> BTW, anyone hear if Renault or Fiat/Lancia are planning on coming back
> anytime soon?
I've seen some newer Lancia (post 82) in California some 2-3 years ago.
Theywere Kappa Coupe (like the cars in the Tour de France). They looked much
better than the Volvo C70 but not as good as the Peugeot 406 Coupe. It's hard
to say how they would do now. The engine would be too complicated for
the american market I bet (2 L turbo 20V, 225hp or 2.4L turbo diesel 140hp).
But I've heard they would be available thru Ferrari dealers, but if the Alfa
is,
I dont think it will happen. From all my search through newspaper archives
and car reports, Lancia was never attacked for lack of quality or being
unreliable, which is not the case for Fiat and Alfa. We'll see. I've heard
also that the Fiat Barchetta (convertible) will be rebadged as an Alfa if
Alfa comes back to Ferrari dealerships.
As for Renault, dont they have some agreement with Chrysler to bring
the Renault Spider Sport to the US?
Some report published recently was saying that the american auto
industry would actually benefit from letting the Fiat, Renault, Alfa etc
reenter the market as it would divide the euro import market and make
it more easy to compete. I'm not sure if it's that simple.
Ciao,
Francois Dion (francois@hyperreal.org)
-- Member: FLU #1722, PCNA http://www.fortunecity.com/silverstone/zagato/101/launch.html Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Lancia, Peugeot, Volvo, Solex