Alfetta berlinas (quibble time)

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

James Montebello, responding to Biba, writes "Berlina does simply mean sedan,
and what was referred to in this country as the Alfetta Sport Sedan was called
the Alfetta Berlina in other markets.  If you've never seen or heard of the
Sport Sedan (and they are indeed very rare here), imagine a car roughly the
same size and shape as an early 5-series BMW, but was the same underneath as
the '75-'79 Alfetta GT coupe.  More or less the same bodywork was used in the
first car to use the V6, the Alfa Six, which wasn't imported over here."

A minor distinction is that the car called "Sport Sedan" in the US market was
the second series Alfetta, only. The first series, which was not called 'Sport
Sedan' but was instead simply called 'Alfetta', was much closer to a 115
Berlina in several formal details and some technical details; the door-handles
(grab handle and pushbutton, rather than paddle) and front quarter windows
(rather than a full undivided side glass) and cowl (upswept to the windshield,
rather than straight to the base of a deeper windshield) and dashboard
(ribbon-stripe African mahogany) and instruments (white on black) were all
visually rooted in the 115 Berlina, as were the round-hole steel wheels and
optional Turbina alloys; the integral (rather than bolt-on) front fenders and
nose-panel ahead of the hood were also hangovers from the 115. The larger
hood, bolt-on front fenders, undivided door glass, avant-garde Italian mod (or
proto-'Memphis')dash, paddle handles, 'styled' steel wheels, wild Campagnolo
alloys, and other details of the second series, the '78-'79 Sport Sedan in the
US market, were all harbingers of the more angular Giulietta Nuova (on the
same 116 platform) which in turn morphed into the 75 and our Milano.

The U.S. parts books do not use the 'Sport Sedan' name at all but instead
refer to the first series as the Alfetta 2000 and the second series as the
Alfetta 2.0. Some of the parts drawings, on which the typography is entirely
upper case, refer to the BERLINA 2000, the BERLINA 2.0, and the G.T.V. 2000.
Elsewhere in the world, with a wider range of sizes, the coupes were Alfetta
GT 1.6, Alfetta GT 1.8, and Alfetta GTV 2000 (without periods, and never
Veloce) while the sedans were Alfetta 1.6, Alfetta 1.8, Alfetta 2000, Alfetta
2.0 America, Alfetta 2.0, and Alfetta Quadrifoglio Oro, but never Berlina,
capitalized as a proper name, only berlina, lower case, as a type description.
The distinction between upper case and lower case will, I know, be lost on
some, and they are, as far as I am concerned, perfectly at liberty to call
them all berweenas.

Cordially,

John H.

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