Well,at least you guys didn't buy one of the new Ford T-Birds.Some of the problems on those are rediculous.The early owners in some cases paying as high as the mid 50K range(U.S. dollars)to own one of these "instant classics" as J. Mays called it.
That car has now been in production for 3 model years...and to date there is no permanent fix for the hardtop sitting directly on the rear deck lid and scuffing or wearing through the paint!A 40+K car!And to top it off....the best answer Ford can come up with is to put TAPE on the deck lid for the hardtop to sit on.AND this tape itself must be replaced every 6 months!
Plus the vehicles overall lackluster performance roadwise.It is almost a dead repeat of Ford's attempt to go toe to toe with the Corvette in the 50's.
I have a distinct feeling that the Crossfire is currently suffering from two things.
1.)Chrysler's obvious lack of advertising to bring in customers(which may be an attempt to keep this car at an intentional limited level BUT may ultimately bite them in th butt).
2.)A slowly recovering economy that is still shaky to say the least.People just are not eager to put 30K or so on a car right now that is obviously meant for pure driving pleasure....not practicality.
HOWEVER....Chrysler is continuing to expand thier entire line and totally redesign many of thier staple models.This does bring more people on the lot.In return...this makes them see the lone one or two Crossfires sitting there which they possibly have never seen before...causing the "Ooooh,what's that???" effect.After further investigation...perhaps the price will scare them off BUT they may also confide in the salesman that "Wow,if this was made as a convertible......." or "If it was more performance....Come on'..it's only got a V6....."Well,Chrysler is answering both those challenges....the Convert and the SRT 6 afterall are coming.
Doomed for a short production life?....I wouldn't neccessarily bet on it.It isn't extravegantly priced with a complete lack of power(that in the end is primarily what killed the Prowler and is killing the T-Bird)As stated,many early production vehicles of new models or completely redesigned models have a certain amount of unexpected design related problems that COULD'NT be predicted pop up.That is life...and humans are far from perfect...especially engineers.Give it a year or two,and the Crossfire will probably bea superb little car in it's vehicle class.
Wish I could afford one.
InfernoRed