What the young lady said - "Ooh, that's nice!" - was rather encouraging, although it was nothing more than an appreciative remark, at my local petrol station, about the styling of the Crossfire coupé.There's no doubt about it. This is a really eye-catching machine, a brilliant productionised version of a motor show concept car, at its best in one of the richer body colours from the Chrysler palette.The Crossfire was introduced as the second car to use the original Mercedes-Benz SLK roadster platform, and the 3.2-litre Mercedes V6 petrol engine. Chrysler did the styling, though, and once the Crossfire was approved for production status the project was handed over to Karmann of Osnabrück.It's almost impossible to imagine an all-European project coming up with anything so striking, and you have to admire the Chrysler designers for creating a car so close to the show-time version. The Crossfire proves that, at their best, American design studios give nothing away to their European rivals.Well-proportioned and demonstrating considerable pzazz, the coupé has many carefully thought-out details, like the stylised "Crossfire" lettering on the bodywork. Inside, the silver-finish console is too garish for many UK observers, but we have to remember that the Crossfire has to cater for US and Continental tastes as well. The Mercedes connection is shown in the familiar dip and wash/wipe steering column stalk.With its very shallow windows, the cabin at first sight looks like no place for claustrophobes. However, once you're on board there's none of that feeling at all, although the big, number one snag about the Crossfire is the pathetically restricted rearward movement of the seats.At just over six feet, and even though I usually prefer to sit quite close to the wheel with a lot of recline, I couldn't get the seat anywhere like far enough back. The rear bulkhead just stops it abruptly in its tracks.In many another car I would have cursed this good and proper, but the curious thing is that, the Crossfire being such a splendid car to be seen in, I did persevere to get some kind of compromise seating position which, if by no means ideal, at least let me drive quite happily around. I don't know about a full day on the motorways, though.There are two other problems about the cab-back styling. First of all, there's not much luggage space - only just enough for two people's luggage if it's purpose-bought to fill every nook and cranny of the available volume - and it seems ridiculous that the bags and whatnot lie open to view unless you buy the optional security cover.Secondly, the lack of space at the back of the car means that it's impossible to accommodate a spare wheel, even of the space-saver variety. What you get is a puncture repair kit and tyre inflator.Does all this damn the Crossfire? Not at all, because this is probably the kind of car whose owners enjoy its other attributes so much that they'll put up with the inconveniences.While not really a sporting machine, the Crossfire is a strong performer in a straight line, with either the standard manual box or the AutoStick transmission as fitted to the test car. AutoStick is just Chrysler-speak for a Mercedes Tiptronic box, able to be used in either fully automatic form or in sequential mode.That being so, it works very satisfactorily, with a Sport mode to delay the upward changes, and a Winter setting in which, chary about slippery surfaces, it takes off from rest in second. Used as a sequential change, it needs a nudge to the right for upward changes, a nudge to the left for down. Having once got this the wrong way round, with a censorious colleague in the passenger seat as the revs soared, I have to say I'd rather have a fore-and-aft movement instead of one from side to side. Owners rather than journalists get used to these things very quickly, of course.The 6.5 second time for the 0-62mph sprint shows that even in automatic form the Crossfire really gets off its mark, and it's round about then that - sometimes to the bemusement of other road users - the rear spoiler raises itself. Lectures from an aerodynamicist have made me aware that this kind of thing can be useful in stabilising a car at speeds down to 30mph, but I wonder if it's as much a gimmick as anything else.Anyway, even from a rather crooched-up driving position I couldn't help admiring the Crossfire. To be honest, it was the kind of car I rather liked being seen in. Once, coming up to a toll gate, I handed over my money to the fellow in the booth, and beamed at him in a kind of self-satisfied look-at-me way.He didn't comment but, when taking the money from the next car along, said to the lady driver, with a nod in my direction, "He's too old to be driving a car like that."She, being a close female relative, has been quoting this to me regularly ever since.Second opinion: It's really a case of style over substance, and while I'm mostly taken with the Crossfire's style there are, in my opinion, occasional glitches. The rear three-quarter view, to take the most significant example, makes the car look very dumpy, as if the designers wished they had something longer than an out-of-date Mercedes SLK to worth with. That parentage is also very obvious when you drive the car; it may look like a Chrysler, but it feels absolutely like a Mercedes to drive, and there has obviously been no way of improving the old SLK's dreadfully cramped interior, about which I seem to be less tolerant than other CARkeys writers. David Finlay. Engine 3199cc, 6cylinders Power 215bhp @5700rpm Torque 229ib/ft @3000rpm Transmission 5 speed auto Fuel/CO2 28.58mpg / 239g/km Acceleration 0-62mph: 6.5sec Top speed 150mph Price From £26041.00 approx Release date 01/09/2003
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