Well I'll try to remember it as best I can. Anyway, just to preface: The Crossfire is the early stages of DCX trying to take the Chrysler brand upscale. In my opinion, their efforts will fail miserably for one reason: Chrysler's "Five Star" fraudulent service promise. Now I know that some will say "My dealer's great" and that may very well be true, but the Five Star network will not satisfy the upscale car buyer. I know this from my years of 300m ownership, there is simply no consistency and a total lack of commitment. When you see that sign at your Five Star dealer that says "It's different here", trust me it isn't. Here's the latest gaffe:

I order my replacement radio, get a call a couple of weeks ago from the service advisor that it's in and they'll hold it for 30 days. Fine, no problem. I decide to get the oil changed yesterday and call to see if I can roll the radio switch out into the job. Sure, no problem, says the service advisor. So I get there at 745 yesterday morning. "Give us an hour, maybe an hour and a half." I assume my position in the lobby with my array of newspapers and magazines. Well guess what, it's 10 AM, I've exhausted my supply of reading material and I know the news can't be good. Sure enough, here comes the service manager: "The tool Chrysler sent us to install the radio doesn't work," and some more mumbo jumbo about tabs and such. "I'll have to call Chrysler first thing Monday morning and get to the bottom of it." Very polite, very courteous, very apologetic, but the bottom line remains: the job didn't get done. I spent 2.5 hours there for a lousy oil change. Quite simply a crock.

This scene is repeated day after day at "Five Star" dealers across the country. I've been to no less than 4 Five Star dealers in the greater Phoenix area and the experience is the same: Total satisfaction one time, total exasperation the next. If this is as upscale as Chrysler is going to take it, they should announce the next generation of Sebrings and Neons and toss the Crossfire, Pacifica, 300c hemi and whatever else they have on tap for the upscale buyer on the trash heap.