Dev Cloete wrote:

> Because ignorant assholes badmouth these fine cars although they never owned
> or drove one.

I might well be one of those *******s, even if I've owned a couple
and just bought one again. In all fairness, I must admit a very
limited knowledge of the newer cars, I've never owned a car
younger than 15 years old, but it is my belief that you never find
an Alfa without "quirks and funny italian solutions" no matter
which year it was build. The deal therefore is this: testdrive a
couple of cars of the model you are looking for, and if you start
rambling to all your friends about how great this car was to
drive, while making engine noises and steering wheel motions in
midair, by all means go ahead and buy one. If you think "hmm, nice
car but what's all the fuss about?", then stay the hell away -
you'll probably just end up annoyed by the quirky stuff. And don't
fall into the trap of thinking economy into it, on paper Alfa
looks like a bargain horsepower for money deal, but really, they
only are if you can fix stuff yourself. And don't think that even
though the Fiat group has made a tremendous step forward in
quality control that you are buying a german car in an italian
suit..

For me, the solution is obvious. I think they are great fun to
drive and as a result of that, I don't care the least bit about
the quirky stuff. So what if my windscreen wipers doesn't touch
the windscreen at speeds over 140 kph, that just means I'll have
to slow down a bit in the rain. As long as the faulty wipers
doesn't has any effect on the driving itself, it will always be
one of those secondary things I'll fix "some other day".. As long
as the car drives well, I'm a happy trooper.. :-)

So forget rational thoughts, testdrive a couple of cars and if you
can't live without one, then you have your answer..

--
Hygge..
Thomas

<http://www.carftp.com> - a library of car videos.