Chrysler caught in own Crossfire?

[NSL]

I found this article and thought about posting it here since the Crossfire forum has never seen a post before.

I'm not sure why the Chrysler Crossfire has not been selling as expected, but I think it may be attributable to bad marketing.
Every time I mention to someone that this car is built for DaimlerChrysler by Karmann in Germany and shares over half of its components with the previous-generation Mercedes-Benz SLK (R170) people go WOW!

Anyway, here's the short article:

When it comes to the sports car market, judging by the numbers, Chrysler has been shooting blanks with its Crossfire. Reports Monday say that DaimlerChrysler is negotiating compensation with German subcontractor Karmann (which builds the Crossfire for Chrysler) because of lower-than-expected production requirements for the slow-selling coupe.

Karmann's production of the Crossfire has fallen from a peak of 35,700 in 2004 to just 12,500 last year. Introduced in 2003, the Crossfire managed about 28,000 sales in 2004, but less than 10,000 in 2005. Chrysler was so desperate to move Crossfires in late 2005 that it even engaged in a marketing stunt when it attempted to sell units on Overstock.com.

[Source: Automotive News]

[NSL]

Here's some Crossfire pics I just came across.











Looks familiar?

[siko]

I don't know how it is elsewhere, but in Canada the car is priced way too high for what you get.

[Snake Vargas]

I'm not sure about here, either. Chrysler is just an unknown quantity, even now after the reasonably successful introduction of the 300C.

It's $70k here, for a 3.2L V6 Coupe, $76k for the Roadster. It's not such bad value (AFAIK) if you're bent on getting a coupe or roadster for that money, though the 350Z is a little cheaper to boot. However, when you're into that sort of money, there's a lot of other cars, too.

Anyhow, it could be that there's just a limited market for this type of vehicle. An American (over here that's been a liability in the past, with reputations for Yank tank driving, patchy build quality and the cringe factor) car, with somewhat polarising styling.

As for whether people know that it's made by Karmann and shares underpinnings with the old SLK, well, that's the reality for most people out there who really couldn't care less about cars.

[NSL]

Yes, that is true. Pricing may have been a tad above what people perceived or wanted to pay for a Chrysler car. A bit above the competing market but priced a good $12,000-15,000 less than the basic SLK 280 in the States.
Still a good bargain for a Geman built roadster that is built in low numbers (this is not the average Chrysler if you ask me ).

[Osnabrueck]

It's really sad to see a car that's rather well built and attractively styled go to the dogs so quickly. Such is the life of roadsters, which are prone to fall from grace at the drop of a hat.

Despite my certain affinity for anything and everything built in Osnabrueck by Karmann, I gotta admit - the Crossfire's cabin is cheap enough to make a Lada seem opulent. The tactile feel of the dash wasn't unlike "little tykes" playground equipment, and the switchgear felt glued-on.

Maybe it was the sticker shock, maybe it was poor marketing, maybe Mercedes didn't want Chrystler to be crowing "it's an SLK in disguise" just like they wouldn't want ads proclaming the 300M "an old E class, redressed."

I think the Crossfire needed to hit more on the performance bone to get people really hyped about this car. Now the Saturn Sky is on the road, and Crossfire suffers the undeserved fate of being a really, really old hat.