Re: Wait for a new Alfa or buy and A4?

["Joe Garcia" <corsanostra@domain.elided>]

>--- Doug  Gould <wdgould@domain.elided> wrote:
> > I'll weigh in to this debate with my $0.02. When my
> > last 164 was killed by a
> > falling tree an Audi A4 was near the top of my list
> > for a (newer)
> > replacement. The car looks good, reads well on
> > paper, but I found it a huge
> > disappointment to drive. In fact I cut the test
> > drive short and returned the
> > car to the dealer.
>
>Lest everyone (except Tess, whom I won't be able to
>fool :-) think I've converted entirely -- this was my
>experience with the free A4 loaner we had for a few
>days over the summer while my wife's '93 100CSQ was at
>the dealer having the fuel injector seals replaced for
>free under a factory recall.

Let me third that, while my late '92 urS4 was in for (IIRC) the same thing. 
Oh, Scott, sorry to say the urS4 was totaled (with only ~73K on the clock!) 
so now I can't let you have it. So sorry.

>(Everyone with a '93 Alfa in North America, we'll now
>pause for a moment while you try to keep from
>swallowing your tongue at the idea of getting a free
>loaner from the dealer while your injector seals were
>replaced at no charge...)

I'll stand by with nitroglycerin pills if needed.

>Anyway, I was very disappointed in the A4 loaner.
>There were some things to like about it -- great
>engine, I think, but hard to tell because the
>automatic (not even Tip) masked much of its goodness.
>But it had an almost Italian revviness to it, really
>enjoying being taken up to the redline in the
>intermediate gears, at least.

I agree. In my case the loaner had a 1.8T and tiptronic. The 1.8T is a 
decent enough revver and by all accounts it's a rather hot-roddable li'l 
mill. Not crazy about the Tip (or any other manumatics that are not of an F1 
flavor...and even then) so God only knows the disdain I would hold for an 
outright automatic transmission.

>The shock absorbers were either worn out (at 58,000
>miles indicated on the loaner's odometer), or too soft
>to begin with; in fact, like Doug, I cut my own test
>drive short -- gave up wailing on my favorite back
>road in favor of getting home quickly via the freeway,
>where the car was quite pleasant if a little bland.

Mine did tolerably well on rush-hour traffic if overly mild in flavor. The 
shocks WERE soft; they may have been on their last breath at ~49K, but my 
mind didn't leap to that conclusion...call me cynical.

>My comment at the time was that for those of us who
>grew up enjoying European cars for the way they feel,
>it was depressing to sit in a European car that felt
>barely distinguishable from the Ford Taurus that I
>borrowed while visiting friends a few weeks before.

On run-of-the-mill production models, it seems that Audi makes among the 
very best American flavored cars around.

>I understand, from friends on the quattro list, that
>the A4's sport suspension goes a long way toward
>fixing this, and that quattro does even more, but I
>haven't tried to find out.

Maybe. I know the neuS4 feels pretty damned neat.

>Oddly enough, not only did this A4 fall far short of
>the Spider in feel, responsiveness, and driving
>excitement (there, a LITTLE Alfa content anyway :-),
>it fell noticeably short of both of our Audis (a '93
>100CS quattro and an '83 Coupe GT) as well.

Replace "the Spider" with "Alfetta GT" and replace "a '93 100CS quattro and 
an '83 Coupe GT" with "a '92 urS4" and I hereby ditto that.

>But I think that just as Alfa will have to do on their
>return to the US, Audi has experienced their
>resurgence and huge growth in market share by reaching
>far, far beyond the traditional enthusiast market.  A
>worthwhile lesson for Welch and company to ponder, if
>a bitter pill to swallow for those of us who prefer
>driving cars to riding in them.

I don't mind Alfa Romeo "dumbing down" some cars in order to achieve the 
sales levels required to remain a viable, going concern in the U.S. market 
PROVIDED that they offer some truly enthusiast-oriented cars for the likes 
of ME, like Audi has done with their A4 & neuS4.

-Joe in reasonably sunny SoFla

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