We spent a weekend a while back tooling around Los Angeles in a Crossfire SRT-6, and we have to say we fell in love with the little roadster. It was fast, flashy enough for even the most jaded Hollywood types (seriously, we drew tons of attention in that car), and it was a blast to drive. Still, we understand why Chrysler's having a hard time moving them namely, price. At 50k, the SRT-6 is in a league with more dedicated sporting machines, or its refreshed brother, the new Mercedes SLK. Despite the beautiful styling, a Chrysler at that price point's a hard sell, especially when the 300C's got more street cred, a back seat and a V8 for a substantially smaller chunk of change.
So Chrysler's trying do decide what to do with the two-seater, conceived as a halo car, seeing as it's not meeting sales targets. Our advice? The styling's already there. Revise the nose to make it less Pacifica-like, hack the price by 15-20% and they'll sell. The question is, can the Karmann-built car be made that cheaply? If not, the Crossfire's destined for cult status. And if we can pick up an SRT-6 for around 20 grand in a few years, we'll totally do it.
Caught in the Crossfire: Chrysler mulls future of slow-selling sports coupe [AutoWeek]
Related:
Chrysler Builds Crossfire for Drifting [Internal]