The Chrysler Sports Car You May Have Forgotten About

When you think of Chrysler, you think of a brand with a small lineup of long-lasting cars and nameplates. It was the first car company to release a minivan, and with the current Pacifica, it is still a cornerstone of its fleet. Chrysler was also famous for its 300 muscle car, a vehicle that stayed in production for almost twenty years with minimal changes, and was one of the last V8, rear-wheel-drive American sedans. However, buried in their lineup from the 2000s, there’s one little Chrysler two-door that time tries to forget, and that is the Crossfire, Chrysler’s sports car.

Chrysler’s Sport Car: How Did The Crossfire Come To Be?

A Match Made In Heaven By Mercedes And Chrysler

In the early 2000s, DaimlerChrysler set out to give Chrysler, the American flagship wing of the company, their halo model and dedicated sports car. Chrysler had long been a company making big premium sedans, and as the brand diversified in the 2000s to include a spattering of hatchbacks and SUVs, the brand thought tapping into the two-door two-seat sports car model would do them well. So, Chrysler negotiated a deal with Mercedes to let them use the platform for Mercedes’ own sports car, the SLK, a similar move to Chrysler getting the old E-Class platform for their 300 sedan. What followed was a two-year development platform to create a car with European underpinnings and technology, mixed with American flair and style, a combination that should be a winner in the books of many.

However, when the Crossfire was released in 2004, opinions were mixed. It became one of the most controversial cars of the decade, and was heavily defended and scorned by journalists and the public. After just four years, in 2008, the brand dumped the Crossfire, along with other models, in an attempt to load shed during the 2008 Financial Crisis, and Chrysler’s split from Diamler-Benz. What was left in the aftermath was a quirky little lovechild of two massive automotive behemoths that quickly faded from the American public, a fate that leaves it as a forgotten modern classic for Chrysler.

*MSRP used from 2008 model year

Striking Looks For The Chrysler Sports Car

Design Reminiscent Of Old-school Coupes

One of the most divisive parts about the Crossfire was its look. The Crossfire was designed to evoke the classic coupe principles a long hood and sloped roof – and it does it quite well, even if the cloth roof on the convertible model takes away from the streamlined design slightly. The Crossfire looks bigger and grander than it is, which is a hard task to achieve for a car no larger than the SLK. Another defining feature of the Crossfire was the ridge on the hood. These ridges were one of the many retro design cues that Chrysler added to the Crossfire, along with the gills on the side. These design elements were specifically chosen to help give the Crossfire an “American” feel by helping remind buyers of past American luxury cars that prioritized opulence and stand-out design pieces to help get consumer attention.

For the SRT6 version of the Crossfire, there were some further design changes specific to that model. For starters, the SRT6 came with a fixed rear wing that sat below the rear window on the coupe and on the trunk for the convertible, giving a distinct difference between it and base Crossfire models. There was also a smaller, but still noticeable, front splitter added to the SRT6 that helped it look like it had an extra body kit added on. The last main difference between the two models was the SRT6 exclusive 15-spoke alloy wheels, again, another design nod to older muscle and sports cars in the US.

The Interior: Sports Car With Chrysler Flavor

American Luxury Down To A Price

The Chrysler Crossfire’s interior continued the exterior theme of being a future-retro mashup of design choices. For starters, every Crossfire came with a brushed aluminum center stack that ran all the way from the center console to the controls for the center air vents. Even the steering wheel and door handles fall victim to this trim. This touch contrasts nicely with the different color interiors the Crossfire offered, including red, another distinctly American throwback color to cars like the original C1 Corvette. Because this car is from 2004, everything here is decidedly analog. All of your gauges are analog and, like the center stack, finished in the same brushed aluminum trim.

Despite the stylish cabin, quality was an issue. Corners were cut in this interior. With reviewers noting the cheap plastic feel of materials like the glove box and lower door panels, not something you want to see in a $45,000 premium sports car, especially when the SLK had a much nicer and more well-put-together cabin. This was an issue that plagued all of Chrysler’s lineup at the time, as, despite the new developments within the brand itself, the company was losing money, and cars like the Crossfire were contributing to this heavily.

