I am not sure what you are basing me being a hot head on, but if that is what you believe..... I can live with that. The fact remains that to tell someone that is coming in here seeking information about Crossfires that they should stay away from 04 and 05 Crossfires because they are more problematic is irresponsible. To back that up by saying that cars have bugs worked out of them as the model years progress, is making a statement without knowledge of what changes were made in the Crossfire models or the history of the SLK320/32 drive train that this car is based on. Then to justify it by saying that an older model may have been treated worse is without merit as well. An 08 owned by an irresponsible person could be in much worse condition than an average 04. It is up to the purchaser to research the history of a car and determine how it was cared for. He stated that it seems like he hears of more issues with the older model years. Maybe it has to do more with the fact that the last Crossfire rolled off the assembly line in December of 2007, and only 2,000 Crossfires were produced in 2007. Additionally, only 4,805 were produced in 2006. That leaves 35,700 that were produced in 03, 28,000 in 04, and 12,500 in 05. Based on these numbers...... which model years will you see more discussion about? Does this correlate to the 6,800 that were produced in 06/07 being more reliable than the 76,200 that were produced between 2003 and 2005? No, it just means that 92% of Crossfire owners have a car that was produced between 2003 and 2005. As evidenced by these numbers, fewer Crossfires were produced each successive year after the 03 production, and considering that only 6,800 were produced in the last 2 years...... it is evident that Mercedes/Chrysler knew that the Crossfire was slated for the bone yard prior to the 06 production run. Do you really think any significant extra effort was put into the 06/07 production years. Not likely!
I could have omitted my first sentence and and been more PC, but it does not change the fact that wperaska was not providing knowledgeable advice about the Crossfire model years. In fact, he gave advice that was misleading based on the actual facts about the Crossfire. Maybe you think that it is acceptable to provide mis-information to users seeking advice on a purchase decision. I try to limit the advice that I give to the facts. On many occasions, I have helped answer questions about NA's for example and give the caveat that I am an SRT owner and that an NA owner would surely chime in with more detailed advice. I have been told that I was wrong in advice that I have given before..... Right Rudy.......
I don't take it personal, and learn from it so that I can give better advice in the future.
My 05 has 27K miles on it, and I would dare say that there are very few 08's that are as close as nice or in near as good of condition as mine. The Crossfire is unique in the fact that a very high percentage of them are owned as pleasure/weekend cars, and are not driven on a daily basis. This makes it extremely easy to find well maintained 04 to 08 models that are in near pristine condition for a fraction of the price that they sold for new. Personally, if I were in the market for a second Crossfire (which I wish I could afford to get a coupe), I would focus on looking at 04 and 05 models as there are great deals on low mileage well maintained examples right now. But the bottom line is, I would look at any of the model years equally, and make my final decision based on the best car that I could get for my money. I would not think for even one second that I should spend more to get an 07 or 08 model year for reliability reasons. It simply is just not the case.
Anyway, if you believe that giving someone advice to stay away from 04/05 models is sound advice for a new member to receive that is looking to make a purchase decision then so be it. I will correct wrong information when I see it, and expect others to correct me when I am wrong.