ferro33

Ma l'Aura non e' la Opel Vectra rimarchiata? E' prodotta in Germania? e ora che Opel ha sostituito la Vectra con l'Insignia? Scusate le troppe domande...

New York Times April 26, 2009, 1:46 am An Alternate-Fuel Wild Card in Fiat’s Deck By Nelson D. SchwartzIn Europe, Fiat is well-known for its mastery of diesel engines. In fact, one reason General Motors bought a 20 percent stake in Fiat’s auto division back in 2000 was to help expand the diesel offerings of its Opel unit. That partnership didn’t work out so well: G.M. paid Fiat $2 billion to extricate itself from the partnership four years later, although Opel did benefit from better diesel technology. Now as Fiat negotiates with Washington, lenders and labor leaders on a deal to rescue Chrysler (a subject I covered in this article in Sunday’s Times), as well as acquiring Opel from G.M., another fuel that Fiat engineers have advanced could loom large: natural gas. Fiat is the biggest player in the market for natural gas engines, which produce lower levels of greenhouse gases and other pollutants than either diesel or gasoline engines. In Italy this year the company hopes to sell 120,000 vehicles powered by natural gas, up from 68,000 in 2008. Generous scrapping incentives from the Italian government will help — you get 3,000 euros if you trade in an old clunker for a new model powered by natural gas, double the allowance of 1,500 euros for junking a standard car. But over the long term, Fiat has a major opportunity to carve out a niche among motorists seeking power and performance while driving green, especially in markets like Germany and Britain, where Opel is strong, and possibly one day in the United States. The challenge, of course, is fueling up. In Italy, Fiat is collaborating with fuel companies and the Italian government to provide more than a 1,000 stations where motorists can fill their tanks with natural gas. Many cars are equipped to operate on dual fuels, switching from natural gas to the diesel or gasoline tank as needed, depending on what is available. Natural gas cars and commercial vehicles have been available in the United States for years, but the notion has never hit it big in the mass market, in large part because filling stations have been scarce by comparison. But that was then. An urge to reduce greenhouse gases — and the prospect of another spike in oil prices — could make Fiat’s engine technology very appealing to American drivers eager for and alternative to today’s hybrids.

Lo conosco personalmente, e' un "tipo normale" che in campo si trasforma totalmente. Comunque e' un grandissimo "conoscitore di calcio", potrebbe far bene anche in serie A... se migliorasse i rapporti personali con certi personaggi che comandano nell'ambiente.

Oggi finalmente mi hanno consegnato la Panda NP climbing ordinata il 18 febbraio. Aveva il serbatio pieno a meta' (due LED su quattro accesi), primo pieno 4,77 euro (a 0,885 euro/kg). Appena avro' i dati di consumo li pubblichero'

Dal New York Times di oggi 29 marzo: Peugeot Fires Its Chief Executive By DAVID JOLLY Published: March 29, 2009 The French automaker PSA Peugeot Citroën fired its chief executive Sunday and replaced him with a veteran of the steel industry amid the worst crisis the auto industry has seen in generations. Eric Vidal/European Pressphoto Agency Christian Streiff is stepping down as the chief of Peugeot. The company, the No. 2 European carmaker, after Volkswagen, said that Philippe Varin, chief executive of the Anglo-Dutch steel company Corus, would replace Christian Streiff, who is stepping down immediately. “Given the extraordinary difficulties currently faced by the automotive industry, the supervisory board decided unanimously that a change in the senior leadership position was necessary,” Thierry Peugeot, chairman of the board, said. “I am confident that under the leadership of Philippe Varin, the group will be able, with all the teams, to unlock its potential.” The Peugeot family owns about a third of the company. Like other global automakers, Peugeot, based in Paris, is struggling to stay afloat as a punishing recession reduces demand for cars and a credit crisis hampers consumers’ ability to finance purchases. The company’s shares have fallen nearly 70 percent over the last 12 months, and its main suppliers are in serious difficulties. The company last month posted a 2008 net loss of €343 million, or $456 million. It said it expected to have another loss for 2009. President Nicolas Sarkozy’s government on Feb. 9 extended €3 billion to Peugeot to safeguard French jobs. Mr. Streiff almost immediately ran into trouble, saying just two days later that he would cut 3,000 positions in France. He also came under criticism from the government for importing Peugeot cars made in the Czech Republic. Mr. Streiff came to Peugeot in 2006 from Airbus, where he lasted just 100 days amid a battle with European Aeronautic, Defense & Space, the plane maker’s parent company, over how much independence he would have to turn around company after a debacle involving the construction of the A380 superjumbo. Mr. Varin will begin learning the ropes at the company in two weeks, and will take the helm on June 1. A member of the managing board, Roland Vardanega, will act as interim chairman. Mr. Varin, 56, is a graduate of the elite French schools École Polytechnique and the École des Mines. In addition to Corus, where he has worked since 2003, he also worked at the aluminum company Pechiney. Philippe Varin joined Corus as chief executive in April 2003, and eventually orchestrated its merger with Tata Steel four years later. Quasi in contemporanea Wagoneer "lascia" la GM

