Hey Everyone;

I bought a nice 2004 Crossfire in Sept 2015 as a toy and project car. It is the 6 speed manual and had low KM (under 100k) and was in good shape. It was kind of funny how I got it. I was saving up to buy an older toy\project car for a few months. I still had not settled on what I was going to get, but I was about half way to what my budget would allow.

I was driving around in my normal everyday car running some errands one Sunday. There was this Car Dealer advertising a promotion of a silent auction until 430pm. I ignored it for most of the day. They had a very nicely equipped 2013 Chrysler 300 up for bids. The sticker price was over 20k (nice one but not what I had in mind). I was only half paying attention as the adds came on and off all day.

At about 345pm they add came on again. The bidding was only at 2500 and I was a few blocks away. I though this is some sort of bait and switch or a way to get you in the door and pressure you to buy. I had to go have a look, but I was going to be very careful.

So I arrived and was careful to look around and waited for the high pressure sales pitch to come my way. When I went to look at the 300 there were only a few bids written down and it was at 2800 now. As I looked at the crowd I also realized that very few people were here to pay cash for a car. They had a few thousand, a trade in and had come down today to finance a car. This was a cash and carry auction and most here would not have access to much on a Sunday except what they had in their pocket in the way of cash.

Also there were two cars on auction, but they did not mention the 2004 Crossfire as no one knew what that was. It only had 2 bids because it was not very well known and a manual. This particular dealer has a lot of young buyers with mom and dad co-signing, so not to many knew how to drive a manual. The sticker price was about 11k on the Crossfire and a quick check online for other ones selling in my area told me it was about right.

I watched for a while and figured out how to register and bid. I figured worse case I would get it for a low price and sell it for a quick profit. There were about 10 min to the end of the bidding and I placed a bid 500 over the last on the Crossfire. I figured the 300 would get a flood of bidding at the last moment and no one was really watching the Crossfire. One other older guy who was there to help his son buy his first car upped my bid by 100 bucks, it was not 2900. 5 minutes left and I looked at the car, looked at the guy and went to 3400, another 500. He looked stressed and I could see him wondering if he had access to 3500, we must have decided to take a shot. 2 minutes left and he went 100 more to 3500, I didn't even hesitate and went to 4000. He shock his head and the auction was over.

So after all was said and done I spent 4k plus a few hundred in tax. Since then I decided to keep the car and spent the rest of the Autumn getting to know the car and making plans.

Near the end of the season I got rid of the factory exhaust and put in bigger dual pipes from the headers back. You can have a look at the photos. That winter I did some minor upgrades under the hood. Changed all the fluids, got a computer and started testing and changing sensors and worn or old parts. I upgraded the ignition wires and replaced the spark plugs (some were factory originals).

When I was driving around after I had done the exhaust I ran into the young guy who had traded the car in a few months back at a mall parking lot. He said he traded it in because of the Exhaust and he was pretty impressed I had fixed it. I asked him what he got on trade. He got 10k on trade. So I figure I could spend 5 or 6000 and still be ok.

I have more to tell, but this is where I will leave off.

What I would LOVE to do next is reprogram the ECU to get a bit more out of the stock engine and improved exhaust. Any one had a good source?

 

Welcome to the fold an the forum. What a great story, with a happy ending. If you search the forums ,you will find a couple of "tuners", for your ECU. Many here, have trusted ,"Eurocharged", for their needs. Hope this helps.
Look into Needswings. com, Rob will be glad to help and has a great line of products ,to help along the way. Enjoy your toy !

 

Welcome to the forum.