Alfa / Fiat / DC/(ford)

[Paul Rollins <psroll@domain.elided>]

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From: "Sedon, Doug (OD/ORS)" <sedond@domain.elided>

hi stan, ewe said:
>...You may like or dislike Fiat SpA, but it was
>the best solution for Alfa back in 87 in my opinion (or you would have
>prefered Ford just for the sake of maintaining Alfa in North America?).

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i *absolutely* wooda preferred ford to take over alfa instead of fiat -
not only
wood alfa be thriving over here, i bet ya *anything* there woodn't be
wery many
(if *any*)fwd alfa's!  and how many *regular* folks know that ford owns
jaguar
or aston-martin?  it sure ain't apparent from the product - aston & jag
*still*
retain their unique qualities - i'm sure ford wooda let alfa do the
same.
...
doug "flame suit on" sedon>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Ford is a competent "automobile producer" that runs a very efficient
manufacturing business. Like all large-scale auto makers, they achieve
profitability through economies of scale. These economies come, in part,
from using the fewest different components in the largest number of
units produced. The extreme example of this was demonstrated when
General Mumblers tried to use the same body shell (they had been using
the same driveline for years, already) for every passenger car make in
their North American portfolio. Cadillacs and Chevies were the same
cars.  Of course, with their typical, post-1950's ineptitude and
arrogance, they did it so badly that some the customers actually
noticed. Unfortunately, GM survived even this outrage, suggesting to
other vehicle assemblers that  with slightly more craftiness, badge
engineering could work.

Ford is not quite as egregious as GM at badge enginerring, but they
certainly do a lot of it. Additionally, Ford  has little past history or
present performance to suggest they would support a sophisticated,
idividualistic line  like Alfa Romeo. Remember Ford's past -- last major
U.S. producer to adopt hydraulic brakes, independent front suspension,
and an OHV V-8. Just about every interesting, unique car they started to
produce got reined in and morphed  to mediocrity -- the original Lincoln
Continental, the Continental Mk II, two-seat T'bird, and on.

Since they bought Jaguar, Ford have been converging it with their
existing line. The current S-type is, under the skin, mostly a Lincoln
LS. You can be sure that as time goes by, Jaguar and some other Ford car
like Lincoln  will share more components until the only way to tell them
apart will be to get close enough to read the names on the badges. If
Ford owned Alfa, Ford could not achieve their economies of scale, and
corresponding profitability, by selling a  car so substantially
different from their mainstream offerings. The only way Ford would offer
an Alfa in N.A. would be as the Alfa Taurus, Sable Romeo, or some other
impostor with a phoney birth certificate.

Who killed Alfa in the U.S.?
For those familiar with the actual achievements of the U.S. government,
it should be obvious that protectionism did not kill the Alfa Romeo,
FIAT, Puegeot, Gogomobile, or any other car brand in this market. These
were all suicides. If the U.S. government was capable of resisting the
import of anything above the level of bananas, our trade deficit would
not be huge and quadrupling every fifteen minutes. In fact, a car
manufacturer has to be incredibly incompetent to not be able to get cars
into the U.S. Selling them is the problem. Even if there were any
regulatory barriers to entry to the U.S. market, they could easily be
eliminated. The process for getting anything into (or in the case of
technology strategic to national secutity, out of) the U.S. is amazingly
simple. One only needs to identify the critical political or
bureaucratic figure -- congressional-committee chairman, cabinet
secretary, department head, or (particularly favored by the Chinese) the
President. Offer large sum of money, sit back, wait for positive
results. I'm sure that Italian car makers understand this process well
from years of practice in other places. It isn't any insurmontable U.S.
government policy keeping us from driving Alfa 156's, Spiders, Fiat
Barchettas, or lot's of other neat stuff.

Paul Rollins
USA

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