RE: The Alfa-haters

["Glenn Wasserman" <glennwa@domain.elided>]

I agree. I think there's room in the automotive world for other makes than
Alfa. Particularly right now.

I've been looking for years for a car I'd drive every day, that provides what
my Alfas do. I currently drive a 164Q - but really, I'd prefer a new car if I
could find one I like. A couple of recent drives in 3-series BMWs (and the new
Z4) and a couple of days autocrossing with the BMW club have convinced me I've
been unfair to these cars for years. They're really very good.

We also shouldn't generalize about the people who drive them, but of course,
we do (I do) - but then again there are good and bad people in all groups. BMW
drivers are what they are.

Bottom line is, BMWs are probably the closest we can get in the US market to
the qualities we value in Alfas. I'm still thinking about the sound the
straight six in the 330i made as I played with the throttle on an on-ramp. The
nose would come in and out so obediently. Intoxicating.

The problem is the cost - I can't bring myself to spend that much - but I'm a
checkbook mechanic, my Alfa mechanic is almost an hour away, and the second
baby is due in April. I think I may need to get a new car as my daily driver
(sell the 164), and keep the Spider as a toy.

There are some fun low-cost cars out there now, much better than a couple of
years ago. I'm just not sure if the novelty would wear off and they'd become
boring. You've got the Subaru WRX, Mazdaspeed Protigi/MP5, new Mazda6 6cyl,
even the Rx-8 will be out soon. The Matrix could be fun, there's always the
Mini (although that's too small for a family guy like me)...

Lots of stuff out there other than Alfas...

-Glenn
'93 Spider
'94 164Q

-----Original Message-----
From: Tony Sims [mailto:simstony@domain.elided]
Sent: Wednesday, November 20, 2002 11:04 AM
To: alfa@domain.elided
Subject: Re: The Alfa-haters

> Said "sterling reputation" is and always has had a very hefty hype
component. Alfa was
> BMW's big target when they tried (and, it must be admitted, succeeded) to
take over
> the sports-sedan market which Alfa had essentially invented. They've
managed to
> leverage the undeniable goodness of their earlier cars, the tendency of
the world at
> large to believe blindly in the inherent wonderfulness of German
machinery,

All car companies hype their image and downplay their mediocrity.  Can you
say Pontiac?  BMW, Mercedes, Porsche and Audi have proven their chops quite
well over time.  Whether you look at road or race cars, it's inaccurate to
suggest that they are getting by on past success.  If anything, the road
cars from BMW and Audi were less well developed and engineered than Alfa
through the 80's.  German cars are very good now, and that is no insult to
Alfa.  If anything, the competition has helped raise Alfa's game too.

> and the
> similarly blind loyalty of every damned Yuppoid on the planet into one big
fat myth of
> Manifest Destiny: BMW is ordained by (your favorite deity's name here) to
rule the
> roads and the tracks forever, just because because because. Nobody brings
up the fact
> that Alfa was a three-time world GP champion before BMW built their first
4-wheeler, a
> licensed copy of the Austin 7...

This might be the way it looks from the US, but I don't think our brethren
in Europe, the UK or OZ/NZ would agree.  Like everything else in the US
media (including the "lite" version of world news we are fed), what we see
is influenced by the advertisers and the owners of the media outlets, all of
whom bias their content based on their business associations.  The myth is
only as strong as the willingness of people to believe it.  The willingness
of people in the US to believe can probably be fairly measured by the fact
that Miss Cleo the phony Jamaican Tarot reader is being forced to forgive in
excess of $500,000,000 owed to her company by US citizens who called her 900
number. . .

Tony
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