RE: Alfisti

["Nick Koleszar" <npk@domain.elided>]

> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 16 Apr 2002 17:49:34 -0700
> From: George Graves <gmgraves@domain.elided>
> Subject: RE: Alfisti
>
> You would think that the link among people who happen to buy or be
> enthusiastic about something actually as mundane as a car marque would be
> pretty flimsy, but over the years I have found most Alfa owners to be
> exceptionally nice people, and the vast majority I've come in contact with

We crazy people have to stick together!

BTW, George, I think that several things conspired to make Alfa's continued
presence in the US untenable.

1. Crap dealers. It's hard to make a marque stick somewhere but if you don't
have enough dealers and the ones you have aren't that good (that's the
impression I got from others), it's only going to be uphill. Doesn't help
that the USA is so big. The cost of setting up and maintaining a dealer
network must be huge.

2. Warranty work. We all know that new Alfa Romeos aren't the most reliable
thing around. Back in the 80s, it was even worse. Americans tend not to
accept being given the run around by dealers so I would imagine it was
difficult for everybody.

3. FWD. Alfa Romeo's only real hope in the USA was an image of exotic
Italian sports car, up there with Ferrari and Maserati.  Large FWD saloons
do little to enforce this image. Not having any RWD car in the model range
must make it nearly impossible.

4. Perception of reliability. Italian cars have been infamous for poor
reliability and rust. Some of that was earned, apparently through hard work
(only Italians could make German electrics unreliable) some of it was simply
American drivers having no clue how to own an Italian car (ie., you don't
jump in it first thing in the morning, whack open the throttle, drive it
hard for 10 mins, then sit in hot sun in a traffic jam....). The cars that
AR produced in the late 80s did a lot to repair that image but perhaps not
enough.

5. Other issues. I'm sure there were probably other business problems which
prompted AR/FIAT to pull out of North America. Who knows what political
wrangling was going on back home, what key distribution deals unwound and/or
what key financing wasn't in place or unrealistic sales targets not met?

Anyways, I would love to see AR back in North America, it tends to lead to
some great developments in the world of tuning etc. I just hope that when
they do it, they don't do it too soon. The current models are a world apart
from even those of under 10 years ago. They're much much more accesible and
much better built but they still aren't anything like the reliability North
Americans expect from German and Japanese cars nor are they as cheap as
domestic brands. Doesn't matter that the German brands aren't so reliable
anymore, it's the perception that counts.

Cuore Sportivo!

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