Autoweek has posted a new article on the slow start Chrysler has been experiencing with sales of the Crossfire. The article seems pretty well balanced. Here's the link:

Sales of Chrysler's Crossfire sports coupe off to tepid start

Cheers,

Greg

 

A friend of mine who is a dealer told me last week the Crossfire sales were taking off like crazy. He said they were getting 2000 over sticker and can't get them fast enough. 1 month ago they couldn't give 3 of them away. How do you figure that out?

 

Lousy start up - NO promotions and lack of info/Knowledge at Dealers.
Basically, if DC didn't have great designs they would be history. Seems like they go out of their way to screw it up. and are trying hard to go away. Customer Relations is a big "0."

 

You hit it, Jimbo.

The original 300, back in the early '60's, was ground breaking. The MOPAR muscle cars: Roadrunner, Coronet, some Darts, Cudas, Challengers, Chargers, were outstanding.

Today, the minivan, the PT Cruiser, Viper, Prowler, Neon SRT, Crossfire, Pacifica. They make great pickups, and the Durango is a great SUV.

We WILL forget about the Magnum....but hey, Ford had the Granada.

My wife has a Stratus, her second. The first was DESTROYED when my wife, doing 55, was hit square head on by a full size stretch limo, having crossed the center line with a sleeping driver, doing about 70. She walked away. The car collapsed around her. It was unbelievable.

Even the new Stratus' look better than anything in their class.

How can DC get it so screwed up? I feel for our British brethren in another thread bemoaning pricing and communication re their yet-to-be delivered cars. These are guys being told they're paying WAY over, to be honest, what the car is worth, and they haven't even had a chance to drive it yet!

The Xfire is not a class leader in pure performance. But Mercedes has been able to sell the SLK, which for $10K more is less of a performer and even less of a looker.

I just don't get it. Nissan was about to go belly up a couple years ago, Renault bought 40% of the company, now they've got a class leading sports car, a sports coupe (Infiniti) named car of the year by some mags, great trucks, and upgrade SUV line, and nicely styled cars throughout the line. Hopefully, DC will learn how to market.

 

The thing that still surprises me, is that maybe 1 out of every 10 people who comment on the car actually know what it is. I don't understand how more people don't know what the car is. Everyone knew what the PT Cruiser was when it came out, pretty much everyone knew what the 350z was. Chrysler just isn't doing a good job marketing the Crossfire.

 

Good question. The Autoweek article mentioned that Chrysler started running TV ads again about a month ago. That might have something to do with it.

Or it may just be a local thing. Sometimes word gets around in a particular city or region. Sometimes it spreads further as time goes on, sometimes not. It happens quite commonly with fairly inexpensive cultural things, like a song or band, or a particular clothing style or brand.

For what it's worth, I dropped by a dealer yesterday who had at least thirteen on the lot, at least half of which were there a couple of weeks ago, the last time I stopped by. Of course, the day before I stopped by another dealer who had two, and who claimed they were selling like hotcakes. But he also tried to tell me that I really wanted the red/black auto he had sitting there rather than the ssb/black&grey manual I actually want. And that I really wanted to take it that night, rather than waiting another couple of months until I have a garage to put it in.

What does it all mean? Hell if I know, except that it will be interesting when the sales figures for October are available.

By the way kusheen, glad to hear that your wife's okay after such a nasty accident. Just a few days ago, a friend's wife got t-boned on the drivers side in her BMW 7. An SUV of some sort ran a stop sign. Looking at the car, I have no idea how she survived, let alone basically unhurt. Hell, knowing how much time and money my friend has poured into that piece of crud, fixing almost everything at least once, I have no idea how it even managed to stay in one piece, let alone protect her.

Cheers,

Greg

 

As far as slow sales are concerned, I think the dealers that ask over sticker have to take a fair share of the blame. I went in to look at a Crossfire the first few days after they came out. The dealer had an additional markup sticker in the window of $4,500. I left and waited a few weeks to buy the car under MSRP.

 

A check of carmax.com would probably dispell the notion that they are selling like hot cakes irrespective of what a dealer says.

 

Well, I leave for vacation and come back and the Crossfires are selling like hotcakes--that GREAT news. It's interesting, because on the flight over to Australia, I was reading everything from the Robb Report to Food and Wine magazine and almost every magazine I read had a Crossfire ad in it. Heck I picked up the weekend USA Today version at LAX on the way back today and there was a full page ad. Chrysler has definately been dumping some serious $$ into the ad campaign.

I saw a Crossfire TV ad in Australia that said "coming in late 2003". Also I cut out from the paper a ad for the Crossfire (I will scan it later) for $69,990 (AUD). It said "Taking orders for Dec delivery". This was at Peter Warren Chrysler in Sydney.

 

Re the post that a look at Carmax.com dispelling the notion that the cars have started selling well.

Took your suggestion, and Carmax had only 2 Crossfires listed in its network nationwide, both nearly new (one with 2K, the other with less than 1K) and listed for near MSRP.

Not saying you don't have a point, just not getting the point.

 

Where did you get 2 from,typed in florida zip code and at least 4 dealers with a long list of crossfires for sale.

 

I went to the Carmax website, and used the Nationwide search feature. First tried my local zip, came up empty, did the Nationwide, came up with two.

Not doubting you, maybe the search engine has some problems.

 

Kusheen--I don't know what your search engine problem is, but I went there identified the car and hit the Orlando and Atlanta locations and came up with over 25 this morning