Alfa's first hybrid arrives, Right to Repair bill lands in House, $1.8M V-12 hypercar sells out

[Hagerty]

Intake: Alfa Romeo has become the first car company to provide an NFT (Non-Fungible Token) to add value to a new car. In the case of the 2023 Tonale compact SUV, the NFT isn't a piece of digital art but a record of the car's history that's stored in the blockchain to keep it secure from hackers.
https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2022-02-08/

[GeorgeWA]

Alfa Romeo like it’s upscale sister division Maserati MUST get a hold of the Quality Build issues that continues to plague the auto-maker before it builds a Hybrid that’s has even more complicated stuff to go wrong…They produce such beautiful & performance enhanced cars but as an American that’s only bought German coupes&sedans since the early 1980’s I refuse to buy/lease a car that spends more time with the mechanics at the local Alfa dealer than it does with me… That all I hear about from Alfa owners “I love the car but the constant quality issues are insane@…

[Gary_Bechtold]

The right to repair is important. I thought existing laws covered that right and would be enough but anything that can strengthen that ability for third parties to have access to data is important.

Ram Electric Pickup? Just as useful / useless as the other ones will be in terms of towing. But it's perfect for the typical suburban truck owner who does no "truck stuff".

[MATTMERICA]

So Alfa, which has serious quality control issues (and before the alfa crowd gets all twisted up, you can believe what you want, but the Market has deemed the brand inferior and prone to issues, hence the abysmal resale value/depreciation curve) is going ot start using new tech and and NFT tech to help prop up value? I have seen it all.

[hyperv6]

It is not just Alfa but Italian models in general. Ferrari is far from trouble free. I just saw a Ferrari owner vent on electrical issues on his 8,000 mile Ferrari. 

How do you make a better Italian car. Let the Germans engineer it. Lamborghini used to be a total mess but now with the Audi people working in the cars they are better than they ever were. 

Sergio when the head of FCA followed his emotions for Alfa and Maserati vs common sense. He put the Ram and Jeep profits into these brands that did nothing to find then a merger partner easy. 

I love the Italian styling but quality it was never there.

As for right to repair. There are two sides to this. The People want to fix their own cars. But on the other hand the government emissions laws are so strict now that they could be held liable for something someone else does. Or they can refuse to touch what someone else messed up and then have a major customer service issue. 

Just one of the more reasons mfgs are wanting EV product. 

[ctaarman]

Right to repair is a good step but still inadequate. Take virtually any car over 10 years old and to find a replacement computer module for it anyehere but in a salvage yard is next to impossible. Yet, no third party company can engineer a replacement because the firmware/software is copyrighted and the auto manufacturers won't release it. Even a10 year old car with only 5,000 miles on it but having a control module fail will be obsolete. The manufacturers know it and like it that way.

The problem is only going to get worse as cars move from discrete control circuits to Ethernet networks within the car itself. And wait until you can't buy a car with the optional features on it, but rather have to pay for optional features annually every year on a subscription basis. It's coming.