USA market for coupes/Maser v Alfa

[Pottree@domain.elided]

In a message dated 03/10/2000 10:11:13 AM Pacific Standard Time, 
owner-alfa-digest@domain.elided writes:

<< Hopefully the new Maserati will sell.   In a soft market for coupes, it may
 have a hard time.    Not to mention somewhat of a small/weak dealer network.
  >>

I can only wish them well; it's an Italdesign car!

But if the new Maser is going to sell for Alfa prices, sign me up!!

FIAT is planning to sell another VERY VERY SUPER COSTLY PREMIUM SHOWOFF 
product to the rich and make some actual lira on each sale.  This is a 
segment that is buying partly BECAUSE the car is known to be very expensive, 
like their trophy wives.  It is NOTHING like an Alfa that was positioned as 
"every man's exotic" in the USA.

FIAT wants to replicate a Ferrari-like success.  There is nothing wrong with 
a Ferrari, in fact, much of the time the word spectacular comes to mind, but 
also spectacular is the price, and that means not only margin, but a 
completely different sell into a completely different segment.  Selling 1000 
US$150,000 unique, high-visibility Masers could be construed to put them on 
the road to an actual business; selling 1000 (or 600 or 54) $35,000 164s or 
$45,000 GTVs into a brutally competitive field would be a charity event.

Even dreaming of selling a relative handful of very expensive specialty cars 
to the moneyed few would also require only a relatively small (inexpensive), 
highly targeted advertising program, but selling things like 164s means you 
MUST MUST MUST invest MILLIONS in the USA to establish brand identity and put 
your products and stores on the radar of LOTS of people, then hope to sell 
many units and maybe make it up on the volume, service (remember that?) or 
parts businesses.

There are many choices chasing the few USAians who want a car at all 
(compared to an overweight truck), even given the recent runup in USA benzina 
prices.  One way to try to break through is by aggressive selling, and as far 
as FIAT is concerned, this is not an option (and I don't blame them).  
Another way is to figure out what product could entice a few youngish or 
young-at-heart (e.g., mid life crisis) drug pushers, records producers, film 
stars, Wall Street tyros, and dot com idiots-savants to plunk down about the 
average cost of a US house for a car they will use once in a while but that 
will be parked toward the front of the lot by the trendy restaurants' valets 
or will make a good impression when driving onto the studio lot or picking up 
your agent or someone you need to do a mega deal with.  Alfa USED to have 
products like that, but I believe Mussolini was one of the last customers.

Joe Elliot thinks 600 164s/year in the USA would = a profit.  I have worked 
marketing cars in the USA and I doubt 600 a WEEK would break a company into 
profit if they're doing what it takes to have a prayer of being successful 
here, such as good position 4 color ads all the time in all major magazines 
(NOT car magazines), heavy outdoor, extensive RADIO and mostly TELEVISION 
(not at 3 am, either).

Not to mention product placement in James Bond movies.

Last I knew (old info) a company I used to do work for (Nissan) was doing 
about $US450,000,000 here and they were committing sepuku because their 
operation was not profitable.

Meanwhile, yesterday I was on the local streets in the GTV6 and found myself 
completely surrounded by top-heavy Mercedes trucks, most of them black.  The 
ones w/o total blackout windows all seemed be driven by 30-year-old blondes 
on cell phones.

In one Beverly Hills intersection I counted 8 waiting for the light, all 
brand new and all expensive.

Not to talk about fine German engineering or anything, but how much money do 
YOU think Mercedes spends per year in the USA on advertising, and when you go 
by a trendy restaurant, or a country club, who has the lion's share of 
products parked in the first row?

WHAT DO PEOPLE WANT AND WHY DO THEY WANT IT?

Some wouldn't touch FWD with a ten-foot drive shaft, but that's a very 
special segment.  You could easily attract MORE people you could convince FWD 
will be the very thing for safety and traction in ice and snow... especially 
on the way to Aspen or Snowmass to show off their new ski gear.

We Alfisti have been accused of being cheap.  While it's certainly true that 
a previously owned, loved Alfa is the ultimate bargain on wheels, selling NEW 
cars in the USA is not mechanical, it is psychological.  A cheap Alfa would 
be (forgive the pun) a nonstarter.  A Lexus-level Alfa is in an overcrowded 
segment w/o the advertising juice that could make it a player.  Ergo, only an 
EXPENSIVE, STATUS ALFA with a fat profit-per-unit has a gellato's chance in 
hell in the USA.

FIAT is calling that Alfa a Maserati.

Just my HO.

Charlie
LA, CA, USA

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