RE: Autodelta prices

[George Graves <gmgraves@domain.elided>]

As far as I can find out (their website has no prices and e-mails to them go
unanswered) the spider is about $45,000, the GTS (GTV Coupe in Alfa
terminology) is about $55,000 and the LS sedan (166) is more than $60,000. I
saw these figures quoted in a newsletter from one of the midwest AROC
chapters and I cannot vouch for their accuracy. However, it makes sense.
Autodelta has to do considerable alteration to each car in order to
federalize it and these retrofits are very labor intensive. I know somebody
who is friends with the San Francisco based gray market importer of the
British Morgan. I was in their shop with my friend once, and the amount of
disassembly they had to do to the cars after they got them in was simply
staggering. The boss of the outfit told us that what he has to do in order
for the Morgan to meet federal safety and California smog specs adds about
$12,000 to the price of the car, over what it would cost if it were an
official import (where, ostensibly, these changes would be incorporated
during original assembly at the Morgan factory in England). If one looks at
what these Alfas cost in Great Britain (about $31,500 for the V-6 spider
[21,000 British Pounds] and about $37,000 [25,240 British Pounds] for the
V-6 spider),these Autodelta prices probably pretty accurately reflect the
"value-added" needed to federalize these cars.

This makes them a very poor buy. I'd love to have the hot coupe, but for
chrissakes, it performs like a BMW Z3 and costs more than Z06 'Vette or a
Porsche Boxster S. In Europe the Z3 and the V-6 GTV are price competitive,
here, they are not. I love Alfas, but not enough to pay this exorbitant
amount and then have to spend more for badges (and remove the AutoDelta
plaque glued over the AR logo cast into the engine's heads to boot) just in
order to return the car back into a real Alfa.
-- 
George Graves

"Friends don't let friends drive boring cars"

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