DC and Alfa

[Howard and Pat Warren <warrenwood@domain.elided>]

It's fun to speculate about Daimler-Chrysler buying the FIAT automotive 
group.  Here's my dream about what DC could do with the US market:

1) Ferrari is left conditionally independant with its current line.

2) DC leverages the Ferrari name into the Alfa-Romeo GTV and GTV Spider 
line.  These cars become the "entry level" Ferrari-Alfa sports cars. 
 Porsche did this pretty well with the 944 and 911 cars.  This may agitate 
the Ferrari purists, but not many can afford a new Ferrari 360.  Moving the 
Alfa sports cars under Ferrari would give Ferrari a larger car base to 
spread their fixed costs across, making it easier for both lines to make a 
profit.  And more cars means more customers, meaning more market share, 
meaning fewer of those damned Miatas <g>.

3) I would not import the Alfa Romeo sedans.  They would have a horrible 
fight for market share against BMW, Lexus, Infiniti, not to mention 
Mercedes and Chrysler models.  No need to bite yourself...

I wonder if I can leverage my 10 shares of Daimler Chrysler to bring this 
up at the next shareholder's meeting? <g>

Howard K. Warren, Little Rock, AR
1984 GTV-6, "Falconi", 135k miles
1991 164L, "Peregrine", 67k miles

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