Re: alfa-digest V7 #316

[TQG4PLY@xxxxxxx]

 Date: Thu, 10 Dec 1998 14:48:40 GMT
 From: Steve An <giulietta@domain.elided>
 Subject: Re: rentals
 
 The typical rental agencies (Hertz, Avis etc...) will only have new cars, no
 one will guarantee you an Alfa, but you may request one and get lucky, I got
 a 155 twinspark once in Milano 2 years ago. They now have 156 for rent. The
 rental agency sometimes are reluctant to rent you an Alfa if you go further
 south than Roma, they asked me once, I guess because of theft issues. Fiat
 are pretty nice cars, I like the Marena, the Puntos are just underpower.
 
 There is a place in central Milano that rents exotic car, but I am not aware
 of any in Roma. I am not sure of any place perhaps outside of Hollywood that
 rents older classic cars.
 
 The 155 costs me around $700 for 10 days, I can't even imagine how much a
 specialty rental would cost. Last I check, a 911 or Ferrari in Frnakfurt
 cost $500 and up per day, plus over $1 per kilometer. How wealthy is your
 friend? 
 
 I strongly recommend AutoEurope, they are in Maine, they have an 800 number.
 They broker for all rental agencies and always seems to have the lowest
rates.
 
 There is a tour that includes a F355, 1? track day at Mugello, unlimited use
 of the car for one week at around $7000, the tour can be arranged through
 some agency in NYC, sorry I don't recall off hand, but I saw this on a PBS,
 ciao Italia show on TV last year.
 
 ABout the Miata list, I used to be a fairly active poster on it, but I and
 many old timers (reads serious car nuts) have left because of low signal to
 noise ratio. 
 
 I am sure your friend will get many replies if he asks for suggestions on
 what cutsie name to name his Miata, or what color god's Miata should be if
 he were to have one, which of course he does, or what kewl Miata driving
 music... etc... but for real info. good luck! 
 
 
         - Steve.
 
 At 07:35 PM 12/9/98 -0500, Walter Buchignani wrote:
 >alfisti:
 >a friend is looking to rent an alfa during his holiday in italy. he'll
 >be flying into rome. he'd prefer an older model ? an early-90s spider,
 >say ? but would settle for new, too. any suggestions? please e-mail him
 >directly at dbist@domain.elided ...
 >ps. this is my second appeal on his behalf. the first attracted only one
 >or two responses, and now he's going around saying those alfa digesters
 >sure are unhelpful, not like those nice people over at the miata site.
 >... are we going to let him get away with that?
 >walter
 >in montreal
 >1974 2000 GTV
 > >>


Dear Steve and Walter,

This last summer I rented an Alfa 156. It was brand new with 72 km.
on the clock. Even though most Rental agencies deny having any
Alfa's in their fleet, they probably all do !!!  It just takes a little
ingenuity and work and a lot of phone calls.

At Malpense airport near Milan, we were told that they had no Alfa's,
as it was mainly a Tourist airport, but that the rental agencies at the
downtown 
airport  ( I forget the name ) had Alfa's as they are generally used by
businessmen.
The same seems to apply at other main cities. ie.  rental agencies that
cater to businessmen generally have a better selection of Alfa Romeo's. 

We rented TWO 156 's  from a small branch of Avis in Sorrento for a friend
and ourselves. What we were told to do was call the agency several
days before due date and request that they bring in the 156's from
Naples ( the nearest LARGE rental fleet ). We called at least 3 times
and were promised that 2 156's would be brought in ffor us each time .
The day we arrived in Sorrento on a ferry from CAPRI, we took a taxi
to the Avis agency, only to find out that the woman we had been talking
to was not in and that they had no 156's for us !!!  A lot of " translating "
later, 2 brand spanking new 156's drove up for us - just a misunderstanding.
Anyway, 1400 km of spirited driving  later, we dropped the car off at
Malpense,
wishing we could bring the 156 back with us. 200kph is easily maintained
on the autostrada  (in the 1.8 twin cam ! ) so the 3 liter must be incredible.

I hope this clears up any misconceptions of Alfas not being available to
rent. They are there, you just have to call  the BRANCH  you will be picking 
up the car (persistently) beforehand and make your request known.

Happy Alfa motoring,

Howard Jacobs

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End of alfa-digest V7 #322
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