I work at a Chrysler dealership, and word has it (from new car ordering) that the crossfire will be standard with a MB 3.5L 255 horses. Is this true or he messing with me?? I like my crossfire but would love it with more horses for same money.

 

I have no idea to the real truth.

In my opinion I would not think they would do this. At least without a price increase, but I think they like how this car is moderately priced. However I would LOVE for these cars to be that much faster. They're great for an everyday car, but not for going too fast. Man that would be sweet though...

 

I wouldnt doubt it. I know others will, but it makes sense. Sales are super low and every magazine tells chrysler they would sell more cars with more power because they are underpowered compared to the competition. Why would prices increase? Its not like they are going to be offering another model. Cars always increase power and the prices increase just as much as they would of had they not, unless its going from 4 cylinder power to 6 cylinder power, case in point, the new slk350, price didnt change much, and it made the same engine jump the crossfire would. Thats just my 2 cents. I think with 255hp the crossfire would double sales.

 

i highly doubt it....

to create more cost for chrysler on a car that isn't selling...in 2 years the crossfire will be dead imo. great for us....a rare car...just what i wanted all along.

would it be wise for the engine change to increased sales.....oh yeah!

 

I agree with andrew. There's no way Chrysler will invest in re-tooling for a new engine when the car won't be around for much longer.

Also, there is no way they would put the same engine in the Crossfire as the new SLK because then they would compete. I wouldn't expect to see any engine changes now that the SRT-6 is out.

 

its not a new engine, its a merc engine. So does that mean that the amg slk competes with the crossfire srt? they offer almost the exact same performance. The slk and the crossfire are aimed at completely different customers. people dont cross shop 45k cars with 28k cars. merc is an image brand.

 

I agree with x'ed. Also, the costs would be minimal since it is the same engine that MB is currently using in the slk. More power would be nice!

 

yes, with 255hp the xfire suddenly becomes an extremely viable competitor with the s2k and the 350z, maybe moreso with the g35 coupe. the handeling already equals or bests all those cars, and with the power it would be the new bully on the block, in mho.

 

Since MB builds the 3.2 V-6 changing to the new 3.5 makes sense because it's going to replace all 3.2s. And the only reason they make the Crossfire is to get more market share.And more MB buyers.When they stop the Crossfire production. Crossfire owners may look into MB cars.Once you've own a german car it's hard to go back.

 

Interesting, If the XF is to continue than a up dated motor is a natural progression. BMW and merc do this all the time. BM coupe e46 started life as a 2.8 ltr then 3.0ltr and now there is to be a 3.5ltr.

I think there is a confussion about D.C. it's one company not two. It happens to sell two different brands is all.

 

They won't do it, at least not at the same price.

The simple reason is it would significantly decrease the value of the cars with the 215hp motor.

How much value a car keeps is a tremendous part of having a good company brand name, for DCX themselves, dealerships, and owners.

Every year, car companies usually put tweaks, or new features in their cars. But most of them are simple little things. Brand new motors with 25% more horsepower are a big deal, way too big a deal without making the car more expensive.

 

[QUOTE=NJspeed69]They won't do it, at least not at the same price.

The simple reason is it would significantly decrease the value of the cars with the 215hp motor.

How much value a car keeps is a tremendous part of having a good company brand name, for DCX themselves, dealerships, and owners.


I'm not sure I can agree with you on this. I don't believe the car companies care too much about the affect on value of previous years versions as they do about selling new cars each year. If they can come out with a higher horsepower vehicle, even at a higher price, they will do it as long they believe they can sell the vehicle at that price. Of course DC will not want to undermine the Mercedes brand and thus affect its new car sales.

A good example of this occurred with the C6 Corvette. They have put a new engine in the Corvette, raising the horsepower to 400h.p., just shy of the Z06 at 415. Do you think they care that much about the value of those Z06 they sold last year or the year before.
As long as they can sell a lot of C6 Corvettes, they are happy. Of course, next year a much more powerful Z06 is expected and the value of the current issue will be devalued.

 

yeah, i mean how does dc get hurt if it loses slk sales but gains xfire sales?

 

Before you read the rest, just understand this is an explanation of why they won't sell a 3.5L at the same price as our existing 3.2L. I'm not saying they wont sell a 3.5L. I'm just saying they won't sell it, without raising prices.

