Re: 1982 GTV6's in the USA, and that "special" color combination

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

Nicky Avery suggests, re GTV6 colors, "I though they made a conscious choice
not to have many color combos to support on small sales volume."

I don't have numbers for cars imported (as opposed to cars manufactured) but
the V6 version of the 75, which included all Milanos, numbered 9,526 cars
while the GTV6 numbered 22,381. 75s (all years, all versions) were built in
sixteen colors, of which at least seven were imported here as Milanos in
1987-88; GTV6s were built in at least fifteen colors, with three colors at a
time being brought here in the early years, up to six in 1985.

I can't quite see "not to have many color combos to support on small sales
volume." Support how? Supporting a paint color consists of giving each paint
manufacturer a slip of paper with a formula, and printing a label to stick in
the trunk, but they had already done that for world sales.

I don't have a better answer, perhaps because there may not have been a good
one. I suspect that some odd marketing decisions Alfa made are attributable to
nothing more or less logical than doing something other than that which didn't
work the last time. Who thought of that blue leather? The last prior coupes
and sedans came here with your choice of dark brown, cream, or maroon leather,
or brown, grey, or beige velour, and hadn't sold very well. Eureka! Blue
leather. It isn't a very good answer, but if they had had a better answer they
might have sold more cars and survived in a difficult but viable market. Could
it be that somebody was asking the wrong question, or that there really
weren't any good answers?

I'm glad they were here at all, and lasted as long as they did.

John H.
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