Re: Alfa Return

[Carscribe@domain.elided]

In a message dated 9/3/01 2:38:43 PM Pacific Daylight Time, MAXLTV@domain.elided 
writes:


> Anything that is on the drawing boards right now (or 
> CAD-CAM) will have to take American regs into consideration. If that is 
> done 
> from the start, the prospect of Alfa's return burns bright. 


Cars that meet Swiss specifications essentially meet all US DOT/EPA 
requirements, as the two sets of regs are nearly identical. Alfas in 
production meet the Swiss regs and are sold there at this time, and so are 
virtually US legal, only needing crash tests to be performed by a US licensed 
lab and a number of other perfunctory hurdles to be crossed. For anyone to 
say that these cars are not ready for the US due to the factory failing to 
currently account for US requirements would be wrong; if they are able to be 
sold in Switzerland, then they are very nearly US spec and ready to be sold 
here. 

A number of private importers have been aware of this for years and prefer 
Swiss spec cars for private importation to the US, i.e., the 3.0 Spiders 
brought over by APC several years ago and the few SZ's here now.

As far as current Swiss spec Alfas being nearly legal for sale here already 
brightening the prospects of Alfa's return, I'd say that since Swiss specs 
have mirrored our for nearly ten years now, and considering Alfa's absence 
during much of that time, there doesn't seem to be a causal relationship 
there at all. I'm not sure I'd be optimistic. Also, do we really want our 
beloved marque to come back so badly that we'll encourage a pact from which 
it's most likely to suffer? I feel it's probably a great disservice to Alfa  
to be sold and serviced by GM dealers.  Alfa will most likely be abandoned by 
GM after they decide that the unit volume is too low, the warranties are too 
expensive to honor, the customers that are likely to buy an Alfa are fickle, 
and those not likely to buy and Alfa are 98% of GM's normal customer base. 
Then we would be in a worse situation then we are now, with Fiat/Alfa having 
to overcome the negative perceptions of two pull outs in ten years. I would 
rather wait and have Fiat do it the right way on their own, using their own 
strengths that have made them a genuine player and value to the rest of the 
car-buying world. If Audi can turn its' image around in the eyes of most 
Americans in 7 years, so could Fiat. 

Cheers,
Paul Mitchell

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