Sports Car Performance

A Mercedes Chassis And An American Heart

One of the Crossfire’s high points is its 3.6-liter V6. Although it only makes a meager 215 horsepower in the base model, this engine was designed for a smooth drive and comfort, through and through, something that the Crossfire prided itself on. The combination of this silky-smooth engine and Mercedes’ stellar SLK platform meant the Crossfire could handle both long straight roads and tight twisting corners with relative ease, despite the decided lack of power. That power was sent to the rear wheels via either a six-speed manual or a five-speed automatic, with a 0-60 time in the six-second range, which wasn’t bad considering the lack of power.

Where there was power, however, was the SRT6. The uprated model was powered by the same 3.2-liter V6, although this engine had been supercharged, in typical SRT fashion. This means that you get 330 hp, a five-speed automatic, and a 0-60 time of 5.1 seconds, a major improvement over the standard model and a time similar to other offerings like the SLK55 and Nissan 350z. More similarities to the SLK emerge when you find out that the SRT6 used the same braking and suspension assembly components as Mercedes’s little sports car, further blurring the line between these two models that tried so hard to be separate.

What Went Wrong With Chrysler’s Sport Car?

What Lead To The Crossfire’s Failure? And Did It Deserve It?

The Chrysler Crossfire was, by all means, a failure. In its first year, Chrysler sold an impressive 35,200 cars, a number not bad considering it was a brand-new model from a brand with little to no coupe identity. However, just two years later, in 2005, that number had more than halved to just 12,500 units. By 2007? Just 3,500 cars were sold. What happened? Well, as we mentioned before, the Crossfire divisive looks and questionable interior quality drove some consumers away. The price competition with the Mercedes SLK was also a big issue for buyers, as the SLK’s starting price of $45,000 was on par with the Crossfire SRT6, meaning you could get a quicker car with more power and a better interior for the same price.

What didn’t help was a scathing review by Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson, who said that the body of the Crossfire coupe looked like “a dog doing its business.” While we can’t say for sure that it caused the Crossfire’s quick demise, having the largest automotive journalist in the world criticize it like that certainly doesn’t help. In the end, a high price, low power, and Chrysler’s bankruptcy ultimately killed this brand-new Chrysler sports car before it could even get started, relegating the Crossfire to a comfortable used Chrysler sports car for those looking for something slightly outside the box.

The Other “Chrysler” Sports Car

The Ill-fated Plymouth Prowler

Around the same time as the Crossfire’s launch, another Chrysler-branded sports car was getting put out to pasture. Except it wasn’t really a Chrysler; it was the Plymouth Prowler. The Prowler was first conceived in the late 1990s as Plymouth’s attempt at making a retro-inspired sports car reminiscent of hot rods of the 1940s. Designed by legendary designer Chip Foose and engineered by the team that worked on the Viper, the Prowler was launched in 1998 as one of the strangest-looking cars to ever go on sale. Its exposed front axles and triangular front end made it stick out wherever it went, for better or for worse. It even came with a trailer that looked like a Prowler’s rear end because of a lack of trunk space. No joke.

*MSRP and stats used for 1997 model year

The Prowler was a catastrophic failure for Plymouth, so much so that in 2001, the Plymouth brand went away altogether, leaving unsold 2002 models to be branded as a Chrysler. Only 11,702 of these things were ever produced, a fraction of the number of Crossfires Chrysler sold, making it the rarest of Chrysler’s sports car models. Today, the Prowler is one of the most infamous sports cars ever released by an American brand, and has become a cult classic on the used market, with low-mileage models going for $30,000, which is impressive considering that the original MSRP for a Prowler back in 1997 was $38,300, making this one of the strangest cars to come out of the 1990s, and the other, even more forgotten Chrysler.

Sources: Chrysler, EPA, TopGear, MotorTrend