Why do I side with the EPA on this one?
Two reasons.
First- my company has no wiggle room to sell cars in the US on this aspect, why should anyone else? You think this is some type or protectionism for the US manufacturers? THat is the biggest load of BS of the whole arguemnt. We spend millions of $$ to make sure cars pass emissions and safety. If we have to do it, so does everyone else. I've even worked with the small company Aston Martin- NO wiggle room for them either in the US. Why should some company who wants to sell cars get some special treatment. They should NOT. I love Alfa Romeo, but nobody gets a break, it's just not fair to the big companies like mine.
Second- the EPA just enforces the laws they are told to write by Congress. If anyone is to blame is Congress. But, again, this was a fraud case, not a pollutant case. While the EPA does have the power to impound and crush cars, they rarely do so- they would much rather send a car back to it's home. I have a LOT of friends at the EPA, most of them are serious car people, a couple are serious Alfisti. One in particular
Side note- that particular EPA person would LOVE to have a new 166. But wants it in a legal and fair manner.
Friends of friends were burned on this program- from what I heard, people who wanted to be dealers were burned twice- once by Autodelta, the other by Alfa, who refused to do business with Autodelta people, no matter the lenght of time they've worked with Alfa Romeo.
If you are going to do it, do it right. I don't want to be looking over my shoulder when driving my new Alfa.
