It is also the extent and quality of the coating of the sheet metal.

I don't know current situation but for a while in the UK Alfa was giving
comprehensive 3-year guarantees. Thus in those 3 years you did not have to
worry about rust.

DAS
--
To reply directly replace 'nospam' with 'schmetterling'
---
"Scott Dorsey" > wrote in message
...
> 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."