This is my first post so please go easy on me. I'm looking to buy a 2005 Crossfire base model 6spd with 18k miles. I drove it and talked the dealer down to $14,000 (with my worthless trade-in) out the door with full warranty until Nov 2008. The dealer said I will also get the remaining 7/70 warranty until 2012. I test drove only one other before this one. This one has no door dings or curb rash on the rims. The only thing missing is the plastic front seat lever on the passender side.

What do I need to look for before buying? Common issues? How reliable is it? This will be my daily driver. My weekend car is a 94' Viper.

I've been driving a 1991 Dodge Stealth for 8 years that currently has 275k miles! Needless to say, it's very old, rusted, dinged, and makes lots of noises. I wouldn't get more than $1500 for it and it may take a while to sell, so I'm giving it to the dealer to knock the price down (He wanted no less than $15k out the door without trade-in). If I buy a Crossfire, it's certainly has more power than my SOHC Stealth. It felt like a DOHC Stealth with 225hp. I figure I may just get a chip later to bump it to 235hp or so. Any other worthwhile upgrades? I really don't need alot of HP since I own a Viper for that.

Thanks for your help.

 

First of all welcome to the forum. This deal sounds reasonable with the prices at this time. You will love the Crossfire a lot. Let some others feedback here but it sounds good to me. Best of luck and again welcome.

 

Welcome to the forum, and unless the car you're buying is very unusual, you will have a great experience with it.

Common issues: check out the rust thread here. You're buying a high-performance car with high-performance tires; some folks have trouble with winter driving. The cup holder is a source of never-ending amusement for XF owners. Search the forum for brake dust; the consensus answer is Rotex Gold pads. Get in the car, park it in a parking lot slot, then back out. Routine maintenance is relatively expensive, but on the other hand oil service is about every 7500 miles or so.

It's been my daily driver for almost 2 years now, in the hellish SF Bay commute. I had one powertrain issue about a year, fixed under warranty. Other than that, no issues whatsoever. "German engineering..."

 

What's considered Routine maintenance and what's the expensive part?

 

The Crossfire Limited has 215 HP, you will not gain another 20 HP from a chip. ECU tunes for our cars are not cheap starting at about $400.00 for a gain of 8 - 12 HP (and most are not dyno proven). A RennTech, or Startech MB tune will run well over $1K. Be aware our cars are not "tuner" cars and performance upgrades are very expensive, and there are not alot out there.

 

I thought this company was offering a 23hp upgrade?

http://www.inmotionusa.com/chryslergraphs.html

And this one:
http://www.powerchipgroup.com/produc...sp?pid=Chr0040

Are these bogas claims? Thanks again.

 

An oil change at the dealer can run $75.00 - $125.00, if you do it yourself about $60.00 - $75.00 (you will have to purchase a topsider oil pump). OEM tires can run $300.00 - $375.00 (front) and $350.00 - $425.00 (rear), depending on the brand. Our cars also have 2 plugs per cylinder (12 total) and should only run on premium fuel.

 

Has not been dyno proven on a Crossfire (to my knowledge, our cars are hard to dyno due to the ESP system), the only ECU upgrade that some members here have that has been dyno proven is SI Speed Innovations.

 

Do a search there are many threads on performance, if speed is what you need.......you should consider the Crossfire SRT6....330 HP Supercharged AMG engine.

 

No, I don't really need speed for my daily driver. I just thought maybe I'd give it an extra little boost for $400. I really want a manual so I guess SRT6 is out. Realiablity is most important to me, but I've modded every car I've ever owned, so I figured I'd do the cheapest mod short of nitrous.

Thanks again for the reply.

 

That sounds like a good deal for a great car, These cars really are good runners. If you do a quick read of the forum you will see there is only a few rattle,headlight, and water leak problems. Welcome to the forum.