"Nice car, mate," said the guy at the tollbooth, justifying in three words the purchase of a Crossfire. Whether in Coupé or - as here - Roadster form, this is a car which lives or dies on its styling, and although media opinion is sharply divided on this subject (it is regarded in the press as anything from a delight to an abomination) I have yet to meet a non-journalist who is anything other than impressed with its looks.We have discussed the Crossfire often enough not to have to go into much technical detail. You can read all that in our road test of the Coupé. Briefly, though, this is a restyled version of the one-generation-back Mercedes-Benz SLK; quick enough, though not nearly as sporty to drive (despite the manufacturer's claims) as it looks, and somewhat cramped inside, but most importantly completely distinct visually from everything else on the road.UK motorists love convertibles in a way that no other Europeans do, so the Roadster has something extra going for it in this country over the longer-established Coupé. Slicing off the roof has required the addition of other material to salvage some of the original bodyshell's stiffness, so there's a weight penalty - admittedly a fairly modest 36kg in this case. A certain amount of extra shaking and rattling is inevitable, but again nothing too serious.Opening and closing the roof is simple to achieve, quick (22 seconds each way) to perform and fascinating to watch. Once the soft parts have been covered by the solid tonneau cover behind the occupants' heads, you would never know it had been part of the car at all. Here again the stylists have done a very effective job. Of course, the roof has to go somewhere, and when it's folded up it reduces the volume of the already tiny luggage compartment from 190 litres to 104 litres.With the roof up, the extra material between the passenger area and the back of the car proved to be useful in one respect. When the rear spoiler raises or lowers - as it does depending on road speed - you can hear all sorts of whirring noises in the coupé, but that sound is deadened in the Roadster.There are a couple of minus points, though. As a taller driver, I found that I kept scraping the top of my head against one of the metal crossmembers when the roof was in position. And the clear plastic screen which can be mounted between the roll bars - as it was in the press car - may be effective in reducing turbulence, but it plays a nasty trick at night.It reflects the illuminated road ahead of the car quite brilliantly, and bounces that reflection straight into the rear view mirror. If you want to see where you are going, you can either look in the windscreen or in the mirror; the effect is more or less the same either way. Unless another car is close enough for its headlights to dominate the scene, you can't see behind you without checking the door mirrors.As with the Coupé, there is just one engine option (a 3.2-litre V6) but a choice of manual or automatic transmissions. The test car was an automatic, which is very definitely the way to go and will remain so until Chrysler manages to improve the shift quality of the manual. Oddly, Chrysler quotes no difference in performance figures between the manual and the auto, and claims that the latter is marginally more economical, with correspondingly better CO2 emissions. Engine 3199 cc, 6 cylinders Power 215bhp @5700 rpm Torque 229ib/ft @3000 rpm Transmission 5 speed auto Fuel/CO2 28mpg / 243 g/km Acceleration 0-62mph: 6.6sec Top speed 155 mph Price From £27041.00 approx Release date 08/06/2004
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