Ford and General Motors cars are only good enough to keep both companies flirting with bankruptcy. They seem to be very good at making simple trucks.
The current Alfa Brera uses an engine from Australian automaker Holden. The current U.S. Pontiac GTO, which GM will pull off the market in 2007, is also a Holden. Their death must be due to those awful Aussie auto designers.
Fortunately, some Alfas that you may be describing are totally unfamiliar to the U.S. market. For example, the badly made Alfasud with it's anemic engine never made it to these shores, thank God. The U.S. has never seen any of the diesel Alfas or any of the cars that were not much better than those funny Fiats. The only cars this market has seen from Alfa-Romeo have been the Alfettas and the Spiders.
Many owners that dipped into sports car ownership bought used ones that were already problematic due to truly awful dealer service or from self described experts in their own garage or by the fiddling by ignorant previous owners. Then, they blamed the car - hardly a fair evaluation. (Sounds like boat ownership.) That was true of Alfa-Romeo. The engines were bullet proof, ditto the marvelous transmissions and suspensions, but the service technicians should have been shot. I was fortunate to have Paul Spruell in Atlanta for the service I couldn't perform to my Alfetta GT and my wife's Spider. The Alfetta was sold after 13 yrs. with more than 250,000 miles. The Spider was sold after 23 yrs. and 276,000 miles. I still have my 1987 Jaguar XJ-S (213,000 miles). I'm not a masochist. All cars were daily drivers and really reliable cars. The Alfas had their engines rebuilt once. The Jag has only had ancillary stuff replaced; water pump, radiator cleaned, filters, belts, relays, one steering rack, and more than a few tires. Everything else is original from 1987. Do you think your 1987 ride is still moving?
Many guys will automatically repeat things they've heard about cars without having firsthand experience because it's cool to sound knowledgeable. Those same tired things have been repeated for 50 years. "Ya'll know what FORD stand for? Fix Or Repair Daily! Haw, haw, haw!" Then there's the warm beer, Lucas the Prince of Darkness, if Britannia rules the waves why won't her cars go through a puddle, ad nauseum.
Jaguar has been #1 on the J.D. Powers new owners satisfaction survey for quite some time, now. BMW and Mercedes/Daimler are far down the list beneath the rice makers because the Germans currently have some of the worst cars on the market. We need some new jokes for the junk from Germany. How about, "You know what BMW stands for? Badly Made Wolkswagen!"
I'll offer one of the things-to-say regarding boats: Hobie 16's can't tack.