While i was laid up in hospital i was given a book written by Jeremy Clarkson named Dont Stop Me Now. While it was a great read, and quite a thick book, i've just finished reading the last few pages of it now this morning. Ok its from his Sunday Times blurbs, and how they must be laughing to themselves from his Top Gear popularity that they can re-print all his old postings and churn it into a book and sell it..well i'm not complaining, for i very much enjoyed reading it, His humour is very funny, i've always enjoyed reading it... until the last pages.. for example, in the last pages of the book he wrote about the Alfa 159, which he loved by the way, but he went on a little about the old Alfa GTV6, and what he said about it really shocked me, i had to go back and read it again just to make sure i read correctly. I will write what he said, and from what i can gather, britain must have the worst mechanics in the world..for even in the Top Gear episodes i have heard him say how your Alfa will be lucky to start, or it will have another problem tomorrow, something like that, so again, britain mechanics are, and must be truly woeful, lame spanner throwers! Anyway, here's what he said....
"Take the old GTV6 as a prime example. I owned one once and it was a nightmare. The worst car i've owned. Deeply uncomfortable, spectacularly impractical and blessed with steering so heavy that navigating into a London parking space was like navigating a donkey into a budgie cage. Then there was the complete lack of quality, nothing worked, and when you got one thing fixed something else would break on the way home. Once it tried to murder me. The linkage from the gear lever to the rear-mounted gearbox fell off and jammed the propshaft, causing the rear wheels to lock."(Then in the end he says this)
"In essence, then, Alfa has understood what makes driving a car a thrill. But it has never been able to make a car. Well, not a car that a rational, normal human being might want to buy."
So what to make of his reportings? Well i for one think his arms must be made of porridge, for the gtv6 has light steering in my book, compared to other smaller cars i've driven..i once drove a Bathurst MR2 and damn the steering on that was way heavier, and the engine was in the back..Series 5 RX7 with a tiny 13B Rotary engine in the front, still heavy, i'm sorry JK, but your arms must have been in the gym lifting heavy weights just prior to you driving the gtv6, honestly, and the mechanical gremlins he faced shows whoever was working on that car is truly terrible. I had a british mechanic who worked on my gtv6 when i was in QLD, and he was awful, when i got back to Melbourne afew years later and had Hugh Harrison from Monza work on it, it felt like a new car, i rang him whilst driving and said"Oh my god what have you done, it feels amazing!"
The only 2 things JK liked about the gtv6 was the styling and the sound of the engine. To me its not impractical, i'm single with no kids, i can throw all my shopping in the back hatch, and the sunroof is great, i can have a friend stand on the rear floor and be out through the sunroof with a paintball gun wreaking havoc at cars we loath, mainly Holdens and the bogans in them, if we are lucky
But seriously, i think its a beautiful car which feels as though its made for me, and its suits me perfectly, and compared to all the other cars i've driven, i'd rather nothing else.
. sad to say I am a convert! I never thaught a front wheel drive alfa would put a smile on my face..
