[alfa] Re: Alfa's return delayed again

[C2slayman@xxxxxxx]

Well, well, well........

The Autoweek article on Alfa's postponed return to the US is probably no
surprise to any of us "Yanks."  Disappointing, yes!  But surprise?  Definitely
not!  There are two issues I have with the article (or Alfa's management"

"The joint venture's goal was to sell 25,000 to 30,000 units a year, but poor 
quality and reliability problems hampered sales....."

Bollicks!  It was poor support by corporate Alfa of the products, customer and
dealer network!  Poor quality my ass!  I have 198K on my Spider.  It is a well
designed product.  A bit long in the tooth by '89 I will admit, but a quality 
product
none the less.

"Percieved quality" was the real issue.  And that's a corporate problem.  You
can't blame that on the cars or the engineers who design them.

"News of Alfa Romeo's delayed return to the United States comes at a time 
when Alfa is focusing on a turnaround in its core European markets."

Double bollicks!  Same mistake they made when Alfa pulled out of the US.  
Any corporation that
has global aspirations that thinks they can "clean up" their act and then come
back to the US has a deeply flawed plan.  Most of the European manufacturers
have gone through rough times in the last three decades.  Porsche, BMW, VW, 
Audi, .....  But the successful ones viewed product in the US as essential to 
their "core" business.

So at this point, I'm not sure I'll ever see new Alfa product in the US.  And 
frankly, 
I could care less.  I feel no bond with corporate Alfa (aka Fiat) anymore.  
They are
too far removed from the market I live in to matter.  I do, however, feel
a bond with all the parts distributors who support this digest and keeping our
Alfa's alive and the history of the marque.  Let's give them a big hand!  
They've
not desserted us.

(I appologize to the non-US list members for this diatribe.  Please ignore.)

Cheers,
Charlie
--
to be removed from alfa, see /bin/digest-subs.cgi
or email "unsubscribe alfa" to majordomo@domain.elided