Re: Modifying Alfas

["Jonathan Wolff" <jon@domain.elided>]

David Bishop <dbisho1@domain.elided> wrote:

> I have a friend who is an architect and does a lot of business in the
Pacific Northwest. He found
> an article in a newspaper about cars and cupholders (actually 'rated' car
cupholders). The article
> was somewhat related to the fact that gourmet coffee is so popular in that
area of the country (to the
> point that you can get espresso drinks at feedstores, or so he tells me!).
Guess what one of the
> cars in the 'cupholder rating' article was ? (the reason he sent the
article to me). The Alfa 164,
> and of course it failed miserably because it did not have a cupholder! And
the moron that wrote
> the article was amazed that a car from the motherland of cappucino had no
cupholder, I was forced
> to remind my friend who sent me the article that the car was made to be
driven, not to be tooled
> around in drinking coffee, talking on the phone, putting on makeup !!!!!
(about to start ranting about
> American drivers...I guess I'd better go take my medicine !    ;-)

I really don't want to start this old thread up again, but this week, BBC's
Top gear programme had an item about cup holders.  They had a designer from
Jaguar saying, not entirely jokingly, that they have to pretty much design
car interiors around the cup holders nowadays.  In Europe, where manual
gearboxes are far more popular than automatics, there's less space between
the seats to put the things.  I say with a gearstick to operate you've got
fewer hands available to be drinking with, but anyway...

Also apparently a high percentage of new car buyers in Europe now insist on
cup holders, but when asked how often they actually use them they tend to be
very vague.  It's such a shame...  Still, there will always be cars made to
be driven and enjoyed, so perhaps there will always be cars without cup
holders.

They also had an item on how great the Lancia Integrale is.  Grrr, I've just
about saved up enough money to get a decent one, and now they've probably
pushed the asking prices back up to silly levels again.  Don't worry, if I
do get one I won't be getting rid of the Alfa!

Jonathan.

- --
Jonathan Wolff <jon@domain.elided>
Programmer <jon@domain.elided>
Argonaut Software Ltd.

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