I do recall in some magazine that they say that the Crossfire is 40% German and 60% American, or vice versa. Either way, on the window sticker of the Crossfire, it says that 80% of the parts are from Germany, and only 20% are American. Any thoughts or insights? Is Chrysler lying to the public about the actual percentage of parts that are American/German? Just a thought?

 

40% of the car is Mercedes parts

 

Although it feels like more, we have both a chrysler, and a benz, and it feels way more like driving the benz than driving the chrysler. Alot of the parts its looks like chrysler just modified a bit, i mean look at the spine that runs down the center stack, same as the slk, but with a spine..

 

on our papers it says the car is 80% German, and 1% Canadian and other. What happened to the other 19%? lol

 

It's 100% MINE!!! LOL

 

My Crossfire is 40/60.

40% mine and 60% the bank. But it is 100% fun to drive.

 

and I hope you don't blame the cupholder (1%) on us Canadians. Tim Hortons would never have allowed that to be approved.

 

built in germany on the same karmann line and general parts stream they use for the slk. when you buy a mercedes, not all of the parts are made by mercedes and the same is true here. mine says it's 1% u.s. product and i still think that's the owners manual. the whole thing is built completely over there then put in a box and shipped over here. at least they used to put 'em in containers, don't know if they still do.

i honestly think the germans were saying to chrysler, "here, we'll build you an image flagship vehicle; give it to you and see if you can sell & maintain it."

meanwhile, chrysler is the big profit maker with all the buzz on the new lines and mercedes has profit and quality issues.

go figure

 

Just lift the hood and look at the engine bay, they didn't even bother to re-name the parts! Merc pipe work etc.. Also the geat box, chassis, steering controls, air con unit switches etc.. are all Merc parts. All Chrysler did is take the SLK, stick on a new top shell and slightly different interior (not much different) and add on some nice alloys, but charged a whole lot lett for it than the Merc.

 

Yea, and we as Xfire owners are the beneficiaries of the DC merger.
Great value on the dollar. Although, we hear of a lot of different problems on these posts, we could assume that other vehicles encounter the same percentages..
It sounds like Chrysler dealers lack the expertise and preparedness to work on the Xfire product but I guess that will come in time (if the car survives).

I feel sorry for the Merc owners who bought similar product, inferior design compared to the Xfire at a much higher price. Oh well, those owners still are satisfied because they believe they bought upscale and when you pay more, there is a natural feeling that you got what it was worth. I have always thought that the Merc. was overpriced mainly because of its German heritage.. Similarly, I would think the same of Porsche.

 

Does anybody know how these percentages are calculated. Are they on a per part basis, by weight, or by $ value?

 

Just curious, why would that matter?

 

Because my engineering mind wonders about these things...

Say a car is 60% German and 40% US, does that mean...
60% of the car's 3100 lbs weight is comprised of German Parts?
60% of the car's $20,000 production cost is comprised of German Parts/Labor?
60% of the car's 4237 peices are made with German Parts?

 

I got what you meant, but is one thing better than the other?
Seems like SOMEONE should know, since someone had to figure out the percentages. I wonder if there is one single guideline for anything that has listed, % of-made in what country?
I guess if I had to guess, I would have said "C" % of the car's pieces.
Now you have me interested too!

 

It looks like it is by value. I guess that makes the most sense since people seem to be more concerned with where the money is going than anything else.
http://www.ita.doc.gov/td/auto/aala.html

 

I think the most logical conclusion is that the car is made up of 60% German parts. The car is not made directly from weight or dollars. It is made from manuafactured parts that then get assembled together to create the Xfire. Where do the parts originate, from German or North America or whatever country engineering/manufacturing? That's what we are trying to answer. Since the Xfire is a derivative of the German built/engineered SLK320, we can conclude that the majority of the parts originated in Germany and the remainder elsewhere (likely USA or Canada--Magna is a huge auto parts manufacturer).

That's your lesson for today. If someone wants to do some real research and find out where every Xfire part was sourced from, that would surely keep you busy for awhile.
MI , you probably don't have anything to do this winter. Let us know when you have the breakdown.

 

Haha, Thanks mbepic! I think I'll play democrat on this one and let someone else do it, hehe!

So I was made in Germany, put together on the way over the big pond, and born in the U.S.A. I figure I'm 100%, right?

 

So I was made in Germany, put together on the way over the big pond, and born in the U.S.A. I figure I'm 100%, right?[/QUOTE]

MI, are you getting personal now?

What yur saying is that you were conceived in Germany, took 9 months to paddle, swim or what have you over the big pond just in time for your real "first" birth day.

That would make you an American and possibly another nationality depending on your birth mother!!???????????

 

Yes, my parents (going to have their 50th anniv. in Jan) were the only ones in their famiilies(all lived in Germany) to come over to America and I was born in Detroit, MI 5 months later. I know I am American, but figure I have 100% German parts! And I married a Scott (also an American)! Is this country great or what?

 

I could have guessed that one or both of your parents were German; that gives you dual citizenship or does Germany not recognize that? Ok, they didn't take the full 9 months to get here so some of your parts were assembled in the U.S.A.!!!!

Your right on the last point but I would like to expand that to all of North America. We are very fortunate for that.