oh god no! i worked as a parts man at a dealership as alfa died here, and
were no longer exported to usa. it was bad enough that the parts catalogs
were extremly screwy due to poor italian to english translation by alfa's
technical crew! alfa-technical = military inteligence! any way any
company that lists a cigarette lighter as a "spark plug", a entire rear
quarter panel as a "mud guard" and uses a variety of bosch relays that have
no cross references from bosch to alfa numbers, and no description as to
location or specific intended use of relay on specific car just 1-2 pages of
listings of alfa part numbers with a part description " relay ", can only be
aided by assembly in a country where they read up and down as opposed to
left to right! seriously, the cars functioned. they are hindered by their
unique italian design, and lack of education leading to understanding how to
fix and understand their uniqueness! you have not lived untill you have
tried to find electrical components for a 164 alfa on their microfiche!
they scatter the stuff around where it apears to be convienient, and not
listed in the "electrical" section!
but what the heck! the toyota supra set of microfiche had " brack" listed
as a color for the side mouldings for a 95 supra with black mouldings! and
jag lists "figure or burr" walnut for interior wood trim for replacement
dash trim pieces, try guessing wich it is without having a lot of dead
kittys sitting around waiting for parts to compare pieces since there is no
reference anywhere on the car as to wich was installed at factory and they
look very similar untill you order the wrong one!. and when the v-8 was
introduced to replace the xjs? i have the factory set of intro microfiche
here! they were in such a hurry to introduce them that the cataloging was
not finished! there are pictures of the car in catalog breakdown form with
page after page of descriptions and parts numbers missing! about 70%-80%
blank parts catalog with nice break down pictures! that was a nightmare!
but once again, a neat car with little suport behind the scene at
introduction only for a change. it got better about 6-7-8 months after it's
introduction.
and dont even get me started on peugeot parts!
thank god i do not work there any longer!
chuck.
the ex alfa/fiat/peugeot/jaguar/toyota/chevrolet (all at 1 dealership)
service department's parts man.
with prior datsun/chrysler/hyundai/suzuki/lotus experience.
convinced there is no such thing as a "normal" car out there anywhere
anymore!
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