New 2009 Alfa Romeo 8C Spider

[radiopilot]

Why would anyone pay $260,000 for a car that sports a plastic dash/ console? At least the Ferrari's are strict on thier uses of leather on the interior of the car... I think Alfa has gone off the deep end... nice curves on the body but interior is lacking...

http://www.roadandtrack.com/article.asp ... le_id=6628


http://www.roadandtrack.com/gallery.asp ... =on&cnt=11

[mbouse]

the selling price of a vehicle does not always coincide with the "value" of the vehicle or its components. After you get above $70-80k it becomes more about the exlusivity of the market (who can and cannot afford the car) than it does about "worth".

[mdrburchette]

I don't see a mention of plastic in the interior:

"Expect the same high quality interior as in the coupe, a blend of leather, carbon-fiber and aluminum accents in a sporty and highly functional design. "

[Gunsmith]

Very nice car but the most expensive spider I've seen still seems like a pretty good deal now. We do get a lot of fun for what money we have oured into our Italian ladies. Still happy........

[radiopilot]

I don't see a mention of plastic in the interior:

"Expect the same high quality interior as in the coupe, a blend of leather, carbon-fiber and aluminum accents in a sporty and highly functional design. "

That is correct, but for a 260k car I sure as heck don't want metal, carbon fiber, or aluminum as my viewing preference or when my hands touch the dash, console, etc.

Why I admit that I covered the spider completely in vinyl leather for my son's car and I'm doing it in 'real leather' for my spider.. it's 'class' and that is lacking in that Alfa no matter how much it costs...

That's the difference between Ferrari's and most other high end cars... even the lowest cost Ferrari had the entire interior laced in leather.. this is why these cars command such high resale values....

[mdrburchette]

I'm not saying I disagree with you. I'm really not impressed with it for the price tag!

[dinosabella]

The Alfa 8c has a carbon fibre interior including the seats, wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy more expensive to produce than leather.
the 500 coupe's and the 500 Spiders that they will produce were sold out before the price was officialy anounced. The car is basicaly a publicity stunt to raise awareness of the Alfa Romeo performance pedigree. Its actualy an amazing car and uses a Ferrari/Maserati engine and tranny. It is extremely exlusive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbIi_we7 ... re=related
Hey even the French love it, they dont like anything but man I wish you could understand what they were saying about this car. You have the option to change the exhaust note, its a 100% carbon fibre chasis and body, ALLLLLLL CARBON
wow.
And the sound is amazing.

You are intitled to your opinon and so am I and I love this car.

By the way I saw an Alfa Brera yesterday here at home in Montreal Canada, it was Silver and belonged to someone at the Italian Consulate, I cant wait till we can buy them here, I personaly will probobly only have the budget for a new Alfa Mi.To or a new Fiat 500 or Abarth 500 both of which will also be available here in the next few years.

The Duetto is also supposed to make a comeback.

Fiat is looking for factories in the U.S. to build these cars and may partner up with BMW and use the plant where the Z4 is produced since the Z4 may soon be moved to Germany for production. The other possibility is that Fiat may elect to use one of the abandoned big 3 factories.

They have stated that they will sell cars here that are made in europe at a loss for 2 years till the new plants are opperational.

Hope its soon

[So Cal Mark]

where did you read the reports of Fiat looking for US factories?

[radiopilot]

I'm sure the car is state of the art and the carbon fiber chassis, the Ferrari/Masserati engine are good things indeed, but for a car of this caliber the interior is not to my suiting, YES carbon fiber seats are 'technically superior' to leather seats and we do alot of carbon fiber stuff here at Sikorsky... things you never knew, but in a car nothing beats the finest leathers, just my opinion and if there was an option to get full leather interior and I was in the market for one of these cars... you bet put the best Corinthian leather you can get on this car.

I'm sure there are those that differ in opinion and that's fine, I'm sure all 100 or so of these cars are completely sold but really was it more of a 'look at me I own a Alfa 8c spider' like Mike has suggested?

[dinosabella]

Here are some links about Fiat looking for U.S. factories

http://blogs.automobilemag.com/6237980/ ... index.html
http://wot.motortrend.com/6237674/auto- ... index.html

Basicaly Fiat is looking stateside because it would not be profitable to sell European made cars in North America because of the huge gap between the Euro and the Greenback. BMW, Mercedes, Volkswagen(mexico and Brasil) have done this.
The options are either retrofitting an existing Case-New Holland (owned by the Fiat Group) factory to produce cars, to buy an existing abandoned factory from the big three or to share production with an exisiting factory.
The goal is to produce 150,000 cars for sale in North America and to be shipped back to Europe.
The CEO of Fiat is actualy from Toronto so I can only assume he may even consider an abandoned big three factory in Canada too.
Its encouraging news for us aficionados who only get to read about these cars or see them briefly on vacation in Europe.