Hi Guys, I am sorry to say the Crossfire goes on friday. I bought it new and have had it since the 1st January 2004. I have seen DCUK completly destroy the used value of the car and I am now selling to purchase another make of car.
I have just seen this weekend my local dealer reduce the price of NEW Crossfire coupe Auto to 21000 pounds. The trade price for my car is now 17000 if you can get it. I got 16000 for a car with 7000 miles and still looks brand new.

I am sorry to say the owners beleive in the car (thats you and me) but Chrysler just seems to want to destroy it.

Best of luck everyone I hope you all have better luck than me. I will probably buy a SRT6 in about a years time for less than half of the new price...until then.

John Johnson

 

Sounds like you bought the car for short term investment value; bad move.
Have you ever heard of buying high and selling low; that is exactly what your doing and would apply to any new car that appreciates as soon as you drive it off the lot.

My guess is that the resale value is not the reason you're selling it; if so, bad reason.
Unfortunately, like all transactions of this type, the buyer of your Xfire is going to benefit immensely but don't blame Daimler-Chrysler for this. It could have been GM, FORD or HONDA for that matter.

 

Yeah! I agree that long term, the Xfire will suprise everyone. I have to assume you have a better reason for letting it go.

 

We hope.....

 

On another post somewhere, sometime ago, I asked the question but didn't get any opinions or responses;

If the Xfire production ended this year, what do you think would happen to the value of our cars and what other affects might this have such as parts availablility in future, service availability, etc.?
Just looking for opinions on this.

 

The problem with the Crossfire, at least here in the US is that they are sitting on the lots for an average of almost a full year. Hence, dealers are getting desperate to move & get them off of the lot. They just didn't sell like DaimlerChrysler projected.

 

Hi Guys, no I did not buy the car for an investment,,A Chrysler...

I bought the car for the same reason we all did ,I had not seen anything like it .I still have not.

But I paid pounds sterling 29000 in US Dollars thats 55100. Yes thats right fifty five thousand one hundred dollars. This was hard earned cash.
I believed that the car would have at least some value it does not.

I am not a young guy I am 57 years old this is the most money I have ever lost in this amount of time on ANY car.I have lost 11000Pounds or 20900 US Dollars and its not stopping.

Now for someone to say thats to be expected ...Never.

I have posted pictures on here of my other cars,none ,even the most expensive have lost this much.

Its a shame some of you have to keep your cars I do not,I will buy a Car with better prestige...Probably a Kia..

John Johnson

 

If you don't want to keep losing money on a car, maybe the Kia is the way for you to go. You pay your $7K then lose your $7K when you drive it off the lot. The depreciation pretty much stops after that.

 

You have missed the point completely; you have not lost a cent until you sell the car, then that's it, done, final.

The car isn't going to be worthless tomorrow, for Gods sake. If you like the car, who cares what the residual value is. Enjoy the car.

I don't HAVE to keep my car; I keep it because I enjoy it regardless of value.

 

the value would quickly level off and depreciation would be less than most other cars from then on.

parts availability would not be a problem for the mercedes engine, transmission, and other parts. how many hundreds of thousands or millions of cars have the 3.2L engine? not to mention, 50K plus production in two years is not really that limited. service wouldn't be a problem either though it might be more expensive than average.

ending production would be the best thing DCX could do for crossfire owners. the single biggest disservice DCX has done to crossfire owners (especially those that bought early) was to create the illusion that somehow this was a limited production car that would have incredible demand. all cars are limited production! it's just that some are more limited than others. making 25K coupes the first year was ridiculous. especially when at least half of two-seater enthusiasts want a roadster. back when GM came out with its first C5 Corvette in '97, they were all fixed-roof coupes. so what did GM do? wisely, they only built 10K that first year so that they would all sell relatively easily. they ramped up production the following year with addition of removable roof coupes and roadsters. it wasn't until anticipation of the C6 that GM had to aggressively move the remaining inventory. also keep in mind that DCX was selling only around 7K SLKs a year in the U.S. audi tt, boxster, s2000, and most of the other comparable sports coupes/roadsters sell less than 10K copies in the U.S. only the 350Z and corvette have managed numbers over 20K. so the question is how did DCX even begin to think they could sell 20K crossfires a year in the U.S. (or in the world for that matter.)

 

I think many of us bought the car because we really liked it. I for one did not even think about depreciation when I bought it. My current plan is to keep this car "forever" when depreciation will not ever be an issue. On the other hand, I (and my dealer) wouldn't be surprised to see it go out of production in a year or two. Then the depreciation will become appreciation (not that I care about that either).
BTW, John, sorry to see you leaving us. Best of luck with whatever you buy next.

 

Pm'd you John.


Norrie.

 

John you are making a mistake. The major depriation has already happened. All you are doing is giving someone a real nice car for very little dollars. The unfortunate part is the exchange rate that makes you pay so much for it in the first place. But from what I have seen of other cars there that is the case on all cars that are imported over there. With the dollar so low I don't understand why you have to pay so much for it over there. You guys are on the euro as Germany is, right? Certainly doesn't have to be shipped further. Maybe it is oportunistic pricing by DC

 

UK uses the Pound, the one and only POUND..Long live the POUND!!!

 

The U.K. is not on the Euro; I never thought of the currency being a drawback. Maybe, the Germans don't like those english #s.

 

I knew that!! I had a brain fart. sorry looks like the pound is causing a pounding in your wallets.

 

OK, I am an optomist, but selling your car because of the price drop is not a good idea. IMO
1) You have already bit the bullet because of depreciation.
2) More of us will be on the road in the next few months and the public will see more Xfires, and yes, some will jump on them because of the great prices.
3) The inventory will be gone in a year or two (if they stop making the Xfire)
4) They are one of the sweetest looking cars out there for the money! Period!
5) In a couple of years, if you want a Xfire, you'll have to pay big $ for us to give them up!
6) And NO! You can't have mine!

 

He can have mine for 30,000 lbs. How much did he say he got for his??

The answer is 16,000 lbs-------I guess I will have to pay the shipping to the U.K.

 

John Johnson really confuses me. Granted, I paid $27,000 for my new 2004 Crossfire. However, he has lost no money until he sells. Ergo, keep the car, enjoy it for the reasons that he bought it for several years, and then sell. The price will pick up, in a manner similar to the 1993-1995 Mazda RX-7, particularly the R2 version. These cars languished in dealer lots for many months, were sold at large discounts, and then prices picked up considerably after the vehicle was cancelled and enthusiasts realized the classic design and uniqueness of the car. I predict that the Crossfire will follow a similar path. Hang on to your car, John! It seems foolish not to.

 

My dealer offered me $24K trade in for mine with 13K miles last week. That was against supplier pricing for any Chrysler on their lot, so I don't see that mine has depreciated that much. I only expected them to offer something around $20K. Once all the leftover '04's are gone from inventory, I would expect the used value to level off (and maybe pick up some).