I don't know how many of you read Ward's to keep up on what is going on in the auto biz, but there was an article on the future of the Crossfire in this week's issue. Basically, Karmann has a contract to assemble these cars for "approximately 5 years" (from 2003 calendar year). Therefore, sometime in 2008, either the Crossfire could cease to exist or it could be replaced. The jest of the article was that it is really unclear if there will be a direct replacement for the car. They only sell about 15K of them per year. The article states, that the car could simply be discontinued once the contract with Karmann is up, or a replacement could be built in a US plant.

Based on that article, it is easy to conclude that while Chrysler might continue to have some type of sports car in its fleet, it could be a lot less German under the skin. The coach built, European feel of the current car is perhaps my favorite thing about it. Everything from the way the switches feel, to the big triangular hazard switch, to the firm seats whispers "German car". And, in my opinion, it would be a mistake to lose that.

I wouldn't want to see the car dragged past 2008 model year with the same old underpinnings, but you can imagine how sweet it would be if it was redesigned off of the new SLK350 platform.