Depreciation is a huge factor when it comes to valuing a car, which in turn affects the company itself, the dealers and the drivers. Of course DCX cares, they are the largest owners of the most amount of Crossfires. All those leased cars belong to Chrysler. Not only do they care, they care A LOT. In fact, the amount of value a car keeps is a very closely tracked number. Car companies CEOs are happy as hell, and the stock of a car company can actually go up, just because their cars kept 1% more value than estimates, over the last year. Thats a huge deal.

You use the BMW as an example, it is a good example. Only each time they changed the motor, the model changed and the price went up as well. A 328i costs less than a 330i. The body stayed the same, but they changed the badge, the price, and the wheels. They did not originally sell 2.8s in the 328 and then start selling 328s with a 3.0 engine. They changed the model name and the engine, which justifies a higher price.

The corvette example is going from 400 to 415 hp. Thats only about 3.75% difference in horsepower. A lot less difference than the 25% we are discussing.

That's all I'm saying.. If they put a new engine in the Crossfire, you can bet it will cost more. I'm not saying they won't do it, I hope they do!

Reading back on the post, mbepic said "If they can come out with a higher horsepower vehicle, even at a higher price, they will do it as long they believe they can sell the vehicle at that price."
-Thats basically what I was saying. I'm just saying they aren't all of a sudden going to offer an extra 25% horsepower at the same price.

Imagine buying a car one day for $30k, only to learn if you waited a day, you'd have gotten a much larger engine for the same price. All the people you planned on selling your car to in 3 years will no longer want it at the price you were expecting.. they will all want the one that is a day older than yours with 25% more horsepower.. The demand and the value for your car goes down the drain.. its basically evaporated money. This is a scenario I was speaking of. Now picture it happening on a huge scale at a dealer who just bought 10 of the old Crossfires yesterday, now today they announce all new orders come with a FREE 25% more horsepower. Dealers would be mad as hell. Now picture the new engine as an option that costs 5k more. It wouldn't be such a shock. It wouldn't drop the value on the existing cars as much. This is what I mean.

 

I think the Crossfire is falling behind the rivals fast. More power would be nice but I like to see an new interior and more options. I had a look inside a New SLK today and it makes the Crossfire intrerior seems soo old and boring.

 

The difference between the two is that Chevy had announced a new generation of Corvettes - this isn't just an engine upgrade, it's an entire vehicle upgrade. Armed with that information, customers were able to go to dealerships and negotiate lower prices by saying "If you don't give me my price, I'll just wait a year for the new ones". So there wasn't an enormous valuation hit, because deals on the oputgoing 'vettes were very good.

If DC puts out a 255 hp 3.5L engine within the same body generation, it would be offered as an option, with the higher price to go along with it. If it was a standard offering, the values of all our 3.2's would plummet (who would by it if a 3.5L can be bought for pennies more) which would kill both customer loyalty and leasing arrangments since DCX still owns the cars that are being lossed (so they're losing money on the devaluation).

I know I would never buy a DCX car if they did that - why would I trust them enough to buy a great new wundermobile when I'm worried that if I just wait for some time I can get the upgraded wundermobile for the same price or slightly more?

Just my pennies.

 

Alot of hot air on a valuation of lease returns? DC or Benz didn't care about all those leased SLKs did they? Why would they care about the Crossfire value ? They only care about NEW Sales .Not Resale.
They will put it (3.5 v-6) if it helps sales .....And with the SLK being closer to 50k ,the Crossfire would still have a market share at under 40k !

And all Brands are increasing HP for sales ! GTO almost 50hp.Porsche,Corvette,Mustang,Etc.......

 

I would think that the profit margin is much higher on the Merc brand product.

 

Car companies do care about resale value. The more a vehicle retains of its original purchase price the more apt a consumer is to trade that vehicle for a new one more often, therfore increasing new vehicle sales. That is partially why some automakers, DCX namely have dropped sticker prices closer to actual transaction prices and some what layed off the incentives. Everyone wins when the vehicles retain more of their value.

 

Lets look at the TT. First there was two models. 180 and 225. One more expensive than the other. During the TT run two new modles arrive. A low cost version front wheel drive with 150 bhp and the flag ship modle 3.2 with more bhp.. Now audi must be thinking that they can adapt a model to fit any persons price range.

DC could do the same very easy. Currently there is 3 different modles of coupe. Two with the same BHP. So they replace the current version with a 3.5, is it any different than audi replaceing there 225 tt with a 3.2 and a fancy auto box. And yes! one would expect to pay more for it. How much more is up to DC and the consumer