Another survey you'r not gonnalike.

["Tim Hancock" <timhancock@domain.elided>]

I just sat down to watch the BBC Lunchtime news and the last item was the
results of a survey carried out on new car owners by 'Which' (The Consumers
Association).

Results: Disappointingly predictable with the usual suspects in the top
positions and Rover, Alfa and LandRover in the bottom three slots. Just 5%
of Lexi required unscheduled dealer repairs in year one and the figure for
the bottom three was 20%.

To rub salt in the wound they featured an Asian family out car shopping for
whom reliability and cost effective motoring was priority number 1,2,3,4 and
5. The reporter then closed saying "One car the Patel family will not be
buying is this Alfa Romeo which would not even start"(shot of 156 with
bonnet up and power booster parked next to it.

This is not an isolated survey in its conclusions, but I bet those last
comments have just cost Alfa about 200 sales here. Oh well if I look on the
bright side it should mean that 156s should get into my price range sooner
than I expected!

David Johnsons comments about Alfas being run out of oil and wrecking their
engines is interesting to the extent that many car owners expect a sump full
to last 10,000 miles from their experience with Japanese cars. What you may
not appreciate is that VW had exactly the same problem and fitted a low oil
buzzer to alert drivers. My 1987 Golf GTI 8V did not have one, but used oil,
but my chum who bought a 16Valve Golf GTI the same year ran it out of oil
twice wondering what all the buzzing noises were (he is not mechanically
alert and thought it was a headlight alarm or something)

Lesson to Alfa...Fit a low oil buzzer and save on warranty and bad publicity

Tim Hancock  164TS Lusso   Boston UK

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