their a$$. The main cause for the Crossfire's decline was overproduction. Add to that not enough properly trained techs, Dealer attitudes and lack of knowledge about the car, plus basically a non existent ad campaign and you have the Crossfire glut.
To those who bought early, you are bearing the brunt of the decline in resale value. To those of us lucky enough to have bought them at greatly reduced prices, many would not have them today (and enjoying them) had the price not come down so dramatically.
As mentioned many times before, cars are not usually bought as an investment. Maybe it will be worth more in the future, but I don't care. I don't have time to worry about that. I am too busy ENJOYING the toy to be concerned.
One car company's mistake has provided me real pleasure!
Originally Posted by No1Piranha
Soft market now for all sports cars given economy concerns. C6 Vette leftovers are selling at $12k-13k below list. BMW M Roadster has a ton of dealer incentives on the hood. 350Z vert in a similar situation. There's an awful lot of people that seems to be visiting the forum if there's no demand for the car. Simple fact is Chrysler had to either pay for a production run of 100k cars or pay a penalty clause to Karmann on the shortfall. Almost all their major competitors have been selling less than 10k cars a year in this vehicle class, and by those standards the Crossfire was selling pretty decently. The entire 4+ yr Prowler production run was < 12k. With a divorice pending with Mercedes, Chrysler tried to spread the income statement hit into future years through these short term leases and mfr auctions. Wholesaler buyers pick them @ auction and you get a short term glut for sale.
Once sold they're not making any more, the "for sale" pool drops while demand remains roughly the same. Demand patterns run the same on all sports cars, performance variants and rag-tops are most widely sought. SRTs and Limited 6 speed convertibles will likely always have the best demand to production ratio and thus best resale. Automatic base and limited coupes probably the lowest demand relative to the production, and thus the lowest resale. If you want to minimize the risk of a significant resale hit that's your answer. But more important, get what you like and enjoy, right?