Thought Thursday: Good guy Alfa Romeo and why people love it...

We all have a favourite place to buy certain things, be it coffee, bread or vegetables. If you give it thought, there is a reason why you have decided that your favourite place, is your favourite place. There was a specific lunch spot I used to go to when I worked in the east of Johannesburg. The food was average, the place was relatively clean and the prices weren’t all that cheap. Yet most days in the week, I would find myself eating lunch there. I looked forward to going there because I knew that each time I go there I would have a conversation with Mr. Chen the owner. Mr. Chen was an honest and simple man and the conversations we had were always very interesting. Whether it was cars, business or even love and marriage, Mr. Chen always had an insightful outlook on everything. I learned some valuable things from Mr. Chen and I am very thankful that I took the time to ever walk through his doors.

There is something special about relationships, they make you forget about other things, such as great tasting food or cheaper prices. That’s how I felt about Mr. Chen’s place, the feeling I would get each time I left his place was better than knowing that I’ve saved a few Rands or had a great meal. It was the feeling of knowing that someone actually took the time to get to know me better and advise me and enjoyed my company, that’s a good feeling. Anyone who has driven an Alfa V6 can agree that you get the same feeling when you drive one. There is something special about some Alfa’s, the feeling of having a relationship with a car is what it is. The brand itself has some negative stigmas but somehow people just don’t care, people still love Alfa’s.

This love was very evident this week when journalists everywhere were losing their minds in excitement about the launch of the new Giulia. It was almost as if they had heard that Mr. Chen had opened a new place after being out of business for years. Not to say that Alfa Romeo has been “out of business”, in fact they have recently made some cars that made men and women feel like boys and girls again, particularly cars like the 4C. The new Giulia is a BMW 3 series, Mercedes C-Class and Audi A4 rival. We don’t have many details right now, all we know is that the hardcore version, the Quadrifoglio will develop around 370Kw and will be powered by a 3.0l V6 twin turbo. Any enthusiast is very happy about the launch of this car, chances are it won’t be much better than its rivals, probably won’t be cheaper too but like Mr. Chen’s shop, people will buy…