Re: alfa-digest V8 #38

[Iopsycheng@domain.elided]

You know what... Everyone wants to look at the forest but they can't seem to 
see it for the trees. GM's 8.7 million vehicle sales include trucks and SUVs. 
GM can't give away Camaro, Firebirds (seems like enthusiast type vehicles to 
me), Oldsmobiles or that miserable creation called the Aztek (who thought 
that up)? The point is, GM doesn't know how to cater to the enthusiast market 
and they really don't care, there isn't enough money to be made. If the Alfa 
fails, mark my words here and now, GM will lay the blame at Fiat's feet for 
sending a substandard product or some other corporate BS that ignores any GM 
mistakes or liabilities. Like lousy service or too few dealerships. When the 
Fiero took off in 1984 GM rushed to produce more, more cars = more profits. 
The flaws that were being reported were basically ignored. That's why the 
85's had the same problem as the 84's. I speak from experience. My wife had a 
new 85. My new Firebird Trans Am GTA Indy Pace Car destroyed three (3) front 
tires in three consecutive left hand U-turns. When I tried to suggest that 
the steering stop might need to be adjusted I was told that was done at the 
factory. The Pontiac dealers suggestion to prevent destroying left front 
tires... Don't make tight left hand U-turns. You can guess what I suggested 
they do with their $39,000.00 GTA. Which by the way I had paid for in cash 
and waited four months to receive. Beside where have all you Alfa lovers 
been? Alfa sold fewer than 1000 cars in their last year in the US market. And 
don't lay that one on me either. When Alfa introduced the ES-30 it was 
initially going to be sold in the US. I went to the dealer and put down a 
cash deposit. It was later returned with a very nice letter thanking me for 
my interest in the car and asking would I be interested in taking delivery in 
Europe. I am not interested in a 164, I don't want a FWD Alfa. And guys down 
under, Alfa doesn't bring all their models to the US so I can't buy a 147 GTA 
to drive to work. I'm not really interested in what Alfa does except in the 
USA. I can't get their other products and the group of "experts" that decides 
what we here in the USA want doesn't have a clue. The spider, a forty year 
old design outsold the 164 around 5 to 1. Makes sense to me, kill the spider 
and ship the 164 to the USA. God forbid they send the new Spider with the 
3.0L 164 engine to the USA in 1996. Makes too much sense. Lets not sell a car 
that has no direct competition, let's take on Volvo, BMW, Toyota and 
Mercedes, with a shaky dealer network. The days of Max Hoffman are gone. No 
one is going to sell a handful of specialty car through a major manufacturer 
unless that manufacturer realizes a handsome profit. No profit, no service. 
GM will take care of the things that cause + cash flow. Just as an aside, I 
would be willing, if any of you would care to put some money where your mouth 
is, to quit my current job and to open an Alfa only dealership and cater to 
high line car buyers in a manner pioneered by Lexus. I think it would do 
pretty well, because we would have to stand by our product or go under. Think 
GM will miss Alfa if they fail? How much money has GM committed to bringing 
Alfa to the US. They are trying to use existing dealerships to avoid any 
unnecessary spending. Seems to me they could have 600 new Alfa dealers if 
they just swapped Oldsmobile for Alfa. The facilities are already in place. 
The technical training has to be given wherever the dealerships end up. Why 
not? If GM really looked at customer demographics for Alfa, they could turn 
existing Olds dealers over to Alfa in areas that would support the sales of 
high line cars. 
Thomas Gonnella
PS I know this is going to cause lots of other opinions. I invited spirited 
debate and I certainly respect everyone's opinions, but do me a favor... Keep 
your comments on the digest where everyone can read them. I don't want 
anymore personal attack type e-mail. If you can't respect other peoples 
opinions and formulate an argument based on the issues just go do whatever 
else it is you do.

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