Date: Fri, 11 Oct 2002 18:16:49 -0700
From: Greg Steinke <GSTEINKE@domain.elided>
Subject: European delivery
Date: Fri, 11 Oct 2002 12:46:42 -0700
From: George Graves <gmgraves@domain.elided>
Back in the '50's and '60's buying a foreign car FOB at the factory
and driving it all over Europe and then shipping it back was THE thing
to do. The pages of magazines like Road & Track (which used to be a
real sports car magazine, by the way) always had several ads from
firms
who would arrange the deal for you. The big attraction was that you
could pay for the car, pay for shipping, pay your round-trip airfare
and your lodging and expenses for a two week tour of Europe for about
the same price as it would cost to buy the same auto Stateside. As I
recall, the automobile brands most often associated with this scheme
were Porsche Mercedes Benz and yep, Alfa Romeo. It likely wouldn't
work
these days, however.
George Graves
I just purchased a new BMW 325iT via BMW's European delivery program.
This
is all done through the dealer. We ordered through the dealer, picked
up in
Munich, drove around Germany and Austria, then dropped off in Hamburg.
It's
a full US spec car, just that we picked it up in Munich instead of
USA. It
is now on the boat to CA, fortunately the west coast lockout is
stopped.
And, we saved about $2k compared to USA delivery. So, such EU
deliveries are
available, even now. Porsche has such a program, but they charge about
$1k
for the privilege. Saab and Mercedes also have such programs. That
would be
a good way for Alfa to reintroduce to the USA if such a happy thing
came to
be.
Regards,
Greg