It's like I've been saying for about 10 years now. There is no more
Alfa Romeo. They are just badge-engineered Fiats. There's no more Alfa
DNA in them. Alfa Romeo, like Lancia before it, has been swallowed
whole. It's just a name. If they can re-badge an Alfa Giulietta as a
Dodge Dart what does that say about Fiat's commitment to Alfa Romeo as
a brand? It says that they don't care and it's just a name and that
name means nothing. Who gives a good goddamn? The Alfas we have are
real Alfas. We will never see their like again, and even if Fiat were
to sell the brand to someone else such as VW, the magic is gone,
everything that was Alfa Romeo is in a museum or in private hands. The
car company is 25 years gone. That's more than a generation and more
than generation kills any company's DNA. Ask the Bugatti Owner's Club.
I've seen this same thing happen in other fields. In addition to my
Italian car jones, I'm also an audiophile. Years ago, there was a
great company called Fisher. They made really good high-end audio
equipment. In fact Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center, NYC, was named
after the founder and president of Fisher Audio. When old man Fisher
died, the company folded and the name was sold to some smarmy
marketing company. Soon, cheap receivers and other components from
Korea started showing up at places like K-Mart with the name "The
Fisher" with the Fisher logo (a bird carrying a musical note in its
beak) emblazoned all over them. Were they really Fisher components?
No. Because in many cases, the exact same junk was also being sold
under the names "York" and "Emerson" and "Crosley" (Two more now
defunct American electronics company name). Was Marantz still Marantz
after old Sol Marantz sold the company to the Japanese? Today, after
passing through half a dozen hands, the name Marantz belongs to
Philips of the Netherlands and everything is designed in Japan and
built either in Japan or in China. There is no Marantz in Marantz
gear. Hasn't been for decades.
So, how can a car called an "Alfa Romeo" be a real Alfa Romeo when
it's made by another company other than Alfa Romeo (a company which no
longer exists) who merely slaps that name on products that might just
as well be named "Fiat", "Lancia", or even "Dodge"?
G.
On Jan 10, 2012, at 6:14 AM, ira kaufman wrote:
Dodge Dart - the Italian connection delivers a 40 mpg Alfa Giulietta
rework
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