new Elan - GM owning Alfa

[Richard Lane <srlane@domain.elided>]

Andy Kress said.....
>>Fiat should think about that when they try to sell their
>>new Alfas w/ their GM based engines.
>>If there is anything the European consumer looks down on, it is US
>>cars(justified or not).  having them know this thing came from the bowels of
>>GM ain't going to sit well w/ the buying public.

I think this brings up something that needs saying by we "European Consumers". I'm a bit young to remember the Fiat takeover of Alfa, but it's clear that subsequently Alfa did produce some pretty mundane cars (Although we have to remember that the rest of the world had had 20 yrs to catch up with the Giuila/Giulietta). But when the new Alfa Spider and GTV6 arrived in Europe and then the 156, we could see that Fiat at least had some idea of what the public expected from an Alfa. Simultaneously Fiat was producing the Fiat Coupe, their best car for years and definitely from the old Alfa mold. It probably had the best 4 cylinder engine in the world.

So it's sad to think what might have been if Alfa had remained independent, and a lot of people on the digest like to talk of the damage Fiat have done. But nothing, NOTHING, fills me with more cold, chilling fear than the thought of General Motors owning my favourite make. I've had the misfortune to drive dozens of their US rental-market cars over the years and together they form the "bottom 10" worst cars I've ever driven. I've driven some of the "sports car" models too - like a 1990s Camaro Z28, which had the most agricultural gear shift I've ever felt and went around corners like a rowing boat - just terrifying. They tried to sell those in Europe for a couple of years, not any more. And please don't tell me that "GM can extract 400bhp from a pushrod V8". It's the fact that they would even try that makes me distrust them. GM have destroyed Opel, a manufacturer that used to eclipse BMW. I could go on. 

any rays of hope? Well....Bob Lutz is at GM now - and he's a car-guy and he might just see the light. And this new GM engine didn't exactly emerge from "the bowels of GM" but was designed in Chicago by a small UK consultancy that has designed (among other stuff) the new Triumph motorcycle engine and a lot of "german" engines that you would be surprised to hear about. It's good to have these things to cling on to.

Richard
1967 GTV 
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