Hello!

I've just become a new Crossfire owner who lives in the St. Louis, MO area (Kirkwood to be exact).
I didn't even realize we had a local owners' group until someone directed me here from another message area!

I guess you could say a have a pretty long history of driving different cars and trading them off for something else after a year or three. Sometimes it's just been bad luck (like my Ford truck which I only got rid of after people couldn't stop rear-ending me in traffic!). But part of it is me being picky and enough of a sports car enthusiast that I keep finding cars I think I'll like, only to feel like I'm settling for less than I hoped for. (I had my *perfect* sports car in a low mileage '97 Toyota Supra twin-turbo, many years ago -- until I lost that one in a messy divorce!)

But anyway, the Crossfire was one of those cars that piqued my interest back when they were still selling new -- but I made the mistake of buying a Mitsubishi Eclipse GT instead. I got rid of the Eclipse after a year or so when it started acting funny on a road trip. (The dealer I traded it in to called me later, begging for a faxed copy of any and all service records I had, saying it developed some major engine trouble they were fighting with Mitsubishi to get fixed under warranty for them. So I guess I dumped it just in time!)

So fast-forwarding to the present? Saw an immaculate looking white Crossfire in a lot at the local grocery store last month and it made me think about them again. Started doing a lot of research and reading up and realized, "Hey... these things are still nice cars, holding up well, and have an active community too!" Decided if I got one, I wanted an SRT -- but there were no good ones to be had around here. So jumped on the chance to buy an SRT roadster I found in the Chicago area a couple weeks ago.

To be honest, I have a family now (wife and 3 kids), and this Crossfire is looked upon as a pretty impractical, senseless purchase on my part by most of those around me. (Sigh!) But the wife has a new Kia SUV so it's not like we lack a reliable vehicle to take the family around in....

So far, I'm enjoying the fact I found a car with performance fairly equal to my old Supra TT *and* scarce enough so it might actually have some collectible value as time goes on. I think this one's a "keeper"!

Don't know how many of the group events I can make it to? (Would have to be one of those rare times when it doesn't conflict with activities the kids have going on, on the weekends AND when we'd have someone to watch them.) But love the idea of the road trips to area wineries, eateries, etc. A lot of these are places I always wanted an excuse to drive out and see anyway.