Re: [alfa] Re: Alfa's US return

[George Graves <gmgraves@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

True, but that's always been the case with "Gray-Market" cars, so it's
nothing new. Hell, If I could get a current V-6 Spider into the
country, I'd gladly put up with no warranty and order my parts from
Europe, These days, that's no big deal.


BTW, many gray-market 'dealers' used to provide some warranty and parts
support, but certainly not all. There was a time in the USA when all
foreign cars were gray market. On the east coast, for instance, between
the World Wars, if one wanted a Bugatti, a Talbot-Lago, Isotta
Fraschini, or indeed, an Alfa Romeo, one went through an establishment
on 5th Avenue in New York City called Zumbachs. I'm sure there were
similar places  on the west coast as well. Anyway, if one wanted an
Alfa, for instance, one went to Zumbachs, told the nice people there
what one wanted, passed their palm with silver, and they would contact
their buyers in Europe who would place the order for the car, pay for
it, and when it was ready, they took care of all the paperwork and had
it shipped to New York where Zumbachs picked it up for delivery. That's
how the so-called Maclure Haley 8C2900B now owned by John Mozart (and
driven by Alain deCadinet at the end of the Alfa Victory By Design DVD)
got here. I used to know an old guy who got to ride in it through
Central Park the day Maclure Haley took delivery! After the war, Max
Hoffman was the gray-market importer for Alfa and eventually became the
official importer and started the organization that became Alfa Romeo
of North America. It was he who was responsible for the 750/101
Pininfarina Spider, and he's the reason that the car had roll-up
windows and a pull-up top!

George Graves
'86 GTV-6 3.0 'S'




On Nov 19, 2004, at 8:53 AM, Gwynne W. Spencer wrote:

> And - you should add, often with no dealer support whatsoever. At
> least the parts support we get now is due to the fact that at one time
> the cars were imported and there is a large enough user base to
> support the parts business.
>
>  Gwynne Spencer
>
>  At 02:25 AM 11/19/2004 -0800, you wrote:
>
> I wish to enlarge my earlier statement, below, with this further
>  thought.
>
>  Even now as we discuss this, The US, Canada, Japan, and the EU are in
>  talks aimed at unifying automobile safety  and testing standards
> across
>  the board. Someday soon, hopefully, a car which is deemed compliant
>  with EU safety standards will, by that very fact, also be
> automatically
>  compliant with US specs as well. This will help to eliminate a lot of
>  costly - and largely redundant- testing and red tape. This should, of
>  course, keep costs down, but it will also once again mean that
>  Americans can go to Europe, buy whatever makes and model of cars they
>  want, whether they are officially sold here or not, and bring them
> back
>  legally. It will also open the US up for gray-market importers,
>  something that the existing laws have pretty much eliminated. In my
>  opinion, this could be our last, best hope for ever being able to buy
>  new Alfas and drive them once again, on the streets and highways of
> the
>  USA.
>
>
>  George Graves
>  '86 GTV-6 3.0 'S'
>
>
>  On Nov 18, 2004, at 10:31 PM, alfa-digest wrote:
>
>  >
>  > Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 17:01:01 -0800
>  > From: George Graves <gmgraves@domain.elided>
>  > Subject: [alfa] Re: Alfa's US return
>  >
>  > I told you before. Alfa is NOT coming back to the US anytime in the
>  > foreseeable future. I know people at Fiat/Alfa Romeo and I spoke
> with
>  > them about this while I was there last month. They tell me that Fiat
>  > would like to keep it's options open for a return to the North
> American
>  > market, but that it's simply a vague notion at this point. There is
> no
>  > date (but I was told that it probably won't be before 2010, if even
>  > then- but even that's the PR guy's personal opinion), there is no
> "US
>  > Marketing Department", not even on paper. There is no marketing
>  > research being done or even a dealer network plan, and no department
>  > has any responsibility in any of those areas. In other words, no
> real
>  > plans to return even exist. And one top Fiat official said recently
> at
>  > some news conference, that he doubted seriously if Alfa would EVER
>  > return to the US market.
>  >
>  > The only glimmer of sunlight in this cloudy sky is the fact that
> Luca
>  > Di Montezemolo, the head of Ferrari is now the Chairman of Fiat (not
>  > the car division, but Fiat corporate). While at Ferrari, he was
> quite
>  > outspoken about the fact that he wanted Alfa Romeo taken out from
> under
>  > the Fiat Auto group and placed under the Ferrari/Maserati group. He
>  > said that Alfa historically belonged in the company of Ferrari, and
>  > that with the existing Ferrari/Maserati dealer network already in
>  > place, it would be easy to start introducing models to the North
>  > American market. Since he became Top Dog at Fiat, I've heard nothing
>  > about him moving Alfa out from under Fiat Auto, nor have I heard
> that
>  > he's made any statement with regards to the possibility of Alfa's US
>  > return.
>  >
>  > I don't see how it could be any more plain than that.
>  >
>  > George Graves
>  > '86 GTV-6 3.0 'S'
>  >
>  >
>  >
>  > On Nov 18, 2004, at 3:45 PM, alfa-digest wrote:
>  >
>  >>
>  >> Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 08:06:14 -0500
>  >> From: "Chris Sasso" <Chris.Sasso@domain.elided>
>  >> Subject: [alfa] Alfa's US return
>  >>
>  >> Hi All,
>  >>
>  >> While I appreciate all the "don't count on it" opinions based on
> the
>  >> 2002 Autonews article, I was hoping someone had some information on
>  >> the
>  >> note in the December 2004 Popular Mechanics issue.  I assume this
>  >> information must be reasonably more up to date and been soured from
>  >> someone with knowledge.  Does anyone here have more information?
>  >>
>  >> Chris
>  >> Miami, FL
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George Graves
'86 GTV-6 3.0 'S'
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