Re: Those Colorful European Audis

[Tom Nas <tnas@euronet.nl>]

>In response to my recent post on Audi colors/interiors, Tom Nas
>identifies quattro GmbH as the perpetrator of all those striking color
>combinations.  Sure enough one of my catalogs is from quattro GmbH.
>Not being a reader of German, I unreflectively assumed it to be part of
>the Audi organization,.  But is it?

It is. It's the specialist car division, specializing in handmade cars.
Sounds like the place to visit...

  Does quattro GmbH repaint and
>retrim new Audis?  Used Audis?  Just quattros?  Inquiring minds want
>to know.

As far as I know- as long as you pay them, they'd even modify a '71 Trabant
for you. But most of their business comes from the Audi factories, for whom
they do the special orders.
>
>Thanks, too, for Tom's clarification about Lancia; 1000 colors sounded
>like an awful lot.  So does 112, for that matter.  And only for one model,
>the Ypsilon?  The logic escapes me, but if Tom has seen enough
>examples to pronounce most of them nauseating, there must be
>something to it.
>
There actually is one nice colour I've seen- a dark green metallic. Since
the car itself is a little weird-looking (it's actually a luxury Fiat
Punto- a Polo-sized car) I guess they wanted to make individuality its main
selling point. How do I know about the 112 colours? Well, they plastered
the advertisement all over Holland's buses. The rest of the Lancia lineup
seems to consist of cars that make a 'chic' statement for people who think
Fiats are too plain. My next-door neighbour looked into buying a Lancia
(I've forgotten which one, but it was large) and he had a choice of only
seven or eight colours.
The Ypsilon excercise seems like testing the market if there's an actual
interest in special colours. As the Ypsilon is selling really badly, I'd
say there isn't...

Tom

 _______________________________________________________________________
 Tom Nas                                          Zeist, The Netherlands
 tnas@euronet.nl

    Time is the best teacher.  Unfortunately, it kills all its pupils.
                                        -- Hector-Louis Berlioz