Re: Death of Alfa

["John Adkins( JPS )" <jva2@domain.elided>]

Guy, your problem is that you sugar-coat your opinion too much.
"soggy North American spec rubbish"???  What about the Panoz Esperante?

> Date: Wed, 15 Mar 2000 16:08:51 -0000
> From: "Guy Swarbrick" <gswarbrick@domain.elided>
> Subject: Death of Alfa
>
> I'm so glad that the GM-FIAT deal has made our American cousins happy.
Yes,
> you may get the 156 replacement in a showroom near you, but if it's based
on
> the Vauxhall/Opel Vectra platform, you'll wish you hadn't. Unlikely? Try
> telling that to the owners of current Saabs, based on the apalling
> Ascona/Cavalier chassis that was old before the GM takeover.
>
> FIAT - Driven by passion
> Alfa Romeo - Cuore Sportivo
> GM - Anonymous, gutless, badge-engineering on a jello chassis
>
> Depressed? Even the fact that someone just reversed into my Sprint can't
> take the edge of this. GM is the worst car company on the planet. Bar
none.
> Even the Proton GTi is fun.
>
> And don't start with that 'the latest 'vette is a nice car' nonsense. It
> isn't. It's an apalling lardy piece of junk. It's just nice by American
> standards.
>
> And that's part of the problem, of course. You guys judge GM from the
wrong
> frame of reference. First, you compare its soggy domestic output with the
> other soggy North American spec rubbish. GM Europe's output, relative to
its
> European competition, is way behind. Most cars are the worst or among the
> worst in class. There isn't a sports car among them. Second, most of you
> haven't driven the latest Alfas, so you don't know how much better they
are
> now than the cars that were sold in NA.
>
> The comment that Agnelli ruined Alfa is the biggest load of horse**** I've
> ever read. Prior to the arrival of the 145/146/GTV/Spider, Alfa was in
> serious decline. The cars, by and large, were an awful mess and had been
for
> 10 years. The marque was withdrawn not just from NA but from Australia and
> New Zealand as well. Not out of spite, but because nobody would by the
cars.
>
> >From a low of 600 cars a year, Alfa GB doubled its sales every 6 months
> after the new models arrived and continues to do well in a difficult
market
> (EU legislation is likely to slash new car prices in the near future, so
> many buyers are holding off making purchases). The story is the same
across
> Europe.
>
> Where did I leave those old razor blades... :(
>

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