I was under impression that Crossfires were assembled in Germany but when I checked my VIN it says differently. Can anyone explain this?

• VIN: 1C3AN65L05X057751
• Year: 2005
• Make: Chrysler

• Style / Body: Roadster 2D
• Engine: 3.2L V6 MPI
• Country of Assembly: United States

• Model: Crossfire Base / Limited

 

"1" usually signafies USA, but I have noticed that is not always true anymore. I guess the Chrysler badge allows it.

James

 

Maybe it's a counterfeit Crossie?

 

I just read that a manufacturer can use the country where the car is actually built in, OR the country that the manufacturer's headquarters are located in.

James

 

I think all Crossfires indicate a "1" meaning mfg in the USA. However, we all know that is not true. Just check your door jamb, it clearly states made in Germany.

Some beaurocrat in the "Department of Assingning VIN Numbers" must have seen the Chrysler logo and "assumed" it was an American car.

Those in other countries please indicate if their Crossfires all indicate the USA is the country of origin.

 

Made in the US gives it a free tax ride into the country, no tariff. Could that be the reason?

 

The only thing "Made in America" on these cars was the contract you signed when you bought it.

There is a good chance the paper was made in China. Recent Trade talks with the Chineese centered on their "dumping" of coated and uncoated sheets on US markets.

 

I don't see where it says made in the USA. This is from the service manual.

 

In the image it lists the first digit as "Country of Origin" and lists the country as "DaimlerChrysler Corporation". It is my understanding that the DaimlerChrysler Corporation was never designated as a country.

Here is a description of what the first character (in this case a "1") stands for.

"The first character represents the country of manufacture, and can be a letter or a number, each signifying a different country. The most common ones are as follows:
(1 = USA, 2 = Canada, 3 = Mexico, J = Japan, K = Korea, W = Germany, Y = Finland, Sweden)"

Just looked up a "New Beetle" by Volkswagen. The first character "3" correctly identified the country of manufacture as Mexico Looked up a 2002 Pontiac Firebird and the first character was "2" for Canada, again correct.

 

It's not as though any car you buy, other than a Toyota, would actually be made in America either.

Hooray for Unions! They demanded themselves out of their jobs.

 

That is not quite true yet, a bit of an exaggeration in fact.

 

Don't let this crap spill out of the Political forum board!

 

Just looked at a copy of the window sticker for my 2007 Coupe. You'll see on the bottom of the 1st page that the Port of Entry was listed as Baltimore, MD. This could also be the Final Assembly Point. It looked like it was an either/or identifier.

On the 2nd page of the window sticker, it clearly states that the Final Assembly Point was Osnabrueck, Germany. And look at the parts content from USA/Canadian sources! Zippo!!! A car doesn't get any more foreign that that over here!

So it looks like DaimlerChrysler may have used the Port of Entry identifier as the USA designation to start the VIN's off with "1". Add to that the info in an earlier post that the Service Manual shows the VIN decoding for Country of Origin as DaimlerChrysler Corporation, which was the USA company. Fed's don't really know the difference between a country and a Corporation anyway! Everybody in their right mind knows our government is run by idiots!

Anyway, we all know the cars were assembled in Europe. And the Fed's could have been "persuaded" by DaimlerChrysler back then to let them designate the cars as a USA product. Probably had tax benefit implications, etc.

And add to this that quite a few 2008 XFires are really 2007 models that DaimlerChrysler (might have been just Chrysler since I don't recall the exact date of the separation) paid the Fed's to re-badge since they had so many left over unsold both at the plant in Germany & on the docks in USA. So with enough "persuasion", just about anything can be accomplished within our Federal Government.

Go Figure!

 

Canadian Crossfires, at least mine anyway, lists Halifax as the point of entry and it has the 1 (US) manufactured identification.
Presumably this is allowed under some obscure law of NAFTA.
Maybe the car is subcontracted to Europe with some reciprocal benefit to Germany and the US.

 

I think that you guys are thinking about it too hard....


I'll bet whoever it is that comes up with the VIN designation, has no idea what a Chrysler Crossfire is. They're just some pogue that works in a cubicle somewhere. All he/she knows is that it's a CHRYSLER Crossfire, and so it had to come from the US. So when they're paperwork is finalized and sent up the chain of command, instead of proofing the work, it's just passed on up the chain, because let's face it, we Americans are good at passing the buck...



Just a thought, I could be wrong.

Justin

 

I like how the second page shows a "4 speed automatic" as well...

 

The last car to be made 100% in America, if I remember correctly, was the Toyota Camry a few years back. They've changed that a bit, so no there really is no production car 100% made in America. No exaggeration.

 

Now you bring 100% into the argument, I think 75% is the point at which a car can be said to be a domestic US built vehicle.
Welcome to the global economy, it sucks.