Tag: Alfa Romeo

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What is Countryman?

The Mini! Excellence of repackaging :) Personally I never liked the Mini. It is a very well made and a very nice car, it is combining the Mini heritage with sophisticated technology. BMW made a very good job and never ruined the heritage. However, I never like the Mini :( Despite its unique characteristics, it was a brand which is not very close to me. This is totally emotional! In my opinion, Alfa Romeo MiTo and Fiat 500 are totally much better looking cars than the Mini. Also Fiat 500 is slightly better than Mini while packing the heritage with contemporary automotive world. Especially the price. Mini is a overpriced car, that’s absolutely clear. You pay too much money for a small car. Macro priced, micro sized!
As usual BMW, transposed its product extension strategy to Mini, and Mini introduced the Clubman which looks like a Ford Transit from the back. It could not manage to achieve a success like normal Mini but some people bought it. And Mini followed the popular culture in automotive business and design a Mini SUV which is totally pointless. Yes, there is no competitor in this segment and it will collect the whole potential customers, if they are existed! Until now everything is fine, normal German style extension strategy in a British car.
But the most stupidest thing is, Mini Countryman (SUV) is not four wheel drive! Yes, it will be front wheel drive and you can have the four wheel drive only with S model. Very nice! A very expensive SUV which is not a proper SUV! I know, there are some SUV like this on market; they are only front wheel drive but they are not asking a price which is more expensive than an island! Those front wheel drive SUVs are cheap! This Clubman front wheel drive partial SUV will a very interesting car from Mini.
Actually more interesting than Apple iPad. Despite its pointless disadvantages, like Apple iPad, some people will just buy because it looks nice. Nicer than Mini Clubman and people will buy this weird SUV just to own it :)
Pictures are taken from;
Mini and Apple Websites
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Cars

Run Snob Run!!!

I am sure that you remember the movie Run Forest Run. I was thirteen or fourteen at those times and I still remember that nice movie :)
When I started to looking around people and what they are driving, I noticed something. People love to buy cars which can make them look snob. Actually, their cover story is; this car has a great design or this car is a status or they make up a story from that brand actually which does not exist and they are saying this car is reflection of this brand. Sorry!!! But car experts do not eat this :) And when someone asks critical questions about your car, don’t make up story, you will look very pathetic. Best option accept that you want to show off or change the topic. My recommendation is to change topic for you ;)
I have recently post blog about snobbish cars. The winner is Mini and Audi A3. Mainly in emerging markets, these two cars are line between rich and poor. Hopefully, there is a new one Audi A1. People who could not manage to buy an A3, now  you can buy A1. And it does not look boring like A2, many of snobs don’t know that. Search google ;) This very well designed and equipped with high technology of Audi, sorry Volkswagen is a piece of art. And that’s main reason you should not buy it. Firstly; like other Audis it is over-priced. Unless you are buying A4, may be A5, A6 or A8, just buy a VW it is cheaper and same quality. In addition; none of the Volkswagen or Audi cars have problem with pedals ;) Second reason not to buy A1 is you have Alfa Romeo MiTo and Fiat 500. Wait couple of months more and MiTo will have double clutch auto. Fiat 500 is the best looking car on planet and MiTo also. I cannot ignore the fact that; Audi A1 has the best interior with best quality on market. Do not expect to see this quality in Mini or MiTo or 500 or Polo. It is really Audi. I didn’t like the exterior :(
So, I could not find a reasonable reason to buy an A1 while there are better options are available. Audi I was loving A6 2.8 Quattro in 1998 but then things have changed. Still, Audi is much much much car company than some companies ;)
I really wish that, automotive industry never had the snob effect influence on cars. But nobody can do anything for this. As the snobs stick on one unlucky car, many people stop loving it :(
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Cars

Katerina Stikoudi is washing a car :) – Κατερίνα Στικούδη είναι το πλύσιμο αυτοκινήτων

