the irony is that, even being a great car, it had to fall into a situation that has made life of owners difficult.
a car designed by Stoddard/Dyson at chrysler, and developed at the moment when daimler purchased chrysler, it was daimler decision to make it in germany with mercedes components and body made-and assembled-by karmann, and sold by chrysler in america. problem was, chrysler did the worst service possible-and still does-and mercedes took revenge of the breaking of the deal by sabotaging chrysler by blocking sales of any part that the car uses that is sold by mercedes, hurting the users, that had nothing to do with all of that. it is hard to believe that you cant buy any mercedes part from a mercedes dealer, because they ask you for the VIN number even for the smallest part, and when you provide it and learn it is a crossfire, they dont sell it, and if you dont provide it, they dont sell it. it happened to me here and have heard the same from other owners.
the only way is to get it through the internet, from an european parts supplier. also for service, chrysler does the worst, by not doing it, or not fixing the problem, charging for diagnostic, and some times damaging other things that were fine. or fixing it, either way charging outrageous amounts. parts that you get elsewhere are 2 or 3 times that amount.
still, we are enjoying it, and with this forum we get advice that otherwise we would be stranded. so, keep driving and admiring it.