Re: Alfa SUV's and Alfas in Movies

["David R Johnson" <johnsnd@domain.elided>]

On Jul 22,  9:25pm, Jerry in Houston wrote:

> In actuality Alfa has, in its' past, already produced Alfa delivery vans and
> trucks. So what's the big deal?  You have to make what the consumer wants to
> buy or you go out of business.  I would not be at all surprised to see an
> Alfa SUV in the future.  According to a recent survey released in the UK,
> that (SUV's and trucks) is going to be the strongest market niche for the
> coming 10 years, IN THE WORLD.  For good or Ill, the US has become the
> pacesetter. Carmaking is a business, not museum curaturship 101.
>
> IMHO, if Ford had not taken over Jaguar,  Jag would be dead by now.  then we
> would not have any Jaguars to push around anymore.  Maybe some would have
> preferred that rather ignomenious end.  Compete or die!

Let's also not forget that the reason we have Alfas to drive today is because
of the company's move from low-volume expensive touring cars into mass-produced
sports cars.  This was presumably also in response to market conditions, a
"compete or go under" situation.  While I have no desire to replace my car with
a truck, even one made by Alfa Romeo, I think I would prefer to see the company
weather the SUV storm to emerge in an age of "sports car elightenment".  Better
that than what happened to the Bugatti name, and it's supposed revival.

I would also hope that Alfa has learned its lesson with the Arna, although this
example of what not to do with badge engineering might be ignored by
Daimler-Chrysler.  However, Chrysler has some pretty innovative and
special-interest cars out these days (Viper, Prowler, etc), and does not seem
to send its designers to the cookie-cutter school of engineering favoured by
some others.

On another subject, I caught a few minutes of a movie called "Contempt" last
night, apparently a French-English film, which included a nice example of what
I would guess was a Gulia or Giulietta Spider of 60's vintage (I apologize to
the cogniscenti for my lack of classic Alfa knowledge).  The movie was on the
digital cable Independent Film Channel, for those in the US, and will probably
be repeated a few times in the next few weeks.

Dave J.
1982 GTV-6

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