Auto Italia Gaydon

[dave]

i only know of one non AI show that caters for all tastes of fiats, thats mitcar

ah i forgot that other brooklands one thats not AI is it?

 

[SkinzCinqSporting]

Seriously though, I'd love to have known what was going on in her mind,

"Oh, young blood, must poke long haired bearded one with lolly, stand around making beaver impressions then scuttle to the 500"

 

[centaur]

My photos from the event are now up in my gallery in its own album, if anyone wants to have a butchers.

 

[Dragonstone]

My photos from the event are now up in my gallery in its own album, if anyone wants to have a butchers.

Brill having a look thanks centaur I was dribbling allover someone's Lamborghini I forgot to take photos :bang:

 

[Guishnu]

Hi Chris

I agree with what others have said, I also feel I need to address a couple of things that have been mentioned by other clubs.

I do appreciate that we are invited as forum to these venues, like the clubs. But A few of club members mainly from the fiat and alfa side of things feel like they are second class against the lambos and Ferraris. I agree these are top class cars, the number of fiats and alphas that attend really do out number the higher market cars. Like i said these are concerns from other club members not just that of this forum.

Also I emailed Phil to ask him for a map - he didnt bother sending me one. When I complained on the day, he said "well its irrelavent now isnt it"

When our members came they didnt have a clue where we were supposed to be and I couldnt tell them either, it felt like a bit of a "whatever" atittude.

Also there was no mention of "club cards" as we are not a club we dont have club cards, but everyone of us were being asked for our club cards, some of our members thought they werent going to be allowed in.

What were the "clubcards" needed for? And why wasnt we told that we needed them - we havent needed them at any other event, or gaydon itself last year?

Any input would be much appreicated

sammi

Hi Sammi,
Maybe we can chat over email or PM (or, maybe even the phone) about some of you guys getting involved with the shows. I don't know if it's a possibility, but i will definatly look into it for next year's events.

I really do welcome the input that comes from this forum, it helps us improve the service we provide to the owners clubs/forums and hopefuly address any issues we have. So thanks very much for that.

To answer some of your questions, there were only 4 AI staff at this event, the rest were event staff from Gaydon. If there was an issue there, i will adress that for next year.

With regards to being asked for your membership card: The Lancia Owners club had a pre-aranged agreement with AI/Gaydon that was all part of them holding the lancia AGM at the event. The gate marshals where trying to inforce this arangement. I think they got a different coloured wrist band which entitled them entry into the conference suite etc.

 

[wimmy]

Hi Chris


What were the "clubcards" needed for? And why wasnt we told that we needed them - we havent needed them at any other event, or gaydon itself last year?


sammi

Clubcards were only required for the Lancia members as they were holding their AGM there in the meeting rooms inthe museum

 

[SchooweeNick]

where's the gallery?

Pics to post.

 

[sammiboo]

I am sure that the others can back me up on here - even whenn they said they were FIAT FORUM on the gates they still said wheres your clubcard etc?!

 

[sammiboo]

where's the gallery?

Pics to post.

Click on the link at the top of the forum thats titled "gallery"

 

[SchooweeNick]

what i mean is i cant find a gaydon titled gallery... is there one?

skeggy seems to be the last one on forum events..

 

[Guishnu]

I am sure that the others can back me up on here - even whenn they said they were FIAT FORUM on the gates they still said wheres your clubcard etc?!

Was not aware of this sammi,
Must have been a communication issue somewhere. You shouldn't have been prompted again after you said you were from the fiat forum.

Did you get my PM?

 

[sammiboo]

Hi chris

Yes ive got your PM

https://www.fiatforum.com/put-vote/78101-autoitalia-who-buys.html

will email you tonight when i am home from work

 

[sportingsmissus]

I am sure that the others can back me up on here - even whenn they said they were FIAT FORUM on the gates they still said wheres your clubcard etc?!

Me, Frank & Gaz were first FIAT Forum people their and a woman and a bloke on the gate said what do you mean you dont have a membership card? we were like well theres a load of us to turn up so she just said well ill take your money now and will sort it after

 

[Jai]

whilst i acknowledge the task of organising 3 major and numerous smaller events around the year and country is a complex one, it would appear that time and again, AI have not filtered down to the staff they use at local venues, that this is an Italian cars event, as you point out from hypercar to beat up hack, and as such the sniffy attitude received on entry, from staff who are in effect on the day, representing your publication, is unwelcome, condescending and demeaning. i'd estimate close to half the cars on the day were from the fiat end of the spectrum, at maybe 2 people per car, thats a lot of revenue for being treated second class within 10 seconds of arrival.

it reinforces the view that many hold, autoitalia caters for the lancias/alfas/maseratis/lambos/ferraris end of the market, and as much as possible ignores the fiat end. i wonder if the ferrari/lambo/et al organisers were are left just as much in the dark as us leading up to the event? or do the benefits of getting 10-20 owners to bring there cars in, outweigh 2-300?

