No, I totally agree with that. BMW, Mercedes, and other German brands have always been slightly less reliable when compared to say, Hondas. Most of the issues are electrical due to the complexity of the fancy tech. used. What I'm saying is that if people knew it was a Mercedes lurking beneath the skin, the cost of the car as well as the popularity of the car would be much higher. I've always thought that Mercedes and BMWs were over priced, but they do have that up-level stigma that commands high price tags.

 

At this stage of the game I think there is only one thing that will increase the popularlity of the Xfire. People must start doing very visible things with their cars. I clearly remember the days of the AC Cobra by Shelby (not a Ford clone then). Shelby had won some races but wasn't a household name until he took a 2300# car (AC) and stuffed a 427 into it. When he started winning races with it BOOM everyone wanted one (so did I).

We can't stuff a 427 in our cars and win races - however, we can start getting it some visiblity. If DC didn't do it we can. There's a million ways to do that - races, stunts, rob a bank (no don't do that ), lend it to a famous person for a weekend, cross country events. I really don't have an answer for all of it, but I know that if the public doesn't know about it they won't buy it.

We're not going to acomplish it by blowing people off at street lights (eventhough that's fun). People have to see and want one, then things change. Remember the 2 seat T-Bird. No one wanted them until Ford stopped making them. That's where we are at now.

 

Idaho
I haven't yet looked into over riding the speed limiter. One thing I can tell you is that the engine will pull to just under redline in 4th gear and hit the speed limiter (Not the RPM limiter). In 5th, the limiter cuts in around 4000-4500 rpm, so there is a lot more speed to be had with a manual transmission......
I also heard that Ford will be coming out with factory approved performance mods for the 4.0l, (about time) and I hope it includes an over-ride of the limiter.
The car is my daughter's and I don't get to drive it much. I did drive it back from CA to MI in May and was pleasantly surprised by the overall experience, better comfort than I expected even after driving 750 to 850 miles per day.
Her car is pretty much equiped with the same options as yours with the exception of the Sirius radio that I don't believe was available on the 06.
She's put on 25K miles on it so far with no real issues. The only thing that was done early on and covered by the warranty was a problem with the miles to empty read out indicating 0 miles with a quarter of a tank.
Anyway sorry to the original poster for highjacking your thread