[alfa] NA car market and Alfa

[C M Smith <cmsmith@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Sure GM has "saved" SAAB and Ford has likewise "saved" Jaguar, but can you 
actually still buy a Jaguar or a SAAB? I think not.

The biggest challenge presented by the NA vehicle market is that most North 
Americans go for a ride in their cars, very few actually go for a drive. 
The level of driving skill in general is very low. We travel long distances 
more or less on straight roads at very low speeds. This explains the 
appalling lack of enthusiast cars of any description in the NA auto market. 
The "enthusiast" cars are all: too heavy, too underpowered, too gussied up 
with electronic crapola, too big, and worst of all way too expensive.

I was struck by this when discussing performance modifications with my 
friend who bought himself an Audi A4. He chipped it, put 17 inch wheels and 
Bridgestone Pole Position S-03 tires on it and was anxious to discuss 
lowered, stiffer suspension and uprated brakes. His car is really fun to 
drive as it sits, but only at high speeds. The tires are so superior to any 
traction challenge thrown at them at legal speeds the car is no challenge 
to drive well at all. What with the ABS for stopping, the traction control 
for going and the anti skid software for cornering the only thing left for 
any skill at all are smooth shifting ( made more difficult by those nasty 
electronic throttles that hold the revs up too long between shifts, OK for 
down but a pita for upshifts) and precision steering. The awd makes 
slippery road driving dull also.

So I wonder if driving on all season tires might actually make sense. We 
hardly ever drive hard enough to heat up the tires to the point where the 
high performance rubber is up to optimum temperature so are we wasting our 
money on high performance summer tires? Certainly, the Pole Position tires 
make drifting or even understeer or oversteer essentially academic terms. I 
am inclined to deliberately look for a less competent tire just to ensure I 
have  a little fun driving!

As for the gew gaws on modern cars, they are truly ridiculous. For years I 
have though cupholders the height of foolishness for the serious driver. I 
picture the poor Mercedes Engineers some years ago now, being harassed by 
marketing to put cupholders in their models: "Ja, Ja, ve understant ze 
purpose off ze cupholder, but vat keeps ze kaffee in ze cup mein herr?" And 
the idea that one needs to drink while driving escapes me entirely. Why not 
little snack trays, a small sink for clean up, an auto pilot? Also, who let 
the interior decorators loose in the cars? We are now greeted by weird non 
functional switch designs, lovely areas of plastic chrome glaring in our 
faces, steering wheels with no proper horn buttons and spokes in the wrong 
places, the list goes on and on. Don't get me started on the weird pedal 
spacing we now suffer from thanks to the unintended acceleration fiasco a 
few years back, just so morons can be sure they only hit the brake (er that 
would be the one that slows the car, that's the giveaway to which one you 
have pressed I should think).

I drive my SAAB Aero or my Alfa Romeo 164 and wonder what I will do when 
they finally wear out.  The driving ergonomics are superb. The cabins are 
black wherever the driver has to look . Though, regrettably,  SAAB 
succumbed to the temptation to install a stupid tan coloured dashboard top 
that reflects in the windshield and a supremely tacky (though high quality) 
glossy real wood veneer decor plate which reflected every little stray 
light into your eyes at night, which still baffles me. I replaced this with 
the standard black matte piece when the original developed minor cracking. 
The dealership couldn't believe I didn't want a new walnut dash! GM does 
ruin a good car whenever there is a marketing opportunity to exploit. The 
Alfa in particular is simply superb to drive. it is not terribly quick 
until you are rolling, it holds the road very well on such skinny tires, 
but most of all it is exciting to drive. And as I pointed out to my wife 
just yesterday, this is the Italian family sedan driven in Europe by the 
mature driver no longer keen on the truly great handling smaller cars made 
by Alfa. It is a boat by the normal European standard yet stands out as a 
sports sedan over here!

Satellite navigation (GPS), On star (truly frightening technology 
actually), black boxes for enforcement and liability uses, the ubiquitous 
mini van or SUV, and a host of other useless, expensive, and ultimately 
unreliable additions to our cars, that have nothing to do with driving 
explain what is wrong with the NA car market. It's a challenge all right 
but not quite for the reasons expressed in an earlier post to our esteemed 
Digest, I think.

I was considering the possibility of buying a sports car now that my 
children are almost grown. There aren't any. Sure the open topped cars are 
still available, Mazda's Miata being the obvious choice, but a convertible 
is too heavy and not rigid enough by modern standards to qualify as a true 
sports car. In the old days when all cars had sloppy underpinnings this was 
acceptable but now a Miata is heavier and slower than the equivalent Mazda 
Protege and certainly does not corner nearly as well as the tin box sedan 
version using the same drivetrain. The Lotus Elise is coming (but not to 
Canada, apparently our headlight and bumper regs are now stiffer than 
yours, thanks) which surely qualifies as a sports car but will be a hell of 
an expensive Toyota when it gets over here. Other than that, where are the 
lightweight coupe/GT cars? It used to be that a two door coupe or GT model 
was hundreds of pounds lighter than the sedan on which it was based. No 
longer. Now, eg, the new Infiniti/Nissan GT is almost as heavy as the G35 
sedan. The latter is actually a better car all around than the more 
expensive two door sports model.

Now if Mazda would issue their Miata as a lightened coupe, using the roof 
as structural to pare weight off the body, or if someone somewhere would 
put  a powerful but lightweight drivetrain into a car built on a glued 
aluminum or carbon fibre bodypan, maybe a true sports car would once again 
become available. Otherwise, anything that complies with the crash regs 
will be as heavy as the four door version of the same car.... i e 
not  asports car at all. Looks like another four door in my automotive future.

Cheers


Michael Smith
White 1991 164L
Original owner
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