 

[FuzzyPanda]

I've put loads of pictures in my gallery guys if you fancy a gander. Some of the shots have come out really well.

 

[SkinzCinqSporting]

Me, Frank & Gaz were first FIAT Forum people their and a woman and a bloke on the gate said what do you mean you dont have a membership card? we were like well theres a load of us to turn up so she just said well ill take your money now and will sort it after

She was really snobby as well, so what if my cinq's a little beat up you posh old bag!

 

[Guishnu]

Jai,
I think it's unfair to say that we favour one mark over another. If we (as you say) ignore the fiat brand all together, then why did we buy a fiat punto to run as a project car for the 2006/2007 season? (watch out for related editorial soon) We also have a feature on tuning a Fiat Marea JTD in issue 124 (on sale 6th october) Just to give you a quick run down...

• January (115) Fiat Sedici 4x4 feature + Fiat Marea Buyers guide
• Febuary (116) Fiat Grande Punto Feature + Fiat/Alfa Spider feature
• March (117) Fiat Grande Punto Diesel + "Tail of Two Fiats: Fiat Coupe Turbo and Fiat Punto 1.9jtd. Team Cars Editorial
• April (118) Forgotten Fiats Feature + Irish Fiat's feature (Croma)
• June (119) Turin - Fiat City Feature
• July (120) Fiat Sedici UK launch + Mk2 Fiat punto "modified" tripple test + Forgotten fiats (6 cylinder 1800)
• July (121) Fiat Ducato Van + Fiat Stile Bertone concept car
• September (122) Fiat Croma 2.4jtd test + Back to basics motorsport featuring the Moretti, panda arbarth, x19 trivello, x1/9 and autobianchi abarth a112
• Sept/Oct (123) Fiat Grande Punto 120 multijet road test + Forgoten Fiats - the Millecento

So really... we don't ignore you guys. We cover loads of stuff on fiat!

whilst i acknowledge the task of organising 3 major and numerous smaller events around the year and country is a complex one, it would appear that time and again, AI have not filtered down to the staff they use at local venues, that this is an Italian cars event, as you point out from hypercar to beat up hack, and as such the sniffy attitude received on entry, from staff who are in effect on the day, representing your publication, is unwelcome, condescending and demeaning. i'd estimate close to half the cars on the day were from the fiat end of the spectrum, at maybe 2 people per car, thats a lot of revenue for being treated second class within 10 seconds of arrival.

it reinforces the view that many hold, autoitalia caters for the lancias/alfas/maseratis/lambos/ferraris end of the market, and as much as possible ignores the fiat end. i wonder if the ferrari/lambo/et al organisers were are left just as much in the dark as us leading up to the event? or do the benefits of getting 10-20 owners to bring there cars in, outweigh 2-300?

 

[Jai]

again though your post has neatly sidestepped and diverted attention from the staff at the event, the ones who are representing your publication and its values. regardless, i'll ignore it as you have...

and yet the groundswell of opinion still reaches the same conclusion, theres too much of a bias away from the real world, as pointed out, perhaps your writers are unwilling to give up their freebies at ferraris expense, to roll their sleeves up and tear into fiat uk's abysmal customer service record on behalf of us. but then i suppose the thought of maseratis's parent company withdrawing "treats" because you dared to question their lack of commitment to their customers is too much to bear.

i walk into whsmith and see a mass of magazines in the motoring section, sometimes 4-5 devoted to just one marque, and see that i have one choice, but even that one carries almost nothing relevant, doesnt get to know the clubs, unless they have a dancing donkey, a 3 pointed fork, or mad cow on the front....

whilst i'm up here on my box at speakers corner, lets take a look at just 2 of the big news item since you joined in feb 06:

jim takes a panda to america and does the whole continent including various italian events at his own expense, with no back up team (the ferrari 550 across china....puh)
dunc rebuilds from scratch an uno tub, and creates a monster tarmac terrorist, practically in his own back yard

noticed? enquired about? covered?

real enthusiasts, way out there, the easy option is to go ford/vaux/saxo/japanese/etc, but these and countless others in here take another way, one that they may regret on a cold stormy night in the middle of nowhere when the coil pack decide to give up the ghost, but worth it for that crisp cold sunny morning when its just you, the road and a heavy right foot.

 

[Alex22]

or mad cow on the front....

lol dairylea lambo

sorry couldn't resist

 

[dave]

To answer some of your questions, there were only 4 AI staff at this event, the rest were event staff from Gaydon. If there was an issue there, i will adress that for next year.

that girl directing the cars was told to bunch all the fiats on our stand!

the lad at stanford couldn't even read the map he was given! so he also sent all the general public to our stand, this ended up with us who were trying to set our stand cars up getting in arguements with these people when we told them where they was supposed to be