Re: Fiat (Alfa) and GM

[George Graves <gmgraves@domain.elided>]

on 6/6/02 6:16 AM, alfa-digest at owner-alfa-digest@domain.elided wrote:

>
> Date: Thu, 06 Jun 2002 13:31:43 +1200
> From: "Leslie J. Singh" <Les.Singh@domain.elided>
> Subject: Re: Fiat (Alfa) and GM
>
> At 08:42 PM 6/5/02 -0400, you wrote:
>
>> I hate to seem like a pessimist, but I fear that if GM ends up owning Alfa
>> Romeo (via Fiat), its the end of the marque as we know it. Alfas will
become
>> more like Opels: no character, and based on Opel's chassis, will no longer
>> have that special Italian car 'feel' that we Alfisti like so much; that
>> combination of handling, ride, and feedback to the driver that seemingly
>> exists in every Italian car from the lowest Fiat 500 to the most expensive
>> Ferrari. Just my opinion, you understand.
>>
>> George Graves
>
> Too late! its already happened. To me the final nail in the coffin was
> Fiat's decision on using the revered GTA name for a warmed-up,
> gadget-infested 156. Ok, so everyone including the people on this digest
> are intrigued at present but think what would be more appropriate as the
> bearer of the GTA name - the 156 GTA  or the Brera? I have absolutely no
> doubt that if a new GTA is to be a world-beating hot number as the Giulia
> Sprint GTA and the 1300 GTA Jr were, then the only car that Alfa has
> produced worthy of the name is the Brera ... "decent horsepower in modern
> terms, great chassis platform, a drivetrain that will take all the power
> you can throw at it, and best of all, no some overweight warmed-up commuter
> car aimed at the sort of people who drive BMW and Mercedes.
>
> Flame away!!
>
> Les "let's start something today" Singh   :-)


I had a chance to spend two weeks with a 2.5 liter V-6 156 in Italy a couple
of years ago, and found it to be a marvelous vehicle (even if it was FWD).
It handled better than most modern cars in of its size, like BMWs and
Volvos, and I even thought it was better then the new Jaguar X-type, even
though the Jag is AWD. But more importantly, it felt and responded like an
italian sports car. That has not been engineered out of the Alfa line as
yet. I felt the same way about the 147 I had in Italy last fall. No matter
what Fiat has done, the essential Italian-ness is still there. Now, we don't
get to buy modern Alfas in the USA, as they are not sold here, but
everything I read from the foreign press indicates that the GTA is a great
car at least as worthy of the name as the Alfetta was of its namesake, the
magnificent 159 GP car. Alfa doesn't race, officially, any more. Autodelta
doesn't exist as the factory racing arm, so giving great race car names of
the past to modern road-going cars is simple marketing so I disagree that
"its already happened."

Also, The Brera is a show car, a one-off. There is no certainty that Alfa
will produce it in spite of the rumor mill. Also, show cars tend to get very
much modified before coming to market, even if they are produced. I would
not expect a production Brera to have the Maserati V-8 in it, for instance,
as that would make the car as expensive as the Maserati itself. OTOH, a
similar car with 4-wheel drive derived from the 3.2 liter transverse-mounted
FWD V-6 GTA would make the car a #35,000 car (US$55,000) instead of a
#60,000 car. And then of course, there's always the chance that it would
have that new Opel V-8 in it, but in my view, it would no longer be an Alfa.

George Graves
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