Various: Number tags, Times scuttlebut, Italian technology

["John Hertzman" <johnhertzman@domain.elided>]

The windshield tags with which Keith, in the UK, is not familiar were
certainly fitted at the factory, not by dealers, for US-market cars from the
early seventies; they are present, pop-riveted in place, on the early Alfettas
which had structurally bonded-in windshields. They were required by law to
provide a more reliable way than removable registration plates to check the
legal status of a suspicious car.

 More recent cars also have anti-theft markings (fourteen in the case of the
164) on panels which might be in demand for collision repairs -doors, fenders,
hood, trunk lid, bumpers - but the Milano had only the windshield plate, a
D.O.T. plate riveted to the doorpost, and a body-number stamped on the trunk
floor-pan.

 Ed at Caribou takes as gospel the NY Times report which he feels validates
his prediction that Alfa isn't coming back. I saw the original Times report
and reached a snap opinion that the reporter didn't sound too astute, not up
to the level of Autoweek trade scuttlebutt. My feeling is that until the cars
land, or don't, it is premature to bank on what Fiat and/or GM will do
someday. Alfa Romeo SpA had its own reasons for staying in the US market
decade after decade; Fiat had its own reasons for pulling Fiat, and then
Lancia, and then Alfa, out of this market, and Fiat made its own decisions
about offering or not offering Lancias on the UK market. The GM/Fiat entente
simply superimposes an added layer of uncertainty; my guess is that the
unpredictable course of the US economy after the next election probably will
be as important as Agnelli's mood. Not that my guess is better than Ed's; I
didn't think Fiat would actually send the 164 here until they actually did,
which may or may not have been the smartest move Fiat ever made.

 Two people- first Nicky, now Luca - seem to think that my remark "that Fiat
and/or Italian technology cannot be fairly compared to Mercedes and/or German
technology" was a slam at Italy. It wasn't; it came at the end of a recital
about Mercedes' feet of clay, and I was saying that at a consumer level German
drive-by-wire was not something I would want to trust, but that you can't
always compare apples and oranges. I thought "and vice-versa" was implicit, in
context, and I'm sorry that it was misunderstood. It should go without saying
that at a basic level the sciences and technologies (and arts) of the
Mediterranean civilizations have usually been centuries ahead of any or all of
the barbarian tribes, regardless of the inevitable occasional catch-ups.

 John H.

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