Re: crossfire dissed!
In my opinion the lack of a manual transmission is overplayed. It's incessantly revered as the one true characteristic of a sports car. Yet half of all Corvettes are sold with auto trannys. Does this mean that half of all Corvettes are not real sports cars?
Is the Crossfire considered a flop because it didn't sell, or because it didn't sell as well as Chrysler had expected? Chrysler way over estimated the market for this car and overbuilt accordingly. A more reasonable production run that sold out completely would have eased much of the criticism directed at the Crossfire.
Beauty is certainly subjective with few cars evoking such polar reactions as the Crossfire. But given the choice between controversy and blandness, I'll pick the controversial car.