Re: quote without comment

[George Graves <gmgraves@domain.elided>]

on 7/14/02 11:08 AM, alfa-digest at owner-alfa-digest@domain.elided wrote:

> 
> Date: Sun, 14 Jul 2002 10:00:44 -0400
> From: "John Hertzman" <johnhertzman@domain.elided>
> Subject: quote without comment
> 
> The New York Times has a "Sunday Styles" section which fills a slot similar to
> that of the funny pages of the lesser journals of the hinterlands. There,
> today, on page six, under the headline "Cherry Red and Worry-Free", was a
> three-column photo of a Spider, complete with BWA wheels. The article is about
> it and its owner, an upscale mechanic to the vintage cars of show-business
> glitterati like Jerry Seinfeld and Paul Simon; "he also owns his share of
> them, including a couple of Ferraris, a couple of Audis, and a '57 Chevy. But
> when it comes to naming his favorite, Mr. Pilla picks the car he drives most
> often: his little Alfa Romeo convertible."
> 
> "The Alfa Romeo is, more precisely, a 1986 Quadrifoglio Graduate Spider, in
> cherry red. Quadrifoglio refers to the car's four-cylinder, four-valve engine;
> Graduate, means it is a step up from the previous model; and Spider denotes a
> convertible. The year is also important, because 1986 is when the carburetor
> was replaced by fuel-injection."
> 
> There is a lot more- "for a 36-year-old design, it looks are almost as au
> courant as the new Ford Thunderbird" - but the final paragraph is something of
> a letdown. "Mr Pilla's little Alfa, as pristine as it is, appeals to him in
> part because of its modest status. 'Sure, I love driving the Audi', he says,
> 'but lets face it, one person opens his car door on it and your nice drive is
> over. With the Alfa, I don't have to worry.'"
> 
> YMMV - -

I wonder how much of the NY Times (and other news media, for that matter)
content is as error-filled as is this one article? If this level of
journalism is the norm, one couldn't believe anything one reads in the
newspaper at all!

First of all, Quadrifoglio means 4-leaf clover -a longtime Alfa Romeo icon-
not 4 cylinder and to my knowledge, no "Guilia" engined (1600, 1750, 2000cc)
consumer model ever had 4 valves/cylinder. The 2-liter "Twin Spark" 4
cylinder engine of the late eighties and early nineties DID HAVE
4-valves/cylinder, but that engine was never in a Graduate model and in
fact, was never imported officially into the USA. The name "Graduate" is a
belated marketing "homage" to the 1967 Dustin Hoffman film of the same name
in which his character drives a red Alfa Duetto Spider. The "Graduate" model
was only sold in North America, and was basically a stripped-down spider
with manual wind-up windows instead of power windows, cheaper interior trim,
no AC, no leather, etc. It is not a step-up from anything. And finally, 1986
is NOT the year when carburetors were replaced by fuel-injection, that
occurred in 1969 in North America when the Webber carburetors were replaced
by SPICA mechanical fuel-injection. The rest of the world continued with
Webber carburetors until 1982, when, in the North American market, the SPICA
mechanical setup was replaced by Bosch electronic fuel-injection and in
other Alfa markets, the Webbers were replaced by the same Bosch L-Jetronic
system that same year.

How many kinds of wrong can an article be?
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