Hello everyone!

After driving my Beetle into the ground (162,000 miles), and lately paying more often than I thought I should have been for chain tensioners, air conditioner repairs, water pumps, gaskets, etc., etc... I took the plunge and bought a Crossfire yesterday! 2004 with 51,000 miles on it. I picked it up for just over $10,000 out the door.

I did a couple of weeks worth of research, and after looking at a lot of cars in the "sporty" category, I decided that I could get a newer/fewer miles Crossfire than anything else really. All the Mini Coopers, Toyota MR2 Spyders, Nissan 350Zs, etc., etc., all came with 80,000-100,000 miles vice the 51,000 I got yesterday (and were mostly a year to three years older). I can't tell you how pleased I am with that. That's a huge difference. I am not quite sure why this car is that much less in demand, but hey... my gain!! I plan on having this car for a number of years - at least 5 - so I'm not concerned with a lower resale vaule.

Some thoughts after having owned the car for less than 24 hours:
-LOVE. IT. I love the syling, the way it drives, the way it feels, everything. Love it.
-Some professional reviewers complained a little about what they saw as slightly unresponsive steering. I dunno... maybe if you're used to test driving Astin Martins or Porches or something, but it feels awesome to me.
-It's a black hardtop, and my wife already has been calling it "The Batmobile". I might keep the nickname, haha. XD
-I can really feel the 215 hp. My beetle was turbocharged so it had a bit of zip, but it's nice not having to wait for the turbo to kick in if I need it in traffic, or coming off the line at a light. Coming to work this morning was an absolute dream. I'll try not to be too heavy on the pedal so I can get more out of the tank, but boy... it's FUN to drive.
-It seems like a few people on the forums use their Crossfire as a weekend car? I'll be using it as my daily commuter (15 miles each way, DC area). It's going to brighten my commutes for sure.
-I love how comfortable the seats are. Like getting a hug all the way to work this morning. :-)
-I keep singing that stupid Crossfire toy jingle in my head. I'm sure everyone here knows the one I'm talking about. Please tell me that fades after a while.


Some questions for the forum:
-The motor on the spoiler was busted (they're fixing it for me later this week), is this a problem that is pretty common?
-The tires have the correct amount of pressure in them, but the tire pressure light is on (again, fixing it for me later this week), is this a common problem?
-The dealer offered me a 5-year bumper-to-bumper for $3100. I turned it down since I can get it later, but... what is the forum's opinion on the amount of maintenance you guys have had to do on your cars from say, 50k to 100k? I'd love to hear some thoughts. I've spent SO much on my beetle in the last 5 years, so on the one hand I'm concerned with maintenance issues. But on the other hand, they wouldn't sell these if they didn't make money on them (and well... 162,000 miles is a lot more than 51,000 haha). When doing research on these cars, they didn't come across to me as maintenance intensive (although I did read about the markup for parts).
-Is there an easy/standard way that most people use to play an iPod through the car system? I used one of those tape deck adapter thingies in my beetle, haha. Most people just use an FM transmitter I guess? I was a little sad to see there's no "aux" port on the stock stereo.
-Are there GPS units or GPS holders of one sort or another that go better with the car than any other kinds? When researching Minis, I saw a whole line of GPS plastic holders that were made specifically to go into the Mini.
-My wife's minivan has the whole bluetooth-cell phone connection thing going on. How do most people with Crossfire's deal with this issue? A Bluetooth headset, I guess?
-I read in the forums here that thread that said Chrysler has discontinued parts for the car? I called the Chrysler dealer near my house, and they said they have no problem getting parts for the car. So... is this something that has been solved?

I still have a huge grin on my face this morning. I suspect it will be there for quite some time. This really is going to be a FUN car. Thanks for reading, and I'm excited to join the group here.