Hey, Welcome.
I love the car before I bought mine.......Love it even more after. Grin hasn't gone away yet. That's why we call it Permagrin......
First things. Where in DC area are you? We have a Maryland Crossfires Club and our having our first car show on August 11 at the Linganore Winery. It'd be great if you can register and make the show. You can meet our current members, enjoy some food and drink at a great venue and pal around with a bunch of XFire enthusiasts. PM me if you are interested. Also, here's a link to our event info on the winery website.
http://www.linganorewines.com/PDF/co...compressed.pdf
Some quick hit responses to your questions.
-The motor on the spoiler was busted (they're fixing it for me later this week), is this a problem that is pretty common? - Not common to break. If they are fixing great. Good idea to grease it every so often. Also to keep in in the up position (manually) when driving on 270 stop and go during rush hour. It goes up....down......up........down.......etc.
-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? - Likely the TPMS batteries (one or more) are out. You'll need to replace the sensor/s and reset (you can get them way cheaper on EBAY etc.) Or use sme members fix of putting black electrical tape over the dash light (LOL).
-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). - Maintenance varies from car to car. It can be expensive for some items but do your research on this forum and it will save you tons and tons of money on any potential repairs. Oil changes are easy and way less expensive if you do them yourself and buy oil and filters in bulk. Half the cost easy of dealer changes. I'd suggest putting the $3100 into a car maintenance savings account and self insure yourself.
-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. -- Not awary of any but I'm considerting designing my own for the driver A-pillar. I'll let you know how it works out.
-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 bought a combo FM converter that plays music through FM band straight through the radio head unit and also has a bluetooth which plays directly through the radio. $50 and it works great. No need to change the existing head unit out. Althought others will say upgrade it. I prefer the stock look.
-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? - Parts can be hard to find or if not, at least delays in getting them (from what I've heard) but most normal where parts aren't a problem - aftermarket, chrysler or mercedes parts are all options. Also, for body parts, there are people who get wrecked cars and part them out. Always check on here first.
Good luck and hope to meet you at our Crossfire Charity Car Show at the Winery or during one of our get to gethers. Let me know if you have questions.