Runt brands

[Neil Smith <neiltbag@domain.elided>]

Just picked up a copy of the British mag "Car", for a whopping
$8.50. But the standard of journalism is so high that I feel
it's worth it.

There's a great editorial by Russell Bulgin, who also writes for
Autoweek, about how in these days of massive automotive mergers
car makers have difficulty killing off "runt" brands.
Daimler-Chrysler recently succeeded in killing Plymouth for
being "a bit dull". Ford has Mercury. Volkswagen seems to have
image problems with Seat. BMW has Rover which is without doubt a
bit runty. You could say Vauxhall is also rather runt-some,
since it has identical cars to the teutonic Opel. One smacks of
British middle-management, the other of relentless German
efficiency. 

Now for the Alfa content: Bulgin speculates on what would happen
if DC bought Fiat. He talks about Fiat's "sleek massaging of
Alfa Romeo". He then goes on to say "Yet Lancia remains
meaningless, mismanaged." Sad, but true. If this deal goes down,
I wouldn't hold out much hope for Lancia.

Neil
'87 Milano Oro
San Francisco 
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