Re: alfa-digest V8 #1213

[George Graves <gmgraves@domain.elided>]

They did update the suspension -in the 'new' Spider. They just never 
sold the improved Spider here. Alfa left because they had nothing to 
sell and therefore nobody bought. The last year that they sold in North 
America, they had only the aging 164 and a spider so old that even 
dyed-in-the-wool Alfaholics had a tough time justifying buying another 
one. No wonder the Miata looked so attractive and only 500 Alfas were 
sold in all of North America.  The only thing that I think Fiat did 
wrong was to not just hang on another few months until the new Spider, 
GTV  and 156 were ready -in other words, until they had something to 
sell that people might actually want to buy. With that lineup,  I'll 
guarantee that they would have sold some cars. If they sold their 
current lineup here now, I'd bet here would be a waiting list for the 
156 and 147 -especially the GTA version of both. Not only that, but I 
would also wager that there would be a good, healthy market for the 
Fiat Punto Abarth here as well. There might not be a US market for all 
Fiats, but after seeing the Punto Abarth shown at the Concorso Italiano 
in Carmel and seeing the interest in the Punto, I have to say that I 
would be surprised if the cars didn't sell very respectably. Of course, 
as an "arm-chair marketer", this is easy for me to say, I don't have to 
set up a dealer network from scratch and train mechanics and support 
personnel, so my predictions are a lot less painless than Fiat's would 
be :-)

By the way, even though I've not driven a recent Miata, the original 
one was certainly no real competition for an Alfa Spider in my eyes. 
Like most Japanese cars, it was designed by the numbers by engineers 
who take the train to work, and therefore there was something left out. 
That "something" is, in my humble estimation, the passion that makes 
all of us rabid Alfisti.

George Graves
'86 GTV-6


On Friday, October 11, 2002, at 06:04  PM, alfa-digest wrote:


> Date: Fri, 11 Oct 2002 10:48:49 -0400
> From: ALFAXTC@domain.elided
> Subject: Timing belts
>
> Joe,
>
> The Miata is not that bad.  I just bought one myself and drive 20x 
> better than any Spider I've ever driven.  They seriously improved on 
> it and made a better mouse trap (Spiders, MGs).  This is the way 
> Spider should of been when they changed the body in 91.  Update the 
> suspension!  I bet Alfa would still be around if they updated the 
> suspension to compete with the Miata.
>
> Anyway I had the Miata belt changed and it only took the mechanic 
> about 45 mins to do it.  Now on my friend's Audi 90, you need to 
> remove the radiator, grill and to make it real easy unbolt the front 
> bumper too!
>
> Alan
> 88 Milano 3.0
> 91 Miata
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