Re: alfa return redux

[MAXLTV@domain.elided]

I was listeing to Bloomberg radio yesterday, and they had reported some sales 
figures for foreign manufacturers. 

It seems to me that some of these low volume manufacturers are making money 
here, if not setting the world on fire. Nor would they expect to anyway. But 
Land Rover, for instance has only sold 3000 vehicles nationwide to date, 
which is fewer than the 164 did in certain years. Jaguar, on the success of 
their new smaller sedans, sold 26,000 units nationwide finally eclipsing 
their 1987 record, which was based essentially on two models.   

But it seems to me that those wondering if Alfa will ever come back are 
missing a key point, and that is the cost of coming back will come to far 
more than the cost of leaving. Domestic dealer and support relationships are 
gone.  Marketing relationships were severed, and people who would have wished 
to work for Alfa in the U.S. have not been developed by continuing 
employment. 

In the meantime, the report said that all of  the foreign manfacturuers have 
had banner years in sales. So Alfa has blundered on two scores: It missed out 
on what could have been a very strong sales trend as new models would have 
been introduced, and it has made it's return doubly expensive over what it 
would have cost to endure a few money losing years (which all car companies 
suffer through.) When I think what Audi suffered after the "60 Minutes" 
hatchet job on the 5000, and yet stubbornly continued it's presence to come 
back with great success, and how Alfa just picked up and left leaving it's 
fiercely loyal owners in the lurch, I sometimes wonder why we are so 
tolerant. Already, a British Classic Car magazine reports that the success of 
the 156 and 166 models are lifting the values of older models and that is 
something we will not enjoy here. 

So when the Alfa flacks tell us it's just too expensive to come back, it is 
of course true. What they are not saying is that it was their decision to 
leave that turned whethering a storm into climbing Mount Everest barehanded. 
This was a boneheaded decision. 

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