It is self evident to me browsing various Alfa forums that there is a marked slow down of posting for all kinds of subjects Alfa owners and would be owners are used to seeing. Banter about modifications, repairs, hopes and dreams that one day this or that model may come into their hands. The shared heart ache of lost opportunities for letting one slip through their fingers.
Why is this so? What is the big picture for this turn down? Is it the fear of the inevitable cross over to E-transport. Abandon all hope now? Is it an all pervasive negativity about internal combustion ownership being an exercise in futility? Is it the complexity of new models discouraging the new generation to take hold of the reigns and foster a close bond with the machine? Is it global instability? Has Alfa Romeo become just a car ?
What is the big driving picture? Help me out here.
Facebook?
Agreed it will be a contributor but cannot possibly be the complete answer.
I'm with Bazz on this - there are a multitude of FB groups for every subset of Alfa owner, or Alfa problem, and responses are generally more likely to be in real time than traditional forums.
just the non face bookers left. This forum is a great resource and even a facebooker an enthusiast will join to be able to search a topic.
A measure of decline would be declining new memberships annually.
Perhaps the moderator does reports on new annual member numbers?
Mind you we are an ageing cohort, looking around at the annual alfesta..
lots of grey hair. Perhaps we are dying out and one day there will be just one old school alfa romeo on the road
giving the Cinturatos or P7's a work out : )
I reckon a lot of the forum members are also on FB (like me), and vice versa - an iron in every fire so to speak.
No reason they can't all happily co-exist.
Unfortunately I have no social media presence what so ever.
I mean really, TWIT-er . . . . . the name says it all. ::)
Quote from: poohbah on February 05, 2023, 05:47:08 PM
I reckon a lot of the forum members are also on FB (like me), and vice versa - an iron in every fire so to speak.
No reason they can't all happily co-exist.
Probably close to the mark on this one. Another factor will be that internet use has largely migrated to mobiles and tablets, instead of your good old PC or laptop. Useability of this forum on your mobile is pretty average and the archaic image size limits further impact this.
You are spot on about the trend to mobile and tablet, and their compatibility with older PC based forums like this.
Worse, the reality is that even FB and Twitter are also now jurassic "platforms of the past" used mainly by an older demographic. "The Kids" long ago migrated to other more instant media like TikTok, Twitch, Snapchat, Instagram and YouTube. And probably already moving to something else.
As a fella in his mid 50s, I'm an intermittent user of FB and occasionally YouTube. One positive is that Elon has essentially blown up Twitter, so one less to worry about. The rest I really don't get at all.
Agree with a lot of the points raised.....
I think its the demographic of the users of this forum. For example, i don't have any social media (FB or Twitter etc.) and tend to post on this site only when i have something to say/add/ask/comment on .... as opposed to some user on sites who just feel the need post daily, telling you which corn flakes they had for breakfast etc.
But yes 100%, the traffic has slowed on this site.
Cheers.
Hi everyone, agree with others thoughts. Like some I am not active on FB etc apart from keeping an eye on cars / parts via my wife's account! As well as online activity have also observed a slowdown in parts for sale on ebay, gumtree and so on. I wonder about the impact of post COVID life rationalisation / burnout / cost of living increases?
Taken on board all contributions so far.
I cannot help thinking that we have an Alfa elephant in the room. In the pre Face this Twit that era, the Forum participation was high from essentially two groups that consisted of those who knew their stuff and those who needed to know the same stuff. A lot of Alfa fraternity sharing taking place being central to the proceedings.
Underlining these exchanges was the rear wheel drive car (in the main)of varying engine capacity.
With the choice of Fiat taking new Alfa cars down a FWD road and installing many new features to keep up with the market competition has created a whole diverse range of service complexities that has taken hobbyist work on these cars almost out of reach. As usual, the diehards persist. Fiat is not alone here and many other brands would prefer the dealership to work on the cars alone.
Where in the past I could capably assist either a 105 or a 116 owner to solve a problem, I cannot honestly say that I am as conversant with FWD machinery and therefore the participation rate from me and other members like myself is naturally diminished. A number of FWD owners have also migrated to Forums dedicated to such vehicles taking their participation with them.
If FWD Alfas have put a fork in the road, I cannot wait to see the outcome of the E-Alfas when they hit the scene.
Meh,
I think it's more a generational thing.. cars are just not hip (to be square) anymore.
