Re: alfa-digest V8 #362

[Iopsycheng@domain.elided]

OK! I guess I missed something. Alex who, is full of shit why? 
I must say I am pleasantly amused and satisfied about the general feeling on 
the digest about Alfa's relationship with GM. A couple of hundred digests ago 
you guys were ready to string me up for saying that GM couldn't or wouldn't 
pull off this Alfa thing. Now it looks like I was right. GM cares about 
profit, once they have your money they won't give a rats ass whether or not 
your expensive Italian car runs... Nor will they be willing to do anything 
about it. They will never be able to sell enough Alfas to make a serious 
profit because they won't be able to swing buyers away from BMW, Acura, 
Lexus, Mercedes et al., because they won't offer the customer service the 
clients of the other marques take for granted. That's where GM's problem is 
now! They don't care about their customer base. Alfa is successfully 
competing in Europe because they are hitting niches with their products. 
Those niches don't exist in the USA. If I wanted an underpowered two seat 
convertible and had $40,000 to spend I could buy a new RWD MR2 (instead of 
FWD drive ALFA) and then go shopping at TRD. By the time I was finished I 
would have a car that would show a clean pair of heels to anything less than 
a supercar, would still covered by the factory warranty and would run 
everyday for the next 200,000 miles. Face facts, GM/Alfa is going to have to 
convince a skeptical public that they have a good quality product, and MOST 
IMPORTANTLY, are willing to stand by their product when things go wrong. 
(which they do on ALL cars now and then). GM can't or won't take care of 
customers that buy hundreds of thousands of their products, what makes any of 
you think they will care about the small market Alfa offers. Before anyone 
replies, does the word "Oldsmobile" mean anything to you? Think Alfa will 
sell more cars than Olds? GM did a great job with that didn't they? Saturn 
hasn't been setting the world on fire lately either. GM--- G-et M-oney. 
Watch.
Thomas A. Gonnella

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