Re: alfa-digest V7 #1141

[Pottree@domain.elided]

In a message dated 11/05/1999 8:53:43 PM Pacific Standard Time, 
owner-alfa-digest@domain.elided writes:

<< Could Alfa have benefited from our relatively "good" economic times now? 
Yes, 
 I think so, but did they want to wait for things to change? Obviously not 
and 
 now the capital costs to reenter the market would be prohibitive.
  >>

Alfa also had a lot of trouble with its USA dealer network.  In trying to 
expand they went into that weirdo deal with Chrysler (which later went to 
those weirdo purple cars in the same search for floor traffic builders to 
draw the suckers in to their otherwise boring lineup; since, they've tried to 
make their bread-and-butter line more interesting, or at least gold and 
purple).  I think those Alfa/Chrysler agreements are just now expiring.  They 
may possibly have seen it to be cheaper to just abandon the market they had 
so disastrously and frequently misjudged rather than pay any sort of extra 
premium (insult to injury) to get out of those agreements prematurely.  Now 
that they've expired, that's one more impediment out of the way.  Sure, 
they'd have to start all over w/ a USA dealer network, but what they had 
before was most likely not worth keeping anyhow.

I agree with the thought that if Alfa returns to N. America, it will be as 
part of a motor group allied with another maker so yield something 
approaching the critical mass needed.  I think FIAT would be happy to sell 
their auto division or merge it with someone else, if the marriage is right.  
Scanning the world, who else is in a similar position and has a large dealer 
network but nothing much in competition with their top marques?  Slap me with 
a slippery seppio, but I think Nissan, also in the dumpster.

Charlie
LA, CA, USA

75
GTV6
spider

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