Harsh words I know...but can't say it any differently. I am still baffled by the reason why the Crossfires never took off. I recently bought an SRT6 Roadster after owning a 2004 Limited and have been on love with these cars since I first laid eyes on them. Love the design, it's unique, appealing, nothing else like it.
When I see the other "sports" cars from that era (SLK, BMW Z3, Miata, Audi TT even Porsche Boxster) I find them to be dated, old and they just look like a vehicle from the early 2000s.
I remember when the first SLK came out in the 90s, it was groundbreaking. Magazines were writing about the uniqueness, the technology of the Vario roof and the Kompressor technology. Seeing an SLK from that era now looks uneventful and dull to me.

Now maybe I am biased, but I still love the design of the Crossfire today! I get asked about it at gas stations all the time and I find people walking around it in parking lots.
There are so many design details to the outside of that car that set it aside from the square, boxy looking vehicles from the past few years.
The interior got a bad rep back in the day from car magazine as they didn't like the silver plastic pieces. That doesn't bother me one bit, actually like it better than the wood trim in many Mercedes.

Find myself wondering if I had to buy a new sports car, what would I buy today and for a reasonable price (crazy for how cheap you can get an SRT6 with all it's power today!!!).
I can't come up with many that truly excite me.

So what was the actual reason these beauties never really took off? I imagined Mercedes would do a much better job at Marketing these cars and it's almost like they didn't want these to succeed. I hear that Chrysler wasn't even supposed to tell their customers that a SLK loomed under that hood.
Maybe it was the price point? Even though appropriate for what it was, and cheaper than the SLK, at the time Chrysler wasn't necessarily known for making high end quality vehicle.

Would love to hear your opinions. Still hurts to think this project never took off and was discontinued. I wish some major auto manufacturer would grab the concept, bring it into the 21st century,.modernize the looks a bit and run with it again.

Maybe the only good thing that came of it is that you can buy a heck of a lot of car for very cheap and have something unique that can excite you with a quality German engine.
So what was the reason these cars never took off? I imagine a lot of it was the marketi

 

I don't have the data and stats but I've read many times that the Crossfire was simply overpriced compared to what else was out there at the time. It was also underpowered.

 

Limited utility and overpriced.

 

IMO esthetics easily outweigh price & reasonable power today , but not initially .
I'm an 83 old hot rodder who has owned Carreras , blown drag machines , etc , & have a pristine 06 unaltered blk base coupe that doesn't get driven much cause I just admire it too much !
Prices are definitely rising on these cars , even w/ the financial mess we are in , as more folks are discovering these hidden diamonds .
The hideous new bulbous designs on the road today I feel perpetuate the appreciation for past more attractive vehicles IMO.
I wouldn't deem the Crossfire itself a failure but the Corporation who owned it certaiinly mismanaged it's short life .

 

This video sums it up pretty well. This channel also has videos for the Chrysler ME Four-Twelve and Firepower. His channel covers all things Chrysler/Plymouth/Jeep and Dodge. It’s a very good follow. I found myself watching almost all of his videos he had at the time when it was presented to me.

 

All of the above plus the following:

- The Crossfire was the baby of Wolfgang Bernhard (COO of DC). When he was passed over for a promotion in 2004, he left DC and went to VW. Without an internal product champion, the car floundered. DC offering the car on overstock.com for $9K below MSRP in 2005 certainly didn’t help the luxury image DC was pursuing. Same thing happened with the return of the FIAT brand in the US. That was Marchionne’s baby, and when he died in 2018, so did did the brand’s re-entry into the US market.

- Not all Chrysler dealers signed up for the Crossfire due to training & special tool costs. Accordingly, service and parts availability was spotty at best.

 

Not overpriced if someone bought the first 2004 model year when it first came with dealer incentives to move it and build a reputation. That year came fully loaded with everything other than the supercharged engine that followed in later years and the limited designation that then followed that included all the upgrades the 2004 came standard with. The 2004 was 1/2 the price of the comparable SLK at the time and it is the same car in a XF wrap. I'll have to check the sales receipt but I think my dad drove his (now mine - no make that my wife's somehow) off the lot for about $25K brand new in 2004.

 

And not just that...I always loved the Crossfire design so much better than that generation SLK. Heck, even today I prefer the timeless design of our Crossfires over most sports cars of equal value and beyond! I wish someone would bring the Crossfire back to life...keep the timeless shape of it but modernize it just a little and equip it with all the modern bells and whistles...but will always remain a dream! On the plus side, it makes a phenomenal car with German engineering and imo one of the best engines Mercedes has ever built in respect to durability, more affordable than anything comparable in it's class!

 

It didn't help that Jeremy Clarkson made fun of the design on Top Gear, but in reality, the car was just a rebodied previous generation SLK320, the R170 Benz was current from 1996 - 2004. So for the Crossfire to come out as an all-new car, but actually based on a recently replaced SLK320 platform, suspension & drivetrain didn't help when compared to the competition at the time within it's price point.

