another grain of salt?

[JHertzman@domain.elided]

In AD7-1106 Charlie Pottree tells a tale of a "shipment of Alfas to San 
Francisco where they were fueled (for offloading from the ship) with gasoline 
from a leaking storage tank that was polluted with sea water.  The salt water 
in the fuel system messed up these cars (164s as I recall the tale) so much 
that when the customers complained, they were replaced by Alfa.  Don't know 
is this is strictly true, one of those legends, or if they were subsequently 
resold to unsuspecting marks."

The ex-company source who had told me about the shipboard 
fire/flooding/salvage situation which I mentioned on AD7-1103 says (A) that 
the 164s never came in through San Francisco/Oakland (using LA instead) and 
(B) that he never heard any salt/164 tales. (And I believe he would have - -) 
Also, in my limited experience loading/unloading my own cars in Rotterdam, 
Southampton and New York and also driving new TD MGs from dock to dealer at 
the port of Chicago the cars crossed with fuel in their own tanks so there 
was no occasion for fueling for offloading. So the San Francisco 164s may be 
just one of those legends-

I heard from another friend who had purchased a "never titled" 1974 Berlina 
in 1976 or 1977, with 1400 miles on it- ostensibly a car used by a company 
rep (at fifty miles a month?) which was catastrophically rusted within two 
years- quite possibly one of the 27 1974 Berlinas which Kevin Trent had found 
mentioned on the web 
(http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/problems/recalls/recmmy1.cfm) as  NHTSA 
CAMPAIGN ID Number: 75V044000, although I would have expected them to be 
crushed. Ancient history by now, a bit late to be separating myths from 
legends.

Enjoy the survivors-

John H.

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