This Saturday is Italian Day!
This means that not every car that leaves for E@RTC will will make it there, but we pray, and we love them anyway. I don’t know what it is about Italian cars that bring out so much emotion. Spectators get excited when they see these cars. Mechanics salivate. It’s a combination of love of design and incredible driving combined with hate of reliability. In Italy they just shrug. The car breaks down and they think, oh wonderful, it’s a chance to meet new people and share some wine.
Resale isn’t great either on some models. All those used Ghiblis eventually end up in cereal boxes somewhere. You can trade a five year old Ghibli for a nice pair of sneakers, or a high mile Ghibli for a day old cannoli. They depreciate faster than the Sunday paper. Still, we love seeing them, don’t we? We stopped letting them in because we didn’t have enough brooms. See one on the coast and you think, wow, how did it ever make it this far? You stare at it and the owner thinks you're admiring their car and you’re just looking to see if anything is missing.
Ah, but there are so many Italian cars we lust after. Ferrari, Lamborghini, other Maseratis, Alfas, and somewhere way, way at the end, Fiats. I see Fiat is down to importing just one car. Finding a dealer is now a snipe hunt. What happened to the Miata in the cheap Italian suit, the 124 Fiata? I actually liked that car. I thought it was snazzy. You know it’s bad when the Miata out sells the Fiata and they are the same car.
That’s all of them folks. “All by myself…don’t want to be, all by myself…”
Okay, someone will have to explain how you build a 2021 vehicle in 2022.
Speaking of reliable, people bitch about Alfa Romeo too, but I loved my Giulia and I never had a single problem in three years…other than the air conditioning freezing up in 105 heat, but worked when I restarted the car. It was a blast to drive and in spit of it having the most antiquated telematics in all of automotive, it was a lot of fun and fantastic on road trips. It was! I’d get another for sure. It’s the most fun I’ve ever had with a sedan.
I think the telematics engineers were all scooter pilots and had no experience in cars what-so-ever. Who needs to zoom out on a map, why would anyone need that?
Rather than trust an old scud at Consumer Reports, go out and drive an Alfa. They are fun. That’s what Italian cars are at their core; fun to drive. We put up with the risk of failure, because all the other qualities more than make up for it. How is it that Italian car makes can build such fun cars to drive, something American automotive has never ever achieved, yet they can’t get higher JD Power reliability scores?
All they can ever say about any American car is, “Yeah, it steers.”
We will see a lot of other classic Italian cars this coming Saturday and we always get one of our biggest crowds all year, so come on out. It’s a lot more fun than the Art Fair! Probably more beautiful too.
It’s a shame Italian cars aren’t driven more. Put more than 10,000 miles on a Ferrari and the Italian military honors you for your bravery. It’s a shame really. I’ve never seen anything like it. In Orange County, CA, they actually flatbed their Lamborghinis to car shows. They won’t let you sit in it on the way either.
These beautiful Italian cars were meant to be driven and they are incredible! Drive them! Come to E@RTC where they are loved. Sure, they are like the prom queens who can’t boil water, but they are great to look at! Don’t miss it!
Don’t forget all car nationalities are welcome as usual. It’s just that the Italian cars get the center and side street at the Mall. See you there!