Japanese vs. Italian Design

["N" <twobees@domain.elided>]

Just have to put my $.02 in here.

Someone recently spoke of the Miata as a great Japanese design.  Did you
know that they bought a Lotus Elan & studied it before designing the Miata?
I remember seeing a photo of the lobby of the design studio (or was it the
Mazda California office?) where they had the Elan on display.  Sure!  Very
original design.  And, what about the new Lexus 2-seater?  Looks like they
bought scrapped Mercedes & Audi 2-seaters.  They just couldn't decide which
end of which car to use.

Designing appliances requires bland copy-cat designs.  The Japanese makers
excell at that.  There is ABSOLUTELY NO WAY they would ever design anything
that looked like a Milano.  Or, a Giulietta.  Or an Alfetta. And on , and
on.  The Italians design with passion.  And, isn't that one of the reasons
we loves our Alfas so much?

I've owned more Alfas than Japanese cars.  And, ever it will be thus.

The one Japanese car I owned was a brand new Toyota Camry in '87.  What a
piece of bland junk.  Before we dumped it in '93 it was already far LESS
reliable than my '80 MG with Lucas electrics.  That "Japanese Junk" left my
wife stranded so many times I lost count.  My MG which was driven an equal
number of miles per year only let me down twice - once when it blew a
radiator hose & once when the heater valve let go all over the distributor.

For people who demand personality and passion in their cars, Italian cars
will always be at or near the top of the list.

Norm Sippel
always looking for another Alfa
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