Re: alfa-digest V7 #936

[Italiacars@domain.elided]

In a message dated 8/4/99 1:18:19 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
owner-alfa-digest@domain.elided writes:

<< They tried, they failed, and that's a good enough reason to split. BTW, I 
 predict Maserati will also fail. If you want to send that twin turbo pelican 
 up against the XK8, lots of luck.  >>

1st when Maserati returns to North America it won't be with a biturbo engine. 
As far as the reason that both Alfa & Maserati pulled out of North America, I 
may have joked around about it being a grand consipracey by Chrysler. Fiat, 
Renault, Alfa and Maserati all got involved with Chyrsler and all are now 
gone. There is actually more to it, all were very strong niche players
in the case of Alfa, during it's best years Alfa would sell anywhere from 
5,000 to 10,000 cars in North America, about the same as Jaguar. And Alfa 
offered a wider range of models. Alfa then partnered with Chrysler under 
Chrysler management (big mistake). Goal 30,000 cars per year, (a little less 
than what Audi sells here) mostly 164s since the spyder was a very limited 
market. 1st move was to move US operations from North Jersey, where every 
other european importer is located. (BTW Ferrari is now in their old 
building) to Orlando Fla. A landlocked city. Why? Because Chysler appointed 
President (Davis) wanted to be near his grandchildren.(inside sources).They 
appointed Chrysler dealers with Alfa francishes. To start with these dealers 
had some of the worst CSI rating in the industry. Their service deptments did 
not understand Alfas nor cared to. Their sales management just wanted the 
cars off floorplan. Chrysler up the warranty to 3/36 all inclusive. Not a bad 
thing, but when you have dealers that can't repair the cars properly in the 
first place. This left the traditional Alfa dealer to clean up the mess. On 
top of that Chrysler people spent money like drunken sailors. Massive ad 
campaigns that which were on a par for a company selling 100,000 cars here a 
year. At that time both BMW & Mercedes were selling about 60,000 cars here a 
year. 60% of BMWs sales are on the low end 3 Series. Not the 5 Series which 
was the 164s competition.

This was also a time of economic downturn, which saw Porsches sales plung 
from 60,000 cars per year worldwide, to under 9,000. Fiat saw the writing on 
the wall, cut Chrysler loose cleaned up as much as possible and went home to 
await another day. 

This exactly the same senario that happened with Maserati. When Chrysler took 
over their operation in Baltimore, they brought in personel and would put 
them up in $300.00 a night hotels in Inner Harbor for months at a time. 
Masertis offices weren't good enough for Chrysler appointed Presidnet 
Morissey so he rented offices elsewhere. Now Maserati (ie DeTomaso) is not a 
big company, it didn't have a sugardaddy like Fiat, to afford Chrysler's 
massive ad campaign. Chrysler started appointing dealers left and right. They 
even gave a Subaru dealer Maseratis. Now if that isn't a disaster waiting to 
happen. Until the Biturbo era Maserati never built more than 1,000 cars a 
year worldwide. Now with the Biturbo they were going to make 6,000 a year. 
But Chrysler wanted to go after BMWs 3 Series with the Biturbo. 

Talk all you want about closed markets strict regulations. All these both 
Alfa & even Maserati could have dealt with and sold cars here. Chrysler is 
really the cause of why these cars aren't here. They did the same to both 
Fiat & Renault earlier in the decade on an even grander scale.

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