Si è dimesso Rick Wagoner ad di General Motors DETROIT - L'amministratore delegato di General Motors Rick Wagoner si è dimesso. Wagoner era a capo del colosso automobilistico americano da otto anni ed ha deciso di lasciare il suo posto alla vigilia di un importante intervento del presidente Usa Barack Obama proprio sugli aiuti all'auto. La Repubblica 29 marzo 2009

Dal Times di oggi 22 marzo: I suppose that in the days when your fishmonger knew your name and what sort of cod you liked on a Friday, “brand loyalty” made sense. Now we live in a world of supermarkets and corporations, it is the most ridiculous thing on all of God’s green earth. No matter how many loyalty cards you have in your wallet. That said, I am the worst offender. Even though I know Virgin is the best airline, I always try to fly BA. Even though I know HSBC is in fairly good shape, I bank at Barclays. Even though I know the new style of Levi’s reveals my butt crack when I bend over, I would still never buy a pair of Wranglers. And this brings me neatly onto the question of watches. For some time now I’ve been on the hunt for a new one but the choice is tricky. I couldn’t have a Breitling because I don’t own an Audi. I couldn’t have a Calvin Klein because they are pants, I couldn’t have a Gucci because I’m not a footballist’s wife, I couldn’t have a TW Steel because my wrist isn’t big enough to sport something that can be seen from space, I couldn’t have a Tissot because I’m not eight and the only thing in the world worse than a fake Rolex is a real one. Have you noticed something odd about Rolexes? Especially the modern ones that wind automatically when you move your wrist about? A great many owners wear them on their right hand. I jump to no conclusions here but you can feel free. Mostly, though, I cannot wear any of these watches because I am an Omega man. I have worn a Seamaster for years, not because James Bond has one and not because Neil Armstrong wore something by the same maker on the moon but because on the day I went away to school my parents gave me a Genève Dynamic. The trouble is that for the past few years Omega has been the Pillsbury dough of Swiss watches. The Terry and June. Omegas were dreary. They were boring to behold. They were Vectras in a world of Ferraris and Lamborghinis. The De Ville Prestige, for example, was plainly designed by someone who had a black-and-white telly. This filled me with despair. I wanted a watch. For the same reasons that I bank at Barclays and wear Levi’s, it had to be an Omega, and it just wasn’t coming up with the goods. It was like Leeds United. Once the home of Peter Lorimer and Gary Sprake but now an also-ran bunch of unimaginative clod-hopping no-hopers. And then one day, in Hong Kong, I saw it. A new Omega. It’s called the Railmaster and it is a thing of unparalleled beauty. There is no button that owners think will call for help if they find themselves in a crashing helicopter on Kilimanjaro, it is not waterproof to 8,000 metres, there is no stopwatch, there is no swivelling bezel to tell you how much air you have left in your tanks and you even have to wind it up every morning or it will stop. Plainly this is a watch for the sedentary soul. The man with no hang glider or mini sub in his garage. I bought it in an instant. And so it goes with Alfa Romeo. My loyalty to the brand began when I had an old GTV6. It let the air out of its tyres most nights. It would weld its twin-plate clutch to the flywheel if you didn’t drive it for a day or two. And once, it dumped its gear linkage onto the propshaft when I was doing about 60mph. The noise that resulted was extraordinary: a bit like Brian Blessed being raped. Even the design was silly. It was a hatchback but the rear seat couldn’t be folded down because someone who’d had too much wine had put the petrol tank between the cabin and the boot. And the driving position had to be experienced to be believed. The only way you could get comfortable was if you had arms that were 6ft long, a compressed spine and feet attached directly to your knees. You might expect me to say that I forgave it all these trespasses because it was so glorious to drive. But it wasn’t. In fact, not since the Alfasud has there been an Alfa which is demonstrably better than the competition. And now, of course, Alfa is just a division of Fiat. However . . . I have argued many times that owning an Alfa is a portal through which all petrolheads must pass if they genuinely want to know what it is that differentiates a car from a toaster or a washing machine. Because Alfas have flaws, they feel human, as if they have a soul and a temper. Each one — except the Arna, obviously — is like the tortured hero of a Russian novel, a car of extraordinary depths, a car you can never truly fathom, especially when it is four in the morning and it is enveloped in a cloud of steam, yet again, on the North Circular. They are like cocaine. The unimaginable highs are always matched by immense, brooding lows. Massive electrical storms that inevitably follow a glorious sultry evening. For years I have longed for the day when Alfa could put all of this humanity in a car that was good to drive as well. And I really thought the new MiTo might just be the answer; the Railmaster moment, when Alfa stopped being like Leeds United, stopped living on its reputation from the 1970 cup final and put a corker in the back of the net. It isn’t. It may come with a clever electronic package that enables you to choose what sort of response you’d like from the engine, but it doesn’t matter which option you select: the whole package is let down by a cunning new electric power-steering system that feels, I imagine, like fondling a pair of silicone breasts. There’s no escape from the fact that you are playing with two bags full of jelly. Then there’s the clever new suspension, in which there are coilover springs inside the shock absorbers. Sounds intriguing but so far as I could work out, the main result is a harsh ride. There are other issues too. The sloping roof means headroom in the back is poor and the boot is small. The steering wheel is connected to the dash by what looks like a set of Victorian bellows, and the whole horn assembly felt like it was about to come off. Of course, I loved it. I found myself ignoring the defects and concentrating on the way there’s a choice of what material you’d like to surround the headlights. I loved the crackly, almost flat-four exhaust note, I loved the 155bhp turbocharged engine (from a Fiat), I loved the interior, which feels like it belongs in a much more expensive car. But the thing I love most of all about this car is that, at parties, when people ask what you’re driving, you can say: “An Alfa.” Men will imagine you are a grand-prix racer from the Fifties. Women will think that you are a bit like the Daniel Day Lewis character in A Room with a View. A bit interesting. Like you might prefer poetry to Nuts. It’s the only brand in the world of sub-supercar motoring that can do this. There are better small cars if you want a household appliance — the Mini, for instance. There are better small cars if you want a fun drive. The Mini again. And of course there are better-looking cars built to a higher standard. Um, the Mini springs to mind. But I’m afraid there are no better small cars if, like me, you are brand loyal and what you want is an Alfa.

