Mac92's tale of hale damage brings up an interesting point. I guess the moral of his post needs to be that new body parts will be difficult if not impossible to find so be prepared to have your cars repaired with used ones at independent body shops. It is my experience that dealers do not want to deal with used body parts. Having done this it takes talent, time and patience. Most dealers could care less about keeping cars like our Xfires on the road. They make money on parts and repairs and in the time it takes to hunt parts for a odd ball like the Xfire they can repair and find parts for their newer cars. Less time, less work, less headaches so why bother with those Xfires anyway. These owners will give up and get a different car and the problem will be solved. Warranty period on most of our cars has ended or about to come to an end. Just one more thought. Warranty does not cover accidents or acts of nature. If you look at your lifetime warranty on the power train, Chrysler will only will fix a car up to the value of the car. Maybe someone who has one of those lifetime bumper to bumper warranties can see if it has a top end price like the value of the car in the fine print.

Just think what a new engine or transmission costs and look at the used value of these cars. Best you can hope for is a repair. Speaking of that most dealers will not use after market parts or another car manufacture's parts e.g. Mercedes.

I have to run. It is 75 degrees, cloudless blue sky and humidty is 11%. Typical day so I am off to cruise the highway for an hour or so.