Originally Posted by Franc Rauscher
This car didn't "fail" because it was a rehash of a Series "E' sedan. It failed because it wasn''t supported by the factory that built it or the Brand tha marketed it.
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You are absolutely correct Franc. But not for the reason you seem to think.
The Crossfire didn't fail because it was a rehash of of the E Series Sedan. Because it isn't. The E Series platform was the W124...W210...or W211 depending on vintage. The closest in vintage to the Crossfire platform is probably the W210.
The Crossfire is based on the SLK R170 chassis designed in the mid 90's and produced up until 2003 by Mercedes and then given life through 2008 via Chrysler's contract with Karmann. This chassis was designed from the start as a 2 seat 2 door machine.
While "old", the R170 chassis is reasonably light and plenty stiff with the coupe roof that Chrysler added. What more would you get from a "new" chassis? The R170 made a good platform for the suspension tuning magic Chrysler's SRT shop worked on the car while avoiding a lot of new tooling cost. And the "horrible" recirculating ball steering was pummeled by a bunch of sheeple journalists that probably didn't even understand how it was designed. I don't find it particularly hard to use or unpleasant to live with. But I love the turning radius on this car. It's almost identical to the Lotus Exige and 4 feet tighter than my Honda S2000. Amazing!