Should Alfa bring out an EV with Centro (Pininfarina, Bertone Zagato) styling and efficiency and handling to match.. the children may notice. Until then they're going to stay in their (parents) rooms
$hit got real, it's a new era. I hope you have somewhere to sleep
Thirty five years in IT.. I've no footprint either (other than Alfa).
I don't really think its FIAT taking Alfa "down the FWD road" that has 'taken hobbyist work on these cars almost out of reach'.
I'd say that is simply down to the incessant advance of technology in all vehicles since since the first iterations of electronic engine management and other control systems came into being.
That said, I was so chuffed with myself at being able to replace the non-functioning LCD infocentre screen in my GTA recently. Though it is positively prehistoric compared with the arrays of control systems, in-car tech and "driver assist" doodads installed in our daily commut-obile Subaru. I wouldn't dare try more myself than checking the oil, coolant and tyres on that ...
For the hobbyists...
Just collected my new radiator, to go into my '81 GTV.
Significantly bigger and more efficient core, but fits within the original frame. Bit annoyed I forgot to take pics of the old buggered one I removed, to show comparison.
This clip takes the Big Picture somewhere else but it is noteworthy and worrying at the same time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jB9SGwa9jD0 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jB9SGwa9jD0)
One of my favourite YT channels, along with Roadster Life.
social media replacing forums is the circle of life.
I remember when forums first started taking over from newsgroups. Sure, forums offered fancy formatting and image embedding, 'emoticons' etc - but also introduced us to moderators and site outages :/
That, and instead of everyone hanging out in alt.autos.alfa-romeo we now had alfisti scattered across dozens of different alfa forums.
I'm not on any social media and have no plans to change that, so if SM eventually kills the forums then I'll have to go back to reading books or something :D
This forum has been changing through the years. 35years ago there were a greater percentage of Alfa's on Australians roads and the people who drove them were enthusiasts who had been influenced by family members, who had owned Alfa's in the late 50's and 60's then past on the passion to their children. Then Japanese cars arrived in the 60's they were nowhere near as performance orientated as any Alfa of the period so the passion stayed on until the 80's. Then came the next generation of Japanese sports cars and they ran rings around our beloved cars, sales declined and stalled across the globe so Alfa sales in Australia were stopped by F.I.A.T. The F.I.A.T. takeover was I think the worst things that ever happened to our glorious Alfa Romeo car company. Then 20 years latter with the launch of the 156 a new breed of Alfa passion arrived some of the people who drove them had a connection to Alfa's of the past, and there were the people who were new to the marque with a very different attitude. a varied group with little enthusiasm for the brand and it's pedigree. Alfa sold a fair few 156 and 147 then through the F.I.A.T./General Motors merger the Alfa 159 was fitted with shit holden engines this was the most embarrassing thing I as an Alfisti had ever felt about the once great company, and it didn't help when just about every motoring journalist in the country or the world started their articles with some reference to Alfa's legendary UNreliability. Alfa struggled on selling Giulietta's and Mito's. I think a lot of these cars were sold to people with no passion for a sporty drive and joined this forum with one question about blue tooth connectivity or something similar and were never herd of again "one post wonders" they didn't come here to discuss their cars they just wanted a quick answer to fix their cars then on to face book with it's look at me ideology and no real answers to questions. Then came the 4C, at last rear drive fast and nimble then the Giorgio platform how good is this. F.I.A.T. has sparked new interest in the brand. Alfa returned to America sales were good at first but service was often criticized and sales dropped. Then Sergio Marchionne died that was sad news he was an Allie of the Alfa brand. Alfa lost the person most important to it's survival. The two door GTV on the Giorgio platform was dropped and a second SUV was announced and we were then told all Alfa's will be EV's by 2030. My new found hope for the company was lifted with the 4C and Giulia then dashed when they announced that the Giorgio platform was to be cancelled and new SUV's would be on Dodge and Puegeot platforms and not a sports car in sight. This forum has declined over the last few years with many of the regulars aging or falling ill and not participating as they did. I have been participating around this Alfa Romeo forum in different guises for 12yrs and have watched as the enthusiasm for real Alfa's the 105 and DeDion series cars has declined and the F.I.A.T. cars have become the dominant threads and the Stellantis cars might be in the future if Alfa Romeo and these forums still exist. Who knows what the different levels of social media will look like in 10 years. Sorry for the rant.
