> My wife has decided that she _has_ to have a post-1982 Alfalfa Romeo
> much to my chagrin.
Remind her that it is better to drive an English car to an Italian
restaurant than an Italian car to an English restaurant.
> What burns me is that she insists on calling my MGC the P.O.S (piece
> of you can guess) and constantly berating me about the periods that
> it is in the garage receiving much needed improvements.
Get her an Alfa, then remind her of this when the fuel injection
pump breaks and she has to spend $800 for it. Or get her a GTV6 2.5
and remind her when the valve guides fall out of the heads or she gets
quoted $700 for the PARTS to replace the clutch, on top of about the
same amount of labor for dismantling the rear-mounted transaxle.
It's debateable whether Alfas or MGs are more reliable (though MGs
are more durable, due to materials -- cast iron and hardened steel
are generally tougher than aluminum and 5mm metric nuts). But Alfas
are almost without question more expensive to support. The parts are
more complicated, made typically of more expensive materials, and
are also made to a standard that values aesthetics over function.
Take a look at the diff housing of an Alfa Spider some time, and
think of Benvenuto Cellini. They don't have the rugged serviceability
of solid British bits, but that's a tradeoff that each individual
has to make.
That being said, I've had an Alfa GTV6 2.5 for a short period of
time, and it's a really lovely car to drive, with a combination
of comfort and performance that most MGs can only dream about. That
car (in its final guise, with the 4.1 rear end) was a serious
contender to the car that became Odette, but I have enough projects
myself (other than this, my newest car is my '71 MGB!). Still, in
spite of my good-natured badinage about Italian cars not long ago,
every true automobile enthusiast ought to own A) an Alfa and B) the
one kind of car they want most in the world, if it's at all possible.
At least once. So I say let her go for it, but be merciless when
the Bosch electricals pack up the first time the car splashes
through a puddle and shorts out the fuel pump relay and she has to
get out and push it in the pouring rain...
> So, I know I am asking a biased group, but it was my distinct impression
> that Italian cars sat in driveways on blocks a lot more than MGs. Is
> this true? Do I have a hope of convincing her to get a nice MGB instead?
> Or will I be spending the rest of my life skinning my knuckles on some
> Eyetalian work of art?
The Italians have a saying: "Tra moglie e marito, non mettere il dito."
Translates to "Between a husband and a wife, you do not put a finger."
(Which of course reminds me of the Woody Allen line about how sex
between a man and a woman can be a beautiful thing, if you happen to
be between the right man and the right woman...)
Anyway, I feel safe as you're 2500 miles away, but I say get her the
Alfa but give her no slack if it doesn't contend for the J. D. Powers
top-of-the-heap award in reliability and unrealistic perfection. With
luck, she'll have a flash of enlightenment when she's in the middle
of telling you how much she's wanted the car and in spite of the fact
that it's more trouble than a Datsun, she still wants it, and BING she'll
realize that you feel that way about the C.
Um, have you two got an appliance car? Or are you even more nuts
than I am?
--Scott "Better she should want an Alfa than just some Romeo" Fisher
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