Re: Forbidden Fruit

[Scott Fisher <sefisher@xxxxxxxxx>]

Simon comments about Sun International, importers of various
not-otherwise-obtainable-in-the-US cars:

> They are located in Southern California. If you don't live near 
> them, I would not advise this. If you do, then you also have
> the CARB and Smog II to deal with. ;=(

The CARB and Smog II are the only things that scare me.  As for their
comments about not being able to get parts or service -- join the club. 
I started living that way in 1983, when I bought my first British sports
car and learned that the company that had purchased the rights to that
marque had decided to tear down the factory, as well as dismantle the
U.S. dealer network.  Of course, there were several hundred thousand of
these cars (or their stablemates) still rolling around the roads of the
U.S., which represented a sizeable chunk of buyers for the aftermarket. 
Companies like Moss Motors and The Roadster Factory found it lucrative
to stock OEM stuff or even have reproductions made.  

And that *isn't* going to be the case for a personally imported Alfa or
Elise -- you WON'T have a huge local organization here that makes money
off of selling to tens of thousands of other people whose cars, like
yours, are out in the cold.  You'll have to be, as the guys from Sun
International say, "creative and realistic."

Compensating somewhat, the Internet isn't what it was in 1988 when I
joined the british-cars mailing list, either.  Then, we had a few UK
members who could scare up parts for us in the Sceptred Isle and, for
love of the marque and an international money order or two, be convinced
to ship 'em to us.  Today, you can probably log on to a Web site in
Europe, locate the bits you need, punch your Visa or Mastercard number
into a secure-socket application, and presto, the stuff you need shows
up via UPS Next-day and you're on the road again in no time.  

Of course, that presumes that you can diagnose your car and repair it
yourself; I'm not worried about that, and Simon's probably not worried,
and those of us who've done our penance with weird old cars are probably
more tired of it than worried about it.  But if you're the kind of car
owner whose idea of being involved with your car is waxing it a couple
times a year, you may have a hard, hard time finding a shop that will
work on a '98 or '99 Alfa.

It's just the CARB/Smog II thing that gets me.  If THAT ever gets
solved, you can expect to see an Elise in front of my house (well, that
and if our stock ever recovers from the Asian economy! :-)

- --Scott "Or maybe I'll just move to Montana" Fisher

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