TEE Z2. I would not downgrade your contribution to a rant. I will say that you must have a brave pair of shorts that you wear when at the keyboard. However, I do hope there is enough realists amongst the Forum members to admit that sometimes the truth does bear some pain. Here is some more..
I have been seeing the evolution of the "trinket" offerings to entice buyers grow from an AM only radio to an AM/FM radio through to every conceivable ad-on nonsense imaginable driven by the competition between brands. All this crap ads complexity, weight, reliability problems,COST and the pressure to keep up with the "Joneses". This strategy of gimmicks is the downward spiral to extinction for manufacturers that cannot keep up. When they try, they start to lose credibility due to bullshit inconsequential faults that cause the brand to lose favor with customers. I mean, who really gives a shit if your rain sensing wiper trigger does not work. If you need you wipers on, surely you can make a decision to activate them or not. A completely non-essential gimmick and modern cars are full of this crap. Do you really need a closed window to drop to allow a pressure relief to make for an easy closing of the door followed by an automatic window wind up ?? !! Install a 20c permanent cabin vent that will do exactly the same for the life of the car for goodness sake.
By now you are getting the gist of my direction here. If Alfa is to follow all this lard arse gimmickry, they will never compete with the Chinese, Japanese and the new players from South Korea. What they should do is the opposite. Trim the model back to it's most simple configuration possible consistent with performance needs. Reduce the mass weight, improve the reliability and quit with notion that all Alfisti are the new BMW wallet carriers. Stop with the squillion features and get back to what made Alfa great in the first place-value for money off the shelf performance. Fiat needs a wake up call.
Nailed it MD. One of the things I hate most about all contemporary car reviews is they inevitably focus on all that sort of irrelevant crap - how good the graphics on the infotainment are, does it have park-assist, whether the mood lighting controls are intuitive, or is Car Play standard blah blah blah.
I love that my GTA (and prior 156s) doesn't even have cup holders - that's where this rubbish all started... Until I fixed the infocentre screen (myself) a few months back, I couldn't even read stuff like fuel consumption or range and had to rely on old fashioned calculation (which I've done in every car I've owned since driving a 71 Valiant Safari with dead fuel gauge from Perth to Melbourne in the early '90s). And I have never activated the cruise control in the GTA - assume it works but who cares. And when I reverse, I actually look over my shoulder and use my mirrors. How old fashioned of me.
If you buy a car for the doodads, you're not buying a car, you're buying an appliance.
Well if we're going to be realistic, no one makes a car anymore. What they make is a collection of computers on a integrated local area network, that just happen to have 4 wheels under it to get it around places. ::)
;D ;D ;D
The average person goes into a dealership with expectations that they will get a car packed with features, advertising promises that and the more features the better the car must be. "Free auto upgrade" means there is no manual option all those features don't work well with a three pedal car.
CAN BUS systems that connect various systems together via multiple computers that monitor all areas of the car these are needed for the car to run.
Stop start, lane assist, rain sensing wipers, light sensing xenon headlights, electric heated full adjustable seats, infotainment systems that need to be upgraded with each service, movement sensors, tyre pressure monitors none of these are needed.
I have a modern AWD wagon with all of the above it's ABS and stability control are life savers. Having the car steer itself to what it thinks is the correct part of a narrow back road is a little annoying the rest of the features are unnecessary, complex and add weight. My GTV6 has one computer and and a specific dual relay that is unobtainable. I can keep it going easily enough.
My 156 with it's direct injection engine and 150,000klm's I bought with overheating issues I fixed it with a new head gasket and a new rigid coolant pipe two new camshafts (half the lobes were round) and the carbon in the inlet tracks is a known problem with DI engines. I removed all the valves cleaned out the inlet ports lapped in the valves and replaced the camshafts and then drove it for another two years needing only an alternator and and two ignition coils and a litre of oil every 500klm's it was not a bad car but if it were rear drive and had a Busso I would still own it. I gave it a bloke down on his luck that knew alfas had tools and needed a car.
So your asking " WHAT IS MY POINT" I sound like an old man complaining about a changing world.
"Electronics are the new rust". When enough electronic parts fail or become unavailable the car is sent for recycling.
Is there anybody out there still wondering why the prices of classic cars is outpacing the new ones.. ??