Re: alfa-digest V9 #46

[Iopsycheng@domain.elided]

Alfa and Toyota 2000GT
I have to add my two cents here...
My brother, who is 12 years senior, and I went car shopping when he was 
around 22 - 23. He was looking for a new car as he had just started a new 
job. He eventually bought a new 1973 VW Beetle but the VW dealer was also the 
Ferrari, Alfa Romeo and various exotics store. On the lot was a 365 GTS/4, a 
Daytona Spider. The window sticker was a staggering $23,500.00 and I was 
stunned to learn that some cars cost that much. I remember trying to drag my 
brother away from the salesman to show him a car which cost twice as much as 
our house! The dealers comment still echoes through my memory... Knowing that 
my brother couldn't possibly afford it, he said that if a real customer were 
willing to buy that car the dealership would probably offer a discount of 
around $4,000.00-5,000.00 just to get it off the lot as it was last years 
model.  
As a 16 year old my mother and I were looking for a car to share as she 
worked not too far from my high school. All of my friends had Mustangs so I 
wanted a Mustang. I didn't know anything about cars, as a matter of fact the 
only thing I wanted in a car was automatic transmission and A/C. I did like a 
neighbors Opel GT but I didn't know what it was... Anyway I found a 
beautiful, clean white Mustang and the family went to look... The car was 
noisy and had a 4-speed tranny so neither my mother nor I could drive it. Dad 
took it for a spin and after good going over pronounced it fit and in 
excellent condition. Mother and I had been talking and we had both decided 
that it was too much money, it didn't have A/C and manual tranny would be a 
pain in our morning commute... We decided not to spend $4,900.00 on a 1966 
Shelby GT-350. We ended up with a 1973 Comet with three-on-the-tree and no 
A/C, or for that matter, front brakes when it rained.
One last note... Fortunately my wife and daughter are safe but there is one 
less Alfa in the world... "Fright Pig" my wife's great running but terminally 
ugly 1988 Milano Gold automatic gave his all protecting my family from an 
SUV. While sitting at a light on the way to our Alfa club meeting, Robin and 
Elizabeth were rear-ended at 35 mph by a Toyota salesman in an Izuzu. The 
Milano was totaled but my family was safe. The Izuzu drivers excuse... His 
ABS went out... I'm not going to add any of my personal opinions because I 
wasn't there but none of my cars have ABS and they stop just fine and I 
really would like to see his cell phone records...
Thomas Gonnella
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