Crookedview,

Welcome to the forum.

Your last post stating that you will be driving your Crossfire year round in SD and that you are planning to keep it a long time is very helpful.

First of all, there are forum members who drive their Crossfires in the snow. They tend to use a winter tire/wheel setup that allows them to drive in a small amount if snow. But as you can imagine, the Crossfire will have some winter driving limitations. Perhaps someone will respond or you can do a search. I have seen threads on this very topic.

Secondly, your desire to keep the Crossfire for a while should also influence your selection.

The most important thing is to be patient. There are many Crossfires available. Lots of leased cars are being turned in. You should be able to find one in your price range with many fewer miles than 50k. It may take your search outside of SD, but it might be worth it. You will fall in love with the 1st Crossfire you test drive. Please be patient and remember there are many out there...you will find the right one. Most Crossfires seem to be weekend/summer cars so there are many out there with low miles.

Since you are planning on keeping it, try to find one that still has an extended warranty available to either transfer or purchase. Chysler has a 7/70 extended waranty that begins with the cars "in service" date. Which is the day it sold new. But beware that over the years the rules on warranty transfers has changed. I do not knw the details, but in some cases the 3rd owner cannot get the warranty. So beware that you might buy a car to only find out that it cannot get an extended warranty. Another thread search might be in order. Please check the warranty options before you sign on the dotted line. Dont assume a low mileage car will have warranty available.

The warranty could be valuable as the Crossfire will be more expensive to repair than a regular Chrysler. In fact if you buy an out of warranty crossfire, you may want to have your service performed at an independant Mercedes repair facility. They know the R170 platform and the 112 Merc engine and unlike Mercedes dealerships, they might service a Crossfire. Or you might get lucky and find that your Chryler dealership has qualified Crossfire techs.

Before I purchased my new 2006, I spoke to a Mercedes tech who told me that the Merc 112 engine was nearly bullet proof and that they rarely see engine problems. The R170 SLK platform is also tried and true as its been around for over 10 years at this point.

Good luck....keep us posted......