Missing The Mark: 2005 Chrysler Crossfire Review

look [Music] it's my new car a god of Hellfire and I bring you a freaking Crossfire [Music] yeah so this is my new daily driver a 2005 Chrysler Crossfire and technically my very first American car because Crossfire that's a true American Roadster right or is it the crossfire is a child of the Daimler Chrysler Days by the start of the New Millennium German Mercedes-Benz an American Chrysler formed a partnership what was described as a merger of equals turned out to be a dysfunctional couple where Mercedes became the beating husband and Chrysler the obedient wife the crossfire became the dysfunctional Sun oh come on is this really that bad maybe but get this this is not a real American car this is a German car this rides on the first generation Mercedes SLK platform right around the time when Mercedes released a new generation as okay Chrysler wanted a roadster wanted to make use of the new srk platform but it was dimer that said no no no no you're going to use the first generation The Leftovers as a hand-me-down good luck various stories with various percentages go around but most say that 80 of its parts are shared with the SLK and things like the chassis transmission suspension and engine are all Mercedes it's a German wearing an American code but let's talk about that code shall we because if there's one thing about the Chrysler Crossfire is that it is a car with many lines now the most famous of Body Lines is the so-called Crossfire line it's a line that is created through the body moldings it starts with a dense something like a dent in the front fender and then eventually sticks out in the rear and right at that moment where the line goes from inboard to Albert something like that that point right there is called the crossfire and so the crossfire line is the most famous line of them all but the car features more lines including the hood with its many grooves except one the middle line which sticks out and actually that middle line is part of a line that starts from the lower bumper Through The Grille over the hood into the interior through the dashboard through the center console all the way to the center armrest and even down to the rear end to the rear bumper and even down to the dual exhaust that splits in half the overall style is very much unique to say the least kind of like Priceless take on the Roadster theme with cars such as the Audi TT and the Nissan 350Z as its competitors but Chrysler decided to take the Retro route and apply some art deco design influence to it like the Bold egg crate Grille put it next to the rest of the Chrysler lineup like the Chrysler 300 and the PT Cruiser and it all starts to make sense but does Christ also managed to execute the style in such a nice way in the interior well not really for starters this is a direct 101 copy of the Mercedes SLK interior but whereas Mercedes actually put effort in making a nice interior you know with some chrome trim around the knobs Etc here it's foreign they managed to screw it up and it has been heavily criticized for feeling rather cheap and I can tell you from owner's experience it is cheaper at least it feels cheap for instance I'm talking about the semi-automated climate control usually when you have climate control you can set the temperature and then it will heat up according to that temperature but here you don't have numbers you have these dials that are either red white and blue and that beautiful patriotism I get it but it doesn't tell me how hot it is when I put it on red is it for me is it my heart or is it your heart everybody has a different perception of hotness I am not hot my girlfriend is uh Brad Pitt is hot I'm ugly well no that doesn't matter anyway it's it's hard to tell but you know your perception of what is hot and cold is different than it is for me and then we have to talk about the whole execution because you have this shiny metal right here and they call it a satin nickel finish but I like to call it wrapped in tin foil and it is very cheap because get this you can find it here on the center console you can find it on the door poles and you can find it on the exterior window frame if you are in an American car show and you see a Chrysler Crossfire walk up to it and look at the door poles because because this satin nickel finish or tin foil will start to peel off in fact it is already done on both my door handles talking about quality and it's even so bad that on the passenger side you can seriously cut your finger now here's where it gets even more funny there is a lively aftermarket business for Chrysler crossfires you can get everything from Lamborghini doors to you know Chrome everything there are even sleeves for sale like owners will buy sleeves that cover up the peeling tin foil and this is beautiful instead of trying to fix what is going wrong you know bad quality interior we try to cover it up by buying a sleeve or some owners just change their doors to a different material like Alcantara or some other kind of leathery stuff and then there is the last thing the cup holder besides being a rather weird cup holder foreign anymore so it always stays up once again if you go to an American car show look for a Chrysler Crossfire this might be a problem um if you can put the bottle in there but like