Hi Guys, although new to this forum I have owned my Black Roadster since 2005, having done 40oookm (25000miles).I'm not sur whether i get more fun out of this fantastic car or my Springer Harley-Davidson, but must say that I really enjoy the car. I live in Durban South Africa, a coastal city where we have year round top down motoring. Average winter temps are 18-22deg.C with summer hitting mid 30's. I have spent a couple of days browsing through this forum and regret never having joined earlier, truly enjoy pics and articles. Am I on the rite site to be making my intro, being of the BC generation (before computors) it takes me a while to operate this system properly, any pointers from you PC specialists out there. Safe motoring to you's and hope to communicate soon.

 

Hey, welcome, South Africa must be a nice place to have a convertible. There is no official introduction thread so postin' here will be fine.

How is the dealer support in S. Africa?

 

Hi There, thanks for the response. Ye, SA is a great place to own a convertable, apart from some really good roads we have unbelievable scenery, mountains, forests, coastal, semi desert with long distances between places f correct routes are chosen. Our main highways used to be of the best in the world, but now choose to cruise off beaten tracks as these roads are still relatively good, with less heavy trucks and vehicle congestion, and generally sceneray is better.
Crysler is marketed through MB dealerships in SA, where service and back up is of the highest order. My vehicle has given me trouble free pleasure, with only the regular prescribed services given reason to leave the car out of my sight. The only worry we have is motoring without a spare wheel, what with our very high crime rate. You do not want to be stranded anywhere here, the risks are just too high, so one always has this worry in the back of ones mind when venturing on longer trips away from areas covered by dealerships. That does not keep us at home though.

 

Dealer? We don't need no stinkin' dealers!
Everything you ever wanted to know about this car is right here on this site!
If you can't find it here, ask! If we don't know we'll just make something up to make you feel better!!!!

A good start is this thread...
https://www.crossfireforum.org/forum...ad.php?t=13875
MMZ_TimeLord posted a bunch of documentation for our cars.

So start reading and WELCOME to the forum!

 

Welcome! You're the first member I've seen here from South Africa. Nice to see this community becoming even more international.

 

Thanks Inferno, nice to be part of the fold. Despite being at the other tip of the other continent we get to see what the best of the world has to offer. Thankfully for me there are more coupe's than soft-tops, which keeps us a little exclusive, relative to other "Sports cars" we are in the minority, so to see 2 X-fires together is rare. Lambo's, Ferraris, Porches, Audi TT's, Z350's are seen often, not so with our X-Fires, which is special and to be able to "run" with the pack is a gas. There is a lot of friendly banter between the brands and to just be different and rare is great.

 

welcome!
ggg

 

Hi There, thanks for your contact and attached details. No, i'm not a dealer, just a very happy lucky owner, I'm involved in Industrial Electronics, High Current and am self employed. By the way, is there anywhere that you can recommend that I can source "Full Workshop Manual" for my series car, as apposed to the SR6's. None of the dealerships contacted here are willing to help

 

I see them for sale on ebay from time-to-time. I've also seen the dealer's specialty xfire toolbox for sale on ebay.

 

Thanks for the advice, i'll look out on e-bay.

 

The link to the service manual covers both the SRT and Crossfire NA models. Now you don't need the stinkin' dealer!

 

Thanks so much for the information and your response, much appreciated.

 

It must be nice when ever you need your car serviced its being done by a Mercedes tech.

 

This a section-by section on line manual.

I've found it quite useful.

Welcome!

http://homepage.mac.com/gregmeach/XFire/

 

Welcome to the forum. SA seems like a perfect place for a convert. You are fortunate to have MB service your XF. I have an NA roadster and an SRT6 coupe. I can honestly say that the SRT6 is my choice for motoring. Although hopefully soon my RX7TT will be back on the road. Do you guys see any 3rd Gen RX7's in your part of the world?

 

Thanks to everybody that has welcomed me, its fantastic to be part of the fold. SA is great for cruising, the weather and scenary is fantastic, we have some really good roads, others not so good with potholes / lack of maintanance, but with the current slump things are getting a little expensive, or our money is becoming real third world. For example today we pay R10,50 = USD1, so you guys can have a good stay here with your money. 95 octane petrol will cost the equivalent of USD4,37 per gallon...how does that compare. You are the second person to comment on our MB servicing, does this imply that your services are not as good as they should be? I am interested in why you say that you prefer the Coupe' to the roadster, is it because of power / performance of the SRT vs NA? Living at the coast at sea level, cars don't suffer from lack of air density so would expect at altitude that the SRT would perform a lot better. Despite us having the SRT's here I have never had the privelege of driving one, as a matter of fact I haven't even been in any of the coupe's. I just had to have the roadster, it is one of the very few conv. available worldwide that looks like it should be a conv., not like some brands that have coupe' / roadster where the roadster looks like an afterthought, almost like a baldman with a rug on!! No offence intended. We do see the RX7's, Mazda is a very strong brand here. My eldest son(28yrs) has just converted from an AudiTT conv. 1800 T/C awd to Nissan Z350 NA conv. Nice car, i still prefer the retro / rod / muscle styling of the XF conv, I guess matter of choice. I have just finished building a 1980Ford Escort MkII 2-door fastback, for my youngest son. We transplanted Toyota 4AGZE Supercharged twin-cam 1600cc motor with Cressida 5 speed g/box, this car is like greased lightning, just battling to get it to stop properly!. Do you see any of these in USA?, very popular here. Do you race any of your cars, or just cruise? Stay well, ride safe.

 

I prefer the Coupe because of noise suppression. The convertible top when up does not offer much protection from outside noise. Also the rear hatch has more space for carrying items in the coupe verse the roadster. SRT6 is my choice simply because of more power. Forced induction for me is the only way to go. I'm glad to hear RX7's are in your part of the world. The 3rd gen is just a wonderful car, light fast etc. The Chrysler dealers here do not understand much about the SRT6, yes most know about the Crossfire and can work on them but very few techs were trained on the SRT6. My dealer however does have a very good SRT tech and does a good job. Sounds like you will have many years of happy motoring. Sounds like a beautiful part of the world.

 

Welcome!
!!!!!

 

I understand the difference between the two regarding noise and boot space. being bikers we have got used to travelling light and as far as noise goes, harleys with aftermarket pipes arent exactly quiet so when we get into the XF its like heaven. I removed the small cat'sfrom my XF exhaust system, better performance and consumption, got an unbelievable "howl" when on the gas and nice burble when driving at normal pace. As for servicing here, we have a MB SLK320 SC and ML320SC, so our mach's are quite conversant with the SRT as it is the same set-up. Forced induction is very big here, irrespective of brand or engine size. Im toying with the idea of going the twin-turbo route and re-chipping, just got to get al the data together to make sure everything clips together properly. There are a few MB SLK320 sports cars in this town that are twin turbo'd, scary how they go sideways down the freeways--real hot stuff. Alpine Developements (locals) are the hotshots with these conversions, typically somethig like this will set you back about USD4000 for the whole trick.

 

Hi There, thanks for the welcome message. I look forward to a lot of communication with you guys, hoping to learn more about the marque / discussions as we go along. I have already down loaded workshop manual which was so kindly referred to by maxcichon and tighed1. I don't know why I never thought to look for this forum till now, despite looking for Crossfire info on the web regularly over the last three years. I even got a niece of mine who was aupairing in the States to bring back caps, jackets and T's branded XF, which we dont get here.I think the worst branded clothing in SA is Chrysler, don't know why. Stay safe.