RE: North American Alfa Sales Figures

["Brian Shorey" <bshorey@domain.elided>]

Hi Doug,

> i agree that alfa failed in the usa because they couldn't sell cars to
anybody
> other than a small segment of the market.  however, i must humbly disagree
> w/your opinion that the gnu spider & gtv wood have sold well here:  1st, a
large
> % of the *small market* that alfa already had *is* turned off by fwd, like
it or

My point was that *that* section of the market does not matter.  It consists
of 5k - 10k buyers.  Who cares what the majority of *that* market cares
about?  And, as an aside, I'm not convinced that RWD is that much of an
issue for the majority of our piddly little market.  I've driven the 164,
the new Spider, and the new GTV - they're all fine cars, FWD would not defer
me from buying either one of them.

> not.  and 2nd, yust cuz the gnu models may be up to the standards of
> style/quality that the usa market expects (personally, i think the
style/quality
> of my gtwe6-n-werde is as good as any jap/euro/amer-car i've owned),
doesn't
> mean that the american public will ante up.  look at the 164 - a quality
> product, quality style, competitively priced w/its competition.  while
marketing
> was poor, it was more marketing than the marque had ever gotten
previously.
> still, few takers.  unfortunately, we'll never know which of us is right
> regarding success of the gnu gtv/spider here...

Well, after 1986, which was one of the peak years for Alfa in the USA
(almost 9k cars sold in '86 or '87, right?), what did Alfa have to offer in
the USA?  In the early 80's it was a Spider with 15 year old technology and
styling and a coupe with 10 year old styling.  In the late 80's it was a
Spider with twenty year old technology and styling, and a quirky looking
sedan.  In the early 90's it was a Spider with 25 year old technology and
styling and a stylish sedan.  As much as we might fault marketing, they
didn't really have all that much to market, did they?

If Alfa sold a somewhat complete line of cars with current styling and
technology, they would have done fine in the USA.  FWD/RWD was/is not the
issue.

bs

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