the locking mechanism has is broken now there's a common problem on these cars now if you want to fix it I believe I'm correct when I say that you have to take out the whole mid console or center console to get this fixed and otherwise you could just put oh there we go but otherwise you can just put tape over it and it'll it'll stay there quality and then they're on the wiper controls the turning signals and the cruise control are neatly organized in either one or two stocks on the left side of the steering wheel this feels a bit counterintuitive usually it's on both sides of the steering wheel but this is not necessarily a Chrysler thing this is more like a Mercedes thing the same setup you can also find in the Chrysler 300 which is essentially Mercedes E-Class and it feels a bit off since they kind of reversed it so where usually the cruise control stock is is the turning signal and the other way around so if you come from a car where it's the other way around you get in you want to indicate and gosh darn it you'll keep your speed and you were just about to break because you were about to enter an intersection and indicate because you accidentally put on your cruise control so all in all Chrysler didn't change a whole lot about the car but what they did change they managed to screw up now the crossfire came in two body styles a Sleek looking fastback coupe and the better choice a convertible might take a while beautiful day [Music] there we are [Music] and that brings me to the performance in the engines the crossy only came with srk's top spec engine the 3.2 liter V6 making 215 horsepower now that's not a lot but it's plenty for me the car is quick and I have about double the horsepower compared to most other cars in the road an upgraded version was also offered a supercharged V6 sold as the srt6 model making an extra 100 horsepower but those are rare and cost three times more than what I paid for this Crossfire and oh yeah there are also some people out there that manage to drop in Hemi V8 in it nice now here is where it gets interesting the automatic comes with two driving modes W and S and W stands for wussy mode and S stand for super mode or according to critics it stands for the seasons that W stands for winter mode and S stands for Summer mobile what do they know and here is where it gets more interesting if I put the car in summer mode and if I turn the traction control off let's see what happens foreign although the car is sporty it doesn't have the sharpness like a Mercedes whether it's the performance the cornering or the shifting by the transmission so the crossfire has to fall back on the claim many American cars make when they find themselves coming short on other things cruising isn't this just a nice car for some open top Seaside cruising yes and no see when American cars are made for cruising they come with soft suspension this one doesn't it finds potholes in a row that you otherwise wouldn't find but even with a magnifying glass and I guess it's a matter of perception because if you come from uh you know an even sportier car then this suspension might be soft but I come from a soft riding Hyundai XG and oh God it just feels so hard oh and compared to the Hindi it turns out that the XG was a lot of value for very little money the crossfire is a lot of money for little value yes it has electric and heated seats and yes it has a little spoiler that comes up at highway speeds but the headlights were operated manually the wipers are operated manually there is no interior fuel door or trunk release and oh yeah it doesn't even have parking sensors a mid-2000s upper middle class car without parking sensors and people in the Netherlands paid over 50 000 bucks for a car that doesn't even come with parking sensors you might get the impression that I don't like this car very much and maybe it's true but there's a lot of things that I like about it I like its power I like its speed I like that it is quick I like the design it's Unique it's obscure not many people know what it is and I like the open top I mean come on it's a beautiful day the summer is right around the corner and yet the more I drive it the more I start to want a classic luxurious you know comfortable Cruiser I don't really like the suspension I like my suspension soft and then you think okay Edward so if you like your Hyundai so much why did you buy this car well let's just say that I uh had solid reasons that uh yeah anyway this is one of those in between Cars one of those cars that you drive for let's say a year year and a half just to see what it's like it's kind of like a novelty car and then you move on to something more concrete and so I'm planning to stick to this for a while enjoy the summer and then maybe start to look for another car because it's a perfect car you know it's it's it's a great car don't get me wrong but as for Chrysler in an attempt to make a competitive sports car Roadster I think it's a lukewarm attempt the Chrysler Crossfire is nothing more than the footnote in the history of Chrysler and maybe it should stay that way foreign

Channel: Ed's Auto Reviews

Views: 47,378

Keywords: Car Review, Ed's Auto Reviews, Car History, Chrysler, Crossfire, DaimlerChrysler, Mercedes SLK

Id: DXk-frDq144

Length: 13min 18sec (798 seconds)

Published: Wed May 03 2023