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Good Looks, and Then Some
2004 Chrysler Crossfire

The 2004 Chrysler Crossfire coupe is an uptown lover. It looks hot and enjoys a wild ride now and then. But it has no intention of moving in with people who drive Chevrolet Corvettes and ride Harley-Davidson motorcycles.

No.

Despite its stunning body and hip demeanor, the Crossfire is a bit too dainty, too precious, too soft for people who want to drive hard all day and party all night. Instead, it revels in the role of motorized fantasy.

That is intentional.

The executives at DaimlerChrysler AG, Chrysler’s German parent company, wanted an image car for their struggling American child — something to help the kid get attention and win friends in the marketplace. The parent company asked Mercedes-Benz, Chrysler’s more robust corporate sibling, for help.

Mercedes-Benz donated its rear-wheel-drive SLK 320 coupe platform. It also threw in its quite decent 3.2-liter, 18-valve, 215-horsepower V-6 engine.

“Quite decent,” in this case, means the Crossfire will move from 0 to 60 mph in a bit more than seven seconds. That’s fine for normal drivers who want to have a little fun. But it sets BMW, Corvette, Porsche and Harley people atwitter.

Chrysler executives aren’t laughing. They are betting that sex is 90 percent imagination and 10 percent performance and that, based on that formula, the Crossfire will sell well. They might be right.

Chrysler’s talented designers have given the Crossfire an eye-popping, traffic-stopping body — a low-slung, swept-back, wide-tailed, long-nosed work of art accented by a wide grille, multi-creased hood and center-creased roof.

The interior is done in black leather and silver trim, with the center crease on the roof reappearing in miniature on the top of the dashboard and shift knob.

It is an absolutely radical piece of automotive styling. It drew admiring crowds all over the Washington area. High school and middle school students walking home from classes in my Arlington neighborhood stopped, gasped and went into fits of chatter over the silver-blue Crossfire sitting in my driveway. They were awestruck.

But not everyone was taken with the car. Two good friends, Gina and Jennifer, were less than impressed.

Gina is a genuine car nut, a BMW woman who also has a thing for Corvettes. She went crazy over a drive in the 50th-anniversary edition of the 350-horsepower Corvette C5. But she was politely dismissive in her comments about a subsequent ride in the Crossfire. “It’s nice, you know, okay, but, you know, well,” said Gina, offering the automotive equivalent of “Let’s be friends.”

Jennifer loves guns, cops, cars and Harleys, but she was hardly overwhelmed by the Crossfire. She stands barely five feet tall, and she complained that the interior of the low-slung two-seater was “too big for a reall y short person to comfortably reach the clutch, even when you adjust the seat.” Asked about the looks, Jennifer said, “It’s too cute, almost artificial.” She prefers the comparatively subdued look of her Audi A4.

Personally, I love the Crossfire. It’s no earth-scorching speed-mobile, nobody’s heavy breather on the track. So what? It runs, rides and handles well enough to make me smile. It is an exceptionally beautiful car, marvelous eye candy. It’s fun to drive and be seen in — uptown, downtown and all around town.

Nuts & Bolts

Complaints: The tested car was a pre-production model rushed out for evaluation, so fit-and-finish glitches were to be expected. But some errors, pre-production or not, are inexcusable. There is no reason the gearshift knob should have come off every other time I shifted into reverse. Also, some short people, Jennifer chief among them, complained that the diminutive, severely slanted rear window compromised their rear vision

Praise: The Crossfire proves bold, striking design is still possible in world of general stylistic mediocrity, where the aim is to avoid offense more than it is to stimulate pleasure.

Ride, acceleration and handling: Good in all three categories. Nothing to rave about, nothing to complain about.

Body style/layout: Front-engine, rear-wheel-drive, two-door hatchback coupe.

Engine/transmissions: The car comes with a 3.2-liter, 18-valve aluminum-block V-6 that develops 215 horsepower at 5,700 revolutions per minute and 229 foot-pounds of torque at 3,000 rpm. The engine can be linked to a standard six-speed manual transmission or a five-speed automatic that can be operated in manual mode. Get the automatic. The gearshift knob stays on with that one.

Capacities: The Crossfire seats two people. Cargo capacity is 7.6 cubic feet. Think two soft-sided overnight bags. Fuel capacity is 15.8 gallons. Premium unleaded is recommended.

Mileage: The Environmental Protection Agency says the Crossfire gets 18 miles per gallon in the city and 27 mpg on the highway. I averaged 25 in mostly highway driving.

Safety: Great active safety package — things that help you avoid crashing. It includes four-wheel anti-lock brakes with ventilated front discs and solid rear discs, traction control and the Electronic Stability Program to help limit vehicle yaw and sway in corners. Passive safety includes rigid body construction, side bags, and lower anchors and tethers for children, which should be used only when the passenger-side air bag is deactivated.

Price: Preliminary pricing is set at $33,620. This could change.

Purse-strings note: If you want a car that looks hot and almost runs that way, the Crossfire is it. For styling alone, it’s a definite buy. Compare with Mercedes-Benz SLK320, Acura TL, Audi A4, BMW 3 Series, Infiniti G35.