Hi, my name is Aria and I'm about to buy my first car ever.
I've been a huge car fanatic since I was a kid and I remember seeing the Crossfire for the first time and instantly falling in love. So now I'm going to work my *** off for about 6 more months then have enough money to buy my own Crossfire.

My story is that I'm a 20 year old that currently lives in Sweden who's about to move to the states(Santa barbara to be exact) to go to college, and judging by the two times I've been there(mainly L.A) you can't go anywhere without a car. So I've been studying a little here and there in the forums about the car and how much it costs to maintain etc and I'm still not thrown off by it, so I'm still going to get it.

So my questions are,

How reliable is the Car if maintained properly?
Do you think it would suit me that have a budget of 10-12k?
Is there a big difference between the regular gas and the premium one? In price etc.
I'm of course going to buy one used but I'm wondering about the mileage, is 70-80k on a Crossfire good to have as a first car for example. I'm going to use the car to go to school, to L.A and probably just general use.

All answers will be deeply appreciated! Thank you!

 

Congrats and welcome to America. Santa Barbara is a gorgeous area, the hills up to wine country are a fantastic drive and would be a ton of fun in a Crossfire. Los Angeles, well I didn't really like the few times I've been there.. some fun nightlife and good restaurants (I know of a fantastic pizza place, very authentic Italian, if you're ever in the mood)... As far as your questions go:

The car has Mercedes reliability, having the Mercedes sourced 3.2L V6... I'm sure you're familiar with the German cars over there in Europe so you know they're solid but can be a little on the expensive side to fix. But most will report not having many issues.. there are a few things that can go wrong, but they're experienced by everyone so we know the easiest and cheapest way to fix them.. you're ahead of the game by finding this forum already, as it is the best place to find all the answers you need (always check here first, and avoid the Chrysler dealerships)

For $10k-12k, there really is no other fun, rear wheel drive car with this kind of performance. Sure you could find an old Miata or something, but the Crossfire is really undervalued and therefore is a great bargain

Most anything that you get with some performance to it will require Premium gas. Since you're considering a Crossfire, I assume you don't want to drive something boring. As far as a price difference, around here in New England its about a .30 cent difference

I bought my Crossfire with 70k and haven't had too many issues with it. Again, pretty solid engines so that level of mileage shouldn't scare you. Plenty of life left. Also keep in mind that you'll probably find low mileage, one owner cars or higher mileage cars that have had a lot of owners.. If you can find something in between, you'll have the best of both worlds


All in all, I think you're making the right decision. Of course I'm biased because I own one (2004, 6speed) but I will say this: I "bought" one briefly in 2008, had it for a week before the dealership I was buying it from screwed me over with my loan and I ended up returning it. I bought another car that I kept for 4 years.. and then I traded that in for my current car. The Crossfire stuck with me all those years and I ended up back in one and haven't looked back since

 

Thank you so much for your reply! I'll take it all in and do some more research! Thanks again