E' vero c'erano Autosud del gruppo Laus e Capone e la mitica Comsa, dove comprai la UnoD... la mia prima auto Comunque sto' acquistando un Doblo' Combi per l'azienda e mi sa' che Ferrajoli sta' per perdere anche questa vendita. Forse siamo leggermente OT...

Nelle prossime settimane rottamero' una 33 ultima serie (di mio suocero), immatricolata nel 1989, per usufruire degli incentivi. Prima che qualcuno dica "tienitela per futuro investimento" preciso che non ho box, garage, campagna o altro spazio. Dovrei pagare un garage pubblico... poiche' da me in centro parcheggiano solo (una e una sola per famiglia) le auto dei residenti. Se qualcuno e' interessato please let me know...

Ferrajoli: sconto 0% e non sono manco tanto disponibili. A ripensarci avrei dovuto chiedere anche a Saba a Bellizzi...

A Salerno ora e' rimasto un solo concessionario, Galdieri. La consegna e' a 30-40 giorni

Grazie. La Panda Panda Climbing di listino (con gli airbags) viene 16220 euro, 5000 euro e' l'incentivo metano+rottamazione, 196 euro e' l'IPT della mia provincia (Salerno). In conclusione sconto concessionario circa 900 euro. Comunque ho girato tre conc prima dell'ordine, due non facevano alcuno sconto oltre agli incentivi (uno mi regalava un antifurto, valore 2 o 300 euro).

Primo post di un lettore di questo forum da 2004... scusate gli errori o le unnetiquettate... Ho appena firmato il contratto per una Panda Panda Climbing, unico accessorio airbags laterali e window; euro 10500