Re: Dreaming of a new spider

[Ryan Fellini <rfellini@domain.elided>]

George, you're posting some incorrect info to the Digest there.

- GM has NO option to purchase Fiat Auto (by the way, Fiat SpA is the
  group, Fiat Auto is a division).
- Fiat SpA has a "put" option to force GM to buy Fiat Auto (at a fair market
  value) from 2004-2009.  This was an escape clause in the contract when
  Fiat and GM swapped equity and is a quite common insert in order to
  protect the shareholder, blah blah blah...
- Ferrari SpA and its Maserati division are majority owned by Fiat SpA,
  and have nothing to do with Fiat Auto, so GM can not say or do anything
  with these companies.

"Fiat won't be able to recover from their current economic crisis".

If you've studied the history of Fiat, they've been *much* worse off before,
and are no where near as bad off as Nissan was a few years ago.  They
have a very good chance of recovery.  Fiat putting off the investment
to reintroduce Alfa is not a GRIM story, its one that makes good business
sense considering the reorganization they are under and the huge costs
of setting up a car business in the USA.  If you meant GRIM for us.. that
is true. :-)

take care,
Ryan

ps. anyone know what Autodelta charges?  Somehow I remember it being
crazy.  If I remember correctly, others have brought in these same cars
privately along as it is the Spider/GTV/166 with the 3.0L engine.  I'm making
up things on my own now as well, but I think you can claim the 3.0L engine
is very close to the engine that was US federalized.  Also, the Spider/GTV
were engineered for the US market, and the 166 is a revision of the 164...
Ok, someone think of an excuse for bringing in the 147 GTA now...
----
> Date: Thu, 03 Oct 2002 11:32:47 -0700
> From: George Graves <gmgraves@domain.elided>
> Subject: Re:  Dreaming of a new spider
>
> The latest story is GRIM. Fiat is now saying 2007 for Alfa's
> reintroduction to the US market. But it might as well be an eternity,
> and probably is. Fiat says that it can't afford the costs of setting up
> a nation-wide dealer network or the massive advertising campaign
> required for the re-launch. My guess is that unless GM intervenes by
> buying Fiat and infusing great amounts of cash, Fiat won't be able to
> recover from their current economic crisis at all. Unfortunately, the
> rumor mill has it that GM won't exercise their option to buy Fiat
> unless Ferrari and Maserati are included in the deal, and I don't think
> that will happen.
>
> Want a new Alfa Spider? Contact Autodelta USA:
>
> http://www.autodeltausa.com
>
> They are selling re-badged and slightly re-engineered current Alfa
> Spiders, GTV coupes, and 166 sedans. You want a new Alfa in the USA?
> Its about the only way and probably will remain so for quite a while.
>
> George Graves
> '86 GTV-6
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