Add to the fact that small coupes with 2-seats already had limited appeal meant that the car wasn't going to be a huge seller.

 

It's funny (well not really) just how much influence such individuals have. Taking Jeremy Clarkson as the example (plus the Top Gear series). The sheeple tend to take his advice plus opinions as gospel !
You see almost all videos on youtube featuring a Crossfire, guaranteed there will be one fool who has to quote that "famous" Jeremy Clarkson line, that's years old.

Add to that (in my country at least) there's alot of "badge snobbery" plus sheep mentality. The general public prefer to stick to their well known German / European / Japanese mass produced brands, such as VW. BMW. Audi, Mercedes, Honda, Vauxhall etc. Their "safe" option - not frequently breaking from the mould.

The Crossfire has MUCH more style, character... plus class. Plus doesn't look like another generic vehicle, that 95% of the rest of road users prefer to be seen in! Perhaps it's good (for us) the masses still have on their blinkers !

 

Yup, absolutely agree.

 

Marketing would be part of it but.....my personal opinion was and still is not enough HP if they had stuffed 250 or 300 HP into it
I think sales would have been better. I sold my 07 Crossfire Cp Ltd with 202,000 miles last year when I replaced it with an 08 Cp Ltd
with only 18,000- miles. The car has classic MB early era racing lines which will always be classic. As stated before I think it was just not
enough HP to compete in such a "niche" market, oh and why would MB want to compete against itself ? Those era SLK's were butt ugly square boxes!

 

Some of the above reasonings apply. But the truth be told, the company that designed and built the Crossfire dissolved. Daimler went on with the spoils and success. Karman and the Chrysler partners never recovered.
The Chrysler Crossfire was a red headed stepchild from a messy divorce.

Eric Stoddard, the visionary who designed it, had great plans for the next generation Crossie, but moved to Hyundai.

The car itself was well priced for what it was and with Dealer support would have likely continued. But as any red headed stepchild will admit, next to impossible to succeed without parental love and support.

 

Thanks for the info wasn't aware of that history. When I first saw the car I loved it. Never thought I would own one until found my
first silver crossfire on ebay at the right price. Now my 08 is truly a "red" headed step child that has a loving home and MB techs
who work on it whenever an issue arises. Had the "mystery no start issue" when first purchased but thanks to the forum and the
fantastic people who know these cars "quirks" I was able to provide my MB techs with step by step instruction and pictures. They were
amazed and said we would have never thought of that as the problem. Kudos to all the great people here on the forum and
there knowledge. Again thanks again for history on the "why" !

 

all great points! Wish we would have seen a Crossfire V2 concept be executed in reality. Maybe I’m just biased but I remember when the first gen SLK came out with the BMW Z3 and Audi TT at the time they were groundbreaking, super thought after vehicles. For a while there was a 3 year wait for a SLK. Today all three of the first gen cars look dated, dull and boring. Just not able to keep up with modern designs. The Crossfire on the other hand still has people turn heads. Might be due to it’s rarity but I find the curves, headlight design, taillight design, little but distinct styling features amazing to look at to this day! Still a unique vehicle. Good for us, it’s relatively inexpensive to get German engineering with American styling!

 

I know someone out there has the answer to this question. The SRT hardtop/convertible did MB AMG division have anything to do with that engine or was it just
the standard engine with a turbo charger. Know this is a mute question now but the thought popped into my head when I saw 2 SRT hardtops for sale on the site.

Thanks!

 

The Crossfire was produced under Daimler by Karmann, it received the Mercedes-Benz 3.2-liter M112 E32 V6. All were built in Bad Cannstatt, Germany except the supercharged AMG, which was built in Affalterbach, Germany.
There are several versions of the M112 engine: the SRT has the C32AMG

 

And the key word is Supercharged, not Turbocharged.

 

A failure ? Not a chance according to those who know and love the style, the ride, and the reliability.....even after 20 years the car has a rock solid reputation for build quality.
The world will always be abound with Badge snobs, car magazine editors deciding trends and setting narratives, Corporate mismanagement, moronic buffoons like Jeremy Clarkson, and ill trained Service techs.

......just give me a home mechanic who keeps tabs on his expenses, knows the best wax, and who justifies his passion by driving to the Dragon to see what’s cooking.
No failures here.

 

Oh don't get me wrong. I am a huge fan of our cars...in my eyes it's all but a failure but from s corporate/financial success perspective it failed miserably. Only in the first production year did Daimler Chrysler meet it's projected sales goals. The following years the numbers tanked dramatically. The SRT was not supposed to be released in 2005 but rather later on but since numbers were bad they pushed it to market with the roadster a year after launch of the vehicle.
The car itself is amazing and high quality but the execution from the corporate aspect was madly mismanaged imo. Kind of tough to believe as seasoned as Mercedes is they treated the merger as badly as they did.