If you are not Cypriot or Greek, you won’t probably know who is Katerina Stikoudi. She won the title Miss Hellas in 2005 and she represented Greece in Miss World. She is currently hosting TV programme Mega Star in Mega TV in Greece. And also she has a video clip with Lava called Tora.
Accidently I found a video of her in Mega Star programme. This is something very usual but the interesting thing; she was washing and filling up cars. But the problem is, she is washing a pre-historic, ancient Jaguar XJ. Production team picked up the worst car to wash! And also she was cleaning the wind screen of a Peugeot 206 CC and filling up with petrol. Then a guy comes with a Citroën C2 with plastic wheel covers!
Elaa reee! You found the worst cars to appear on TV! Jaguar XJ is classic but too classic! My opinion; she should be washing up a Maserati GranTurismo, for cleaning the wind-screen Jaguar XF and instead of C2 they should have used a Alfa Romeo MiTo. These cars will complete the sexiness ;)
In Greek;
Αν δεν είναι Κύπριοι της Ελληνικής, δεν θα έχετε ίσως γνωρίζουν ποιος είναι Κατερίνα stikoudi. Κέρδισε τον τίτλο Μις Ελλάς το 2005 και εκπροσώπησε την Ελλάδα στη Μις Κόσμος. Είναι φιλοξενεί σήμερα τηλεοπτικών προγραμμάτων Mega Star στο Mega τηλεόραση στην Ελλάδα. Και επίσης έχει ένα βίντεο κλιπ με Lava ονομάζεται Tora.

Κατά λάθος βρήκα ένα βίντεο από της στο πρόγραμμα Mega Star. Αυτό είναι κάτι πολύ συνηθισμένο, αλλά το ενδιαφέρον πράγμα? Ήταν πλύσιμο και γεμίζει αυτοκίνητα. Αλλά το πρόβλημα είναι, αυτή είναι το πλύσιμο των προ-ιστορικό, αρχαία Jaguar XJ. Παραγωγή αυξήθηκε το χειρότερο αυτοκίνητο να πλένεται! Και επίσης, ήταν η οθόνη καθαρισμού αέρα ενός Peugeot 206 CC και γεμίζουν με βενζίνη. Στη συνέχεια, έρχεται ένας τύπος με ένα C2 Citroën με πλαστικό τιμόνι καλύπτει!

 
ELAA reee! Βρήκατε το χειρότερο αυτοκίνητα για να εμφανιστεί στην τηλεόραση! Jaguar XJ είναι κλασικό αλλά πολύ κλασικό! Η γνώμη μου? Αυτή θα πρέπει να είναι το πλύσιμο μια Maserati GranTurismo, για τον καθαρισμό του ανεμοθώρακα Jaguar XF και αντί του C2 θα πρέπει να έχουν χρησιμοποιήσει Alfa Romeo Mito. Αυτά τα αυτοκίνητα θα ολοκληρώσει την sexiness ;)

