R. Mark Clayton > wrote:
>"DAS" > wrote in message
>> When I was living in Brussels in 1979 I recollect having an acquaitance
>> with al Alfasud. He really like it but admitted to plenty of rust. In
>> those days there used to be jokes about Alfas coming off the assembly line
>> already rusting.
>>
>> However, I suspect/hop those days are long gone. Now one can buy
>> Fiat/Alfa with more confidence....
>
>Well a LITTLE more confidence.

They are surely more reliable than they were in the seventies, but by the
same token they are less fun as well.

In the seventies, there was a very dramatic difference in the quality of
metal used. Stuff that would rust solid on American cars would be clean
and solid on a BMW treated the same way. By the same token, stuff that
was clean and solid on American cars would rust and fall off on Fiats and MGs.

I think the quality of metals today is a lot more consistent than it used
to be, and this has helped guys like Fiat and Alfa a whole lot. It's harder
to get really crappy metal than it used to be... these days you have to go
to China for it.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."