1999 Spider GTV review (Huh???)

[Simon Favre <simon@domain.elided>]

A fellow at work dropped off an odd magazine on my desk. It is the Feb.
99 issue of 'Le Moniteur Automobile' published in Brussels, Belgium. He's
Belgian and is apparently having the mag sent over. In it, the Belgians
do a review on the latest update of the Spider/GTV line. I find that Alta
Vista's translation engine does some really strange things when you type
in English letters and punctuation, then ask it to translate from French
to English, especially when it's Belgian to start with. ;=) One of the
things they really came down hard on was the trunk space. The term "Coffre
ridicule" showed up in each summary box. ;=( In the comment section, their
summary translated to "When you show the trunk to a layman, they generally
burst out laughing." They go on to ridicule Alfa's idea of supplying a
tire repair kit so they can do away with the spare. Oh well. On the basic
stats, they rate the Spider well against the Z3, the Miata, and the MGF.
The GTV compared favorably against the Audi TT, Z3 Coupe, Fiat Coupe 20V,
and the Mercedes SLK 230K. They did fault the GTV 3.0 V6 24V for poor
roadholding (nose heavy), the Spider for chassis flex, and poor turning 
radius on both. On the plus side, they basically said the lines will take 
your breath away, they loved the motors, and the cars had undeniable charm.

Lastly, for a finishing touch, the 99 Spider/GTV review is immediately
followed by a nice Salon on a Giulietta Spider/Sprint pair in gorgeous
Italian red. Of course, they had nothing but praise for the older cars...

- ---
Simon Favre (who has NO intention of learning French OR Belgian)

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End of alfa-digest V7 #542
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