Re: [alfa] Mods to sell in USA : Was - 164 Euro Tail Lights

[James Montebello <jamesm@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

There are two serious problems with this argument.

First, the separate lights bit between Euro cars and US cars hasn't been
true for quite some time.  European cars sold in the US have been allowed
separate turn and brakes lights since at least the mid-80s.  Indeed, many
US market cars have amber turn signals on the rear, and red brake lights,
so they can hardly be combined.  I can name two off the top of my head
(Volvo and Porsche) who've sold cars here so equipped for at least 20
years.  So, the need to have the combined lights was bogus for the 164,
and would have been bogus for the Milano.  As I recall, my GTV6 had amber
turn signals at the back, quite separate from the red brake lights, so
it's likely this requirement was gone by 1982.  My Alfetta has red lenses
for both, but separate bulbs.  The assemblies are otherwise identical.

The other problem with this argument is that the first poster stated
that there were three different taillight arrangements over the life of
the 164.  If it's so bloody expensive to re-engineer these, why did they
do it three times over the course of a 8-10 year model run?

I'm not saying there aren't significant differences between EU and US
homologation laws.  This is just a very bad example.  The differences
between the two sets of laws is diminishing.  There's absolutely no
rational reason why a car can't be designed to allow for regional
differences economically.  The fact that the 164 had wildly different
assemblies for the US v EU taillights was bad production engineering,
not a reasonable response to differing laws.

Besides all this, the actual reason European car companies that are
very successful there but non-existant here (read, the entire French
auto industry) is the huge expenditure in establishing a brand and a
network here, which greatly exceed the engineering costs in getting a
model ready for the US market.


On Sat, 30 Aug 2003 JALFAjr@domain.elided wrote:
> I don't normally copy the messages I am replying to, but since this one is
> two weeks old I thought I would.   For those who wonder why Alfa (or any
> foreign car company) has trouble selling limited numbers of cars in the US,
> when they sell thousands (or even tens and hundreds of thousands elsewhere).  > Just read the differences noted by Sonny in the brake lights.  Modifying
> the manufacturing process to make the changes in body, wiring, modules, etc
> cost a lot, just so Alfa could sell on average probably a 1000 164s per
> year in the USA.
>
> John Justus
> 1995 164Q
>
> In a message dated 8/14/2003 1:21:32 PM Central Standard Time,
> owner-alfa-digest@domain.elided writes:
> Date: Thu, 14 Aug 2003 11:16:46 -0400 (EDT)
> From: Sonny <maxid@domain.elided>
> Subject: Re: 164 Euro Tail Lights
>
> Euro cars were designed for separate rear turn signals and brake lights. US
> cars (posibly due to Chrysler's intervention) got combined lamps.
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