We found the Crossfire accelerates with strength and force even though the output of 215 horsepower is ordinary these days. The three-valve engine sounds mildly sporty, and feels smooth as a luxury car's. It sounds louder and more purposeful than the same engine in the Mercedes E320 sedan. We particularly like the quick throttle response, which gives the impression that the engine is stronger than its 215 horsepower would suggest. Chrysler claims the Crossfire will get to 60 mph in 6.5 seconds, and our test car felt like that would not be a problem. But that's significantly slower than sports cars such as the similarly affordable Nissan 350Z and pricier Boxster S. The Crossfire does not overpower its chassis, in fact it feels just the opposite. The A-arm front and multilink rear suspension and the monster tires feel like they can cope with more speed than the engine is capable of providing.
We drove the Crossfire over winding mountain roads east of San Diego, smoothly paved with lots of combinations of tight bends and fast sweeping curves. The chassis of our Crossfire felt stiffer than the Mercedes SLK roadsters, likely because the coupe body of the Chrysler has a structural advantage. The Crossfire shares its floorpan with the SLK, but in the Chrysler it's modified with extra tie bars and frame gussets that prompt Chrysler to proclaim class-leading chassis stiffness. The Crossfire corners as flat as a sports car. Given that our drives were limited to the nearly perfect pavement of California, we're curious to find out if the Crossfire will soak up the third-world potholes lurking in the Midwest rust belt with as much grace.
At the limits of its cornering ability, the Crossfire will begin plowing sooner than a 350Z or BMW Z4. Chrysler says this is a function of the car being tuned for more relaxed cruising than all-out sport driving. The Crossfire sports huge 225/40 by 18-inch front and 255/35 by 19-inch rear tires. Two tire designs are available, a Michelin Pilot Sport 2 and a new Continental Z-rated (high-speed) all-season. The tires are relatively large for a car that is not intended to be an uncompromised sports car, such as Nissan's 350Z, but we suspect the Crossfire's large tires were specified for styling appeal.
The six-speed manual gearbox, a Mercedes unit, somehow didn't seem to feel as direct and quick shifting as we remember from previous Mercedes roadsters. We actually preferred the Crossfire with the five-speed automatic, which worked flawlessly and felt perfectly matched to the 3.2-liter engine. This automatic has an adaptive function, which learns how you like to drive by measuring how quickly you apply the accelerator in each gear. It has a manually shifting gate, too, which Chrysler calls AutoStick on its cars. Manual shifting automatics are not something we take great pride in learning to shift smoothly, but we felt we could warm up to this unit given the time an owner would have with it.
The brakes are sensitive and responsive. The Crossfire can stop like a sports car, a result of its large 11.8-inch vented front and 10.9-inch solid rear rotors matched with massive tires. Our drives took us up and down 4,000-foot elevations, and the brakes gave us confidence charging downhill as quickly as we drove uphill. Like the SLK, the Crossfire makes use of a comprehensive stability and traction control system. It's the first time the Mercedes system has been used on a Chrysler. When engaged, this system makes the Crossfire nearly impossible to upset in tricky conditions.
At 60 mph a rear spoiler pops up just under the rear window, and it cuts slightly into rear vision, but at least the noise from the spoiler's motor was not intrusive. What we did notice was that the sporty exhaust note was still audible while we cruised on the highway. It sounded distant and came from the rear of the car, which tells us there's very little noise from the rest of the car on the highway.
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