Greetings to all,

Purchased my first Crossfire last Sunday! It is a Sapphire Silver Blue 04 (#4418, 7-21-03), with 25,539 miles on it. It was the lowest mileage example I could find within 500 miles of Southern California. The first Orange County owner babied it for 11 years (there are moulton seat covers over the leather and floor mats for the floor mats + custom cover) before turning it in on a new Cadillac in July of 2014. Then, some folks from Laguna Beach purchased it, but only kept it for 3 months (what did they know?). They traded it for a truck at a Nissan dealer in Huntington Beach. I guess they were just not Crossfire people, go figure! So, now I have this near virgin example sitting in my garage and I'm a little scared of it to be honest. But it sure is beautiful.

I've been a "car guy" my entire life. My first car was a 66 T-Bird convertible in 1971. Since then, I've had a steady stream (8 in all) of 50's and 60's T-Bird and Lincoln Continental convertibles. What brought me to the Crossfire was the lack of drivability in these now 50+ year old cars. I wanted something modern, distinctive and beautifully executed, which our Crossfires certainly are. I briefly considered the Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Skye, but the amazing styling, build quality and heritage of the Crossfire won hands down. And the fact that the prices are so low for a good example. I honestly don't understand that whole aspect of these cars. Yes, they are orphans, but so are Continental Mark II's and Edsels, each of which command huge prices today and were commercial flops in their time. Unfortunately, I probably won't be around in 25-30 years when our amazing cars finally achieve the status they deserve. Chrysler has such a long and illustrious history with European hybrid cars, The Crossfire is the rightful heir to the Facel-Vega, Dual-Ghia and Jensen Interceptor. Hopefully with the support and camaraderie of this group, the Crossfire and I will have many happy years together. Luckily, I have two other daily drivers, so this car will be primarily a weekend toy.

Although the Lincolns and T-birds were complicated in their way, they were ultimately just Fords under the hood. The "throw-away" threads on this site don't give me confidence, but then again, we only hear about the troublesome cars in that respect. The Crossie and I have an appointment with the local Chrysler dealer tomorrow morning for a diagnostic. I called ahead to see what reception I would receive. The service guy could not have been nicer and seemed truly surprised at the horror stories I related regarding other dealers. Time will tell if he was being truthful. In the meantime, it looks like I may have to become a DIY guy in order to keep this little blue jewel running happily. I did inherit the complete service history too.

By the way, anybody have some experience with how our cars perform in the desert? I don't plan to drive it in the summer, except after sunset maybe. I can just hear the mother-board cooking right now. My 56 T-Bird hated the heat! Also, how many of us are in Southern California? I don't see any active chapters of the club nearby.

Happy holidays to all,

Steven