clipped response

[Pottree@domain.elided]

In a message dated 9/19/2002 8:21:29 PM Pacific Daylight Time, 
owner-alfa-digest@domain.elided writes:


> What I've always wondered was this:
> 
> Ask any layperson about Alfa, and they immediately assume mechanical
> problems.  

Not so; that's only of the relative few who even recognize the make; most 
people in the US don't know an Alfa from the hole in rigatoni, especially 
younger people.  You are thinking about the few people who knew someone else 
who had an Alfa here long ago, someone who wasn't "well matched" with the 
make, and expected it to be like owning a Buick or something and made an 
issue of maintaining it, or had a bad experience with Alfa's notoriously bad 
dealer network.

> 
> 
> Why is it now that the A4, A6, XJ etc. are doing so well here?   
> Admittedly,
> the A4 is a nice machine, not resembling the 80, 100 or Fox.   If those 
> cars
> with scars can reinvent themselves in the US (and yes, it was an enormous
> advertising campaign) why can't Alfa?


Two reasons: Alfa can't (possibly just won't) spend the MONEY MONEY MONEY 
that is seriously needed to be a player in the USA.  

The other, is YOU, if you are like the (supposedly) cheap Alfa owners who 
"won't" pay enough for their cars to start with to make selling them 
profitable, and who don't spend the money it takes to maintain them properly 
and so helped give the marque a bad name re: reliability.  So, instead of a 
lumbering but $75k open roadster that is very popular and has some markup in 
it, like Jaguar offers, Alfa has in the US focused on the cheaper end of the 
market where they couldn't ever dream of competing.  You can have a wonderful 
Alfa, you can have a cheap car; I don't believe you can make a business 
trying to make a pig into a swan (or vice versa).  

> 
> Not to mention that Audi has achieved much racing success which they tout,
> but Alfa has achieved more.   I heard a rumour of an Audi F1 effort at one
> point.   Auto Union certainly has history there but Alfa has more.
> 
> What is so different about the situations?
> 
> 
Short answer: 

Text: MONEY
Subtext: Personality
Ferrari sells very nice cars (to say the least), but they sell most of them 
BECAUSE THEY ARE EXPENSIVE, and not for any reason intrinsic to the product; 
they are selling brand image as sure as Chanel No. 5 (which smells better 
anyhow).  A $30k Ferrari branded as a La Strada Tagliatelli with no 
advertising and no dealer network and a bad rap and no financing available 
would also languish, and a bargain-happy
few connoisseurs would find it and then be mad on the Internet that they 
decided to pull up stakes.

One man's opinion:  
Charlie
LA, CA, USA
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