FP... There is no argument from my end either, but I do think you are misinterpreting what I wrote and are mixing apples and oranges. You are linking me to a point of view about cars never being a good investment and how people who bought low haven't depreciated that much etc.

I never addressed those points. MYCROSS asked, "how much the equivalent Mercedes has depreciated". I answered him with information I got from KBB and compared it to the 2004 Crossfire. You in turn asked, "So if you paid $25,000 for a roadster a year ago, what is that same car worth today". Again, all I did was give the information from KBB that you asked about.

The reason for the difference in our KBB prices is because we put in different information. I punched in that the car was in "good" condition (less than 5% of cars are really in excellent shape, even tho we all think our cars fall in that excellent category). I used the normal mileage of 35k, you used 8k. I did not add any special features as you did. Also the location of the car has a bearing on it's worth...

 

Although the numbers go way down...the Crossfire design is still unique and hard to compare even with today's styling!

 

This is straight out of the March N.A.D.A. Offical Used Car Guide
trade in - loan - clean retail
Coupe 2D 6 speed $15,225 $13,725 $17,800
Coupe 2D Limited $17,775 $16,000 $20,650
Coupe 2D SRT-6 $22,575 $20,325 $26,200
add theft recovery system $100 $100 $125
ded w/o AT (ex. base coupe) $675 $675 $ 675

Clean retail on 2004 Coupe with AT $18,650
This is the "Black Book" the dealers use to appraise your trade in.

 

Well, here's my uninformed, uneducated OPINION - although I also deal in vintage guitars and the like, so that experience is the basis for my opinions. Let me predicate all this by saying that I, myself, feel that MY 2004 Crossfire is an instant classic (as they ALL are). Build #4416, it's one of the first five thousand built of less than eighty thousand total, world wide (best guess at this time). Yes, I have romanticized it (as we all do), and I enjoy owning and driving the car VERY much... But... It's a car.

No different than any other car, driving it off the lot for the very first time USUALLY hands you your first big drop in value. That's life. If you're thinking of this car as an investment, you're fooling yourself - or, you are ONE POOR investor! That why I bought mine used a month or two ago, a lease return with 36k miles on it. Just broke in good, IHMO. The big first hit has been taken by the previous owner.

As long as the car stays in production, they will continue to devalue at the same rate as other similar cars, ie, sporty-touring two-seaters - excluding, of course, the fact that the "NEW" prices may yet be all over the board from dealers charging over MSRP, to dealers blowing them out at thousands of dollars less. Between this forum and my home-town experience, I've heard it go both ways.

Once production and delivery STOPS, we're probably in for a BIG DROP on the devaluation roller-coaster, so hang on.

I think that it will take NO LESS than ten years after production has stopped for the Crossfire value freefall to hit bottom. Are you ready to start scanning the classified ads in 2018 for that $2500 Crossfire, to refurbish or keep as a "parts donor" for your car?

AT TWENTY years out of production, we will probably see the prices start to come back up... slowly. The big re-value won't come in until the car is forty or fifty years old - like a '55 Chevy on today's market.

Of course, the accuracy of the last two statements is completely dependent on a fickle market that is DEMAND-driven. It's unrealistic to imagine that the car will achieve "desirable classic" status in anything less than AT LEAST twenty years - hey, do you think an '85 Corvette with 120k miles (that's just 5k a year) is a classic, or a clunker? What kind of an investment would that have been?

Yeah, I know, apples and oranges, but you get the drift. It's still a CAR, after all. Will the (we ASSume) low production numbers really do much to help the car hold its value during the first twenty years? I think not...

Now, it's pretty tough to predict how much demand there will actually be for an odd-duck, orphaned sporty-touring two-seater that didn't sell well and probably won't be serviced by either the dealer that sold it (Chrysler) or the company that designed most of it (Mercedes). On the other hand, there should still be parts available from Mercedes, and I predict that there will be a growing underground society of rebel mechanics and hot-rodders, adapting and modifying genuine Mercedes-labeled replacement parts to work in the Crossfire. There DO seem to be a large number of Crossfire "enthusiasts"... we of the faith!

Can you tell that it's my intention to just keep the car, regardless? I can just see myself passing this one on the grandkids in thirty years as an automotive oddity, like a Stanley Steamer or a boat-tailed Auburn. Or, at least, with something like the status of an Edsel...

"Yes, little Eddie, this is what cars were like, right after the turn of the century..." !!!

 

I agree. Great write-up.

 

Actually I'm wondering how bad GM took a hit on their little SKY and Solstice. I never see them on the roads anymore, seems they all disappeared here in LA. Now all I see are Crossfire's which sucks.

What were the production numbers on the two GM roadsters?

 

A lot of good points/predictions in this thread.
I think the Xfire will definitely be a 'cult car.'
Out of most newer cars, the SRT6 has what I think is a very high 'collectibility potential.' Low production #'s, style, performance, etc.

If I recall, the Superbirds had a similar fate.
Dealers couldn't get rid of them - and look at them today.
Only time will tell though.

 

Deaf Eddie, i agree with what you wrote, up to a point. However, there are some very big exceptions that i can easily point out.
1985-1987 Buick Grand National
1989 Trans Am GTA Turbo
1990-1995 Corvette ZR1
1980-1984 Renault R5 turbo
1976-1981 VW Scirocco
1983-1984 Hurst Olds
1990-1994 Nissan 240SX
There are a lot of others that see escalating prices much sooner than 30 years. Time will tell the tale i suppose...

 

check it out they're going for $16,000 now in LA. and there's still room to make a deal.

http://www.cars.com/go/search/detail...eadExists=true

 

An '04 with that kind of mileage has been at that price since last summer. I almost bought one for $16K last year. In fact it had 13K miles.

 

It is interesting that the SLK, that has the perceived panache, has lost almost half of its value. Our little XF has lost more but is considered by the press, the dealers and most of the public as a dog. And it's a Convertible to Coupe comparison. Could it be that 2 seaters don't hold value?

 

Let's just hope the article I have seen this past weeks in a few places is not true - Chrysler is starting production on the 2008 Crossfire due to overwhelming sales the last few months.