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Cars

Today, Tomorrow, Emotions, Toyota

Empire of robustness started to fall into parts. Toyota constructed its brand identity based on high quality production techniques, problem free cars and reliability and ignoring status value, a design philosophy, increasing interior material quality. Until last couple of weeks, being problem free was enough to sell millions of cars every year. However, a tiny problem with gas pedal was adequate to prepare a huge domino effect on Toyota.
In any aspect of life, you need to divide your assets into different places to reduce the risks. They are doing this in stock exchange; investors buy different shares and in case of emergency their loss is minimized. If they invest everything on one paper, they might have huge return but any fluctuations will destroy everything.
Toyota did something similar to investing all your wealth into one share, and they avoided reducing the risk by separating them. When you think about Toyota, you will probably think about Japanese good prices, good quality and dull looking car. Toyota never focused on design, status icon, product image as much as they focused on problem free. What they have done is a very good thing but they should have focused on other aspects to strength their brand image.
Let’s think about Alfa Romeo and Mercedes. Alfa Rome has a very bad reputation for breaking down, nowadays break down issues reduced but that’s a part of Alfa Romeo. However, this does not prevent people to buy Alfa Romeo. I would definitely buy a MiTo instead of idiotic looking Toyota Yaris. MiTo has the passion, design and Italian style, with potential problems. But those other assets of Alfa Romeo’s brand image motivating people to purchase an Alfa Romeo and ignoring the failing fact! And people still buying Alfa Romeo and they could emerge emotional relationship with their car but with Toyota it is impossible. The only relationship which you can make is the green digital clock! Toyota ignored the emotional part of marketing!
Mercedes suffered a worse problem in 2004 with electronic braking system SBC. It was an innovative electronic braking pedal which works totally electronic. And it broke down! Suddenly, in some cars it did not wish to slow down the car. Mercedes faced huge profit loss and recalled many cars. But did this destroy Mercedes totally? Of course not, because Mercedes had other attributes associated to brand. Like; status value, smooth riding quality, high quality interior, eye catching design. All these assets helped Mercedes to recover more easily and people never forgot the SBC problem totally.
So, Toyota does not have any strong assets to sustain its brand image and recover easily. They could invest on advertisements and PR campaigns heavily to recover all these. But they should revise their policy about manufacturing cars! As I can see from their green digital clock, they treat car as a calculator and they ignore the fact that people might associate different attributes to a car and those attributes can save the brand in case of emergency.

Pictures are from;
EuroNCAP Website
Alfa Romeo Website
Mercedes Website

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Cars

Audi A1 vs. Mini and Fiat 500



Yes, Audi is again in small segment business! After they have crashed the A2 to wall very badly in 2002, they didn’t have the mood for a small Audi, until now. As the Mini made superb hit on hot playing lists, manufacturers started to think about introducing small cars but cool ones! As usual Ford had a chance to succeed and as usual they ruined it (StreetKa). Actually it was very nice car. Fiat became very confident and introduced the new Fiat 500 and they received a demand which they have never imagined of during a world crisis. After that Alfa Romeo introduced the MiTo which is the prettiest car on market! 
And in Ingolstadt, Germany where the Audi’s HQ is placed started to think. And they said “Ja, wir müssen einführen, ein kleines Auto”. Of course, they remembered their traumatic experience with A2 and hesitated a bit but they didn’t give up. Now Audi A1 is here :) It looks very good, actually millions times better looking than the R8. As German traditions, it will have every kind of technology Audi is offering in other ranges.
But there is a bit problem when I read the news on internet. Audi is expecting to sell 80.000 A1s per year !?! After reading several times, I noticed that they were not speaking of a year Mars calendar. They are planning to sell 80.000 in 365 days time. Because, Mini sold more than 60.000 last year and Fiat 500 had enormous demand. So why not? Actually 80.000 is very optimist prediction. Let’s be honest, people will not sell their Minis or 500s or MiTos to buy A1!

There is something which cannot be put into number, that’s the soul. Mini and Fiat 500 have heritage brought from old times, even though the Mini is more expensive than old times. But people want to live 1960s dream again in contemporary world. It is the same with Fiat 500; 500 is bringing the black and white Italian Shows from 1960s to HD quality! They are both retro and reflecting their character. Alfa Romeo MiTo; it is Alfa Romeo. It is like a love in first sight, you won’t think about the future. You just want to be together. I cannot describe Alfa Romeo better. And Audi A1; I am pretty sure that it has more gadgets than its competitors and offer better of everything and never break down. But it is just A1, nothing else! I am sure that, people who got bored from Mini and MiTo will buy A1. However expecting 80.000 in these conditions is a very optimistic approach to automotive. My prediction is; no more than 50.000 first couple of years. We will see it later ;)

Picture are from;
Worldcarfans.com
Fiat Website
Mini Website
Alfa Romeo Website