About a month ago I bought a rather nice 2004, 3.2L Chrysler Crossfire at trade price, intending it as a gift to Hay who, since the demise of her Mercedes SLK 2.8, has been driving an old Daewoo which I bought for No.2 Son for when he passes his driving test, which will be no time soon (it's strange that kids today aren't that bothered about driving).
She protested about the size of the engine and the fact it was automatic, so I decided to sell it on and make a few bob. However, it was suffering from a common problem Crossfires have - a sagging headlining.
To fix this, rather than remove the headlining and re-glue it, I decided on a quick fix comprising tiny, spiral pins that dig into the headliner backing and hold the headlining material in place. Unfortunately, these had to be sent from China, which took several weeks.
In the meantime, the Daewoo's Engine Management Light came on, indicating some fault. In addition to that, it's due an MoT in May and I'm a bit doubtful of it passing without requiring some hefty expenditure (it was bought a year ago on the assumption it would be good for a year). Naturally, I played up the EML problem as something pretty terminal, despite not having a clue what had caused it {chances are it's something easily fixable).
I persuaded Hay to have a little run in the Crossfire - and she loved it. It's basically a Mercedes SLK 3.2 litre with a Chrysler body, so she was instantly familiar with the controls and handling it. In addition to that, the road tax is, for some inexplicable reason, half that of the old Daewoo.
Job done!
These cars are fantastic value for money, simply because they have the Chrysler badge on them. Punters think they're American, and hence expensive to maintain, whereas they're essentially Mercs and no more expensive to look after. They're also less prone to rot than the R170 SLK.
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