The Most Unusual Mercedes Luxury Car Does Not Have The Name

0 Comments | 24 Jan 2024

Thanks to an exceptionally strong reputation for quality and comfort in the hands of luxury chauffeurs, Mercedes-Benz is a badge that has remained very popular in the executive world for over a century.

Besides being the company that all but invented the motor car, Mercedes is a company that tends to be a reliable name, with very few models that have deviated from being prestigious, reliable, high-quality performers in their class.

This is true not only for the ever-heralded S-Class but also for small cars like the A-Class. However, there is the unusual case of a Mercedes Car that did not have the namesake badge on it.

In 1998, Daimler-Benz, Mercedes’ parent company, merged with Chrysler in what was ironically known as a “marriage made in heaven” that proved so acrimonious and contentious that it led to multiple class-action lawsuits.

Aiming to bring the American brand back to its luxury roots in the 1950s, Chrysler unveiled the Crossfire in 2001, a striking sports coupe that was meant to be the flagship of a new generation.

It looked striking and immediately polarised onlookers, but whilst the body was unique and emotive and evoked American art deco sensibilities, it was built in Germany and was based on the R170 platform used to make the first generation SLK in 1996.

It tried to be a mix of luxury and performance motoring, but the problem was that it failed to be either.

From a luxury standpoint, it had an unusual, slightly cheap feeling and unusually designed interior that felt small despite the size of the car, and yet from a performance standpoint, it was too slow, did not handle terribly well according to contemporary reviews and allegedly had poor manual and automatic transmission.

The Crossfire lasted five years between 2003 and 2008, ultimately being discontinued after the “marriage made in heaven” ended in divorce after Chrysler faced losses of over $1.5bn.