Re: Mid-life crisis

[Sam Kass <samkass@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

The trunk is a huge issue, IMHO.  The Alfa spider has more cargo 
capacity than any other 2-seater roadster I've seen from any year.  In a 
recent 9-day Sunnyvale-Yosemite-Death Valley-Santa Barbara road trip, my 
wife and I each took a week's worth of luggage, as well as packing 2 
sleeping bags and a tent in the trunk, and water, coats, hiking boots, 
etc behind the seats.  All that, and you can still tear through the 
Sierra Nevada mountain curves.  No problem in an Alfa Spider-- and even 
with all the mountain driving we still averaged 26mpg for the trip, and 
could blow by the country gas stations charging $3.60/gal.  If you want 
a roadster that can seriously "get away from it all", there's no other 
choice.

As for driving and handling, everyone on the list knows what a blast 
they are to drive, even if their specs don't match some modern cars. 
While my friend's Audi TT convertible may leave the Alfa in the dust 
off the stoplight, I don't think it's any more fun to drive, especially 
on back roads, and gets worse mileage, has a tiny trunk, and costs 10x 
as much.  In the end, though, if the classic look of the car, it's 
practicality, as well as the fun in driving it doesn't win him over, 
perhaps he *is* the kind of person who would be happier in a BMW.  I 
know we don't like to think that of our friends, but such people do 
exist :-).

Look at it this way.  He can go buy an old Alfa, drive it around awhile, 
and if he doesn't like it, I'm sure there's another Alfisti who will 
snap it up for pretty much what he bought it for.  That's probably not 
as true of the BMW, so try the Alfa first.

   --Sam
   Recent Convert
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