Hi guys,

drove a crossfire at the weekend. awesome car! was thinking of buying one... however i have read a few horror stories about dodgy electrics / keys not turning the ignition / oil leaks / transmission failures - all expensive to fix..

Can you point me in the right direction re buying one. What should i look out for. any obvious faults? expensive to maintain in general?

i know all cars have some problems but i cannot abide a car that will not get me from A to B or break down half way!

i will only use it for about 6,000 miles per year.


Any comments would be appreciated.

thanks,

ken in dublin

 

Welcome, Ken!!

For the most part - all untrue.
Your guess about "all cars having problems" is correct: all cars DO have some issues BUT the horror stories you're hearing about are just that - stories.
Never heard of any tranny failures offhand. Electronic issues?: well our cars are slaves to electronics though no different than any other cars nowadays.
Nothing too freaky.

I can only speak from personal experience but both of our Crossfires have over 60K on them & neither has had ANYTHING go wrong that couldn't be considered as normal maintenance.

I've replaced the brakes on both cars, have had 3 headlamps go bad between the both & replaced the rear rotors on the SRT shortly after purchasing the car (grooved & rusty), that's it. My wife drives hers (the '04) every day 16 miles back & forth to work, the SRT takes me 110 miles round trip to my place of employment every stinkin' day - through rain, snow (sometimes, I try not to drive it in winter), sleet, ice, you name it. It has NEVER failed to start & has NEVER broken down.

That means we've collectively put on close to 90,000 miles on the cars!

Like I was saying - stories!!

As to maintenance, it isn't an inexpensive car to maintain. Tires (depending on brand, of course!) will set you back $1000US, oil changes require 8.5 qts. of synthetic oil &, since this is an all Benz engine, parts won't be cheap.

Assuming you'll need them !

I'd suggest that you hang out on this forum for awhile & see what you think! You will read about many "problems" with the car but that's to be expected. After all, that's what forums are all about!

In the meantime, have fun looking & we'd love to have ANOTHER Xfire fan!!

 

Hi Ken,

Kurts is quite right here - this car has many happy long term owners who have put 10's thousands of miles on their cars.
Ive had mine over 2 yrs and not a single problem over 15K. If you are serious about buying one there are some bargains out there, and like any car, there will be things to look at. This forum will give you plenty of feedback from owners, but good luck.
Steve

 

thanks for all rplys. much appreciated. ken

 

Welcome aboard Ken. I agree with Kurts assessment. No issues with mine. I've had it over 3 years, and all I've done is oil changes, one warranty service for the known transmission leak. I have over 30K miles on mine.

 

Hi Ken,
I have done 52k in mine now and only had a cat go ( quite expensive ) but you don't need the rear two and can just replace with a pipe if you were unlucky to have one go. Also you can extend the warranty up to 7 years 80,000 miles, it is quite expensive but is a full manufacurer warranty ( see thread on this info for UK drivers ). All of the oily bits are Mercedes and have a history of reliability. It is a lot of car for not much money !

let us know how you get on.