Aero:

My Crossfire story is very similar to yours.... I was at my local Ford / Lincoln Merc / Chrysler dealership to discuss putting an order in for a Ford Mustang GT. To make a long story short, the salesman confirmed that with their current allocation, I would be looking upwards of a 10 month "real" wait before I would see the GT. It would be a 2006 and as such, the color and options and price would not be firm and have to be re-negoitated and fine tuned whent he 2006 specs arrived...

So we became saddened and were about to leave when my wife saw the Crossfire on the lot and said to me... "You were always interested in that car... lets take a look". Sure enough there were four 2004's on the lot of which 3 were Automatics and only one a 6 speed. I had always been interested in the Crossfire, but early on, when I visited the dealership and was "just looking" the typical price was in the $32K ish range.

We were able to get the 6 speed started and we went for a test drive. Never looked back since. It is a pretty nice car... especially with the Chrysler 2004 rebate and the great turn in value they gave me for an old Grand Marquis... it made the Crossfire a real bargain as far as I am concerned.

So thats my story....