Alfa 166 sales in UK

["Tim Hancock" <timhancock@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Just in case anyone thought Alfas revival was going smoothly, I saw a note in
the AROC (UK) magazine that total sales of the 166 in the UK in 2002 was a
staggering 247 units.

 As usual, just about everyone who runs one says what a nice car it is,
quality is not bad, but not quite good enough for that market sector. Residual
prices are ridiculously low, so the judgement on 166 so far is a resounding
thumbs down. This is completely the reverse of the 156, and although sales are
hard to get 156s are still selling quite well which is not bad for a four to
five year old car. 147 is a nearly but not quite sales success, if you follow
my line. Planet Golf GTI (or most likely Golf TDI) would appear not to be
seriously under threat from the Alfa 147.

There is a 166 facelift coming soon (and a number of other nose jobs
too..Spider/GTV/156 ), but in my experience if a car has failed at the first
hurldle it rarely gets a second chance no matter how good the nose rework is.
Another Alfa trend I know you will all love is the inexorable advance of the
diesel engined versions. I know some of you do not sit comfortably with the
idea of performance cars and oil burners, but that is where the only area of
market growth has been in Europe and the UK, so it is consumer demand led,
influenced heavily by fuel costs and vehicle taxation policy.

Tim Hancock   Boston UK

164TS
164 Super
--
to be removed from alfa, see /bin/digest-subs.cgi
or email "unsubscribe alfa" to majordomo@domain.elided