Do chip-shop owners only drive Fiats & Alfas?

tc20

....well?

Its always struck me that you never see the owner of a (Italian) chippers in anything other than models from either Fiat or Alfa Romeo, and quite often they are the sporting or Abarth versions.
I'm not taking the mickey, i think supporting your indigeneous motor industry is a admirable thing to do (supporting any homegrown industry is good, but lets stick with motors for now).
When England had a motor industry to speak of, the owner of the local mill or stell works would waft about in his Jag, or Roller if he made it big.
German plutocrats would storm down the autobahn in their S classes, big US oilmen in their Cadillacs.

So, apart from the question in the thread title, if we had an Irish motor industry, would people drive a Shamrock (im not gonna say Rover ) saloon?

jjbrien

Used to work in a fiat garage for my dad when I was younger so can relate to this. There was 2 Italian chip shop owners in the town one drove an alfa and th other a fiat. But that is only one town in Ireland. Another one in a town neaby had a fait van and a alfa car. You coudl be on to something.

Anan1

I've noticed the Italian car/chip shop thing before too. Would I drive an Irish car if there were such a thing? It'd depend what it were like, I suppose. In that regard, maybe the Italians are just lucky.

crosstownk

I've noticed this a lot, but recently my local chipper guy has bought himself an 07 Passat TDI. When I used to work in a VW dealer, we had a few chippy owners who had VWs.

tc20

crosstownk wrote:

I've noticed this a lot, but recently my local chipper guy has bought himself an 07 Passat TDI. When I used to work in a VW dealer, we had a few chippy owners who had VWs.

maybe they sell bratwursts and wiener schnitzel...

Gatster

Italian lads up the road who own a Chipper have a Golf GTI and a screwed looking Alfa 156 has appeared of late...

colm_mcm

Italians tend to be patriotic car-wise, loads of Lancias, Alfas and Fiats in Italy.

peasant

That's because Italians have something that very few other nations have in such abundance ...

...its called taste and style.

Anan1

colm_mcm wrote:

Italians tend to be patriotic car-wise, loads of Lancias, Alfas and Fiats in Italy.

I'm not convinced that patriotism has anything to do with it. Perhaps Italian cars just suit the Italian outlook?

colm_mcm

.......it's not what you do, it's how you look doing it?

The tax man

Know of one shop owner that drove a Nissan 200sx.

kyote00

I think the chipper business is doing lot better near me ---- as one well known chain owner drives a maserati quatroporte and another guy has a S class merc....

pburns

Yeah, I noticed the chipper/Fiat/Alfa thing years ago. I think it's dying out as a new generation come up though...

Does anyone know when the Italians started coming in and setting up chippies? I heard somewhere that they're all from the same region of Italy...

maidhc

tc20 wrote:

So, apart from the question in the thread title, if we had an Irish motor industry, would people drive a Shamrock (im not gonna say Rover ) saloon?

what about.... Fords...

They have stronger ties to Ireland than any other co. Uncle Henry set up a factory in Cork for no reason other than his family ties. Henry Ford & Son still trade here, which if anyone knows any Ford history is a nice touch. Its a pity that economic realities forced Fordson and later Ford out of the City, but still I think Irish people have a close enough association with Henry's stuff.

redman

peasant wrote:

That's because Italians have something that very few other nations have in such abundance ...

...its called taste and style.

Zaph

My father sold Fiats and Lancias about 20 years ago and chip shop owners were a very important market segment for the garage. Most of them used to pay in cash too.

tc20

maidhc wrote:

what about.... Fords...

They have stronger ties to Ireland than any other co. Uncle Henry set up a factory in Cork for no reason other than his family ties. Henry Ford & Son still trade here, which if anyone knows any Ford history is a nice touch. Its a pity that economic realities forced Fordson and later Ford out of the City, but still I think Irish people have a close enough association with Henry's stuff.

maidhc, i'm aware of the Ford connections to Ireland, and yes they're probably the closest we've ever come to having our 'own' car industry. Also very true when you mention Irish association to Mr Fords products, but id say its not as strong as it was, definitely in the last two decades.

When you say Henry Ford & Son still trade (in Cork, i take it), in what capacity? Just curious...

maidhc

tc20 wrote:

When you say Henry Ford & Son still trade (in Cork, i take it), in what capacity? Just curious...

Only importers I'm afraid. The name of course goes back to Henry's association with the tractor industry, when Henry Ford & Son was set up to sell the Fordson as the other shareholders in Ford didn't approve.

The connection definately isn't as strong as it once was, although there generally seems to be far more interest in Ford classic cars than in, say Opels.

tc20

^ its a tenuos (sp) link, but at least its still there. They're importing machinery parts and the like?

stovelid

crosstownk wrote:

I've noticed this a lot, but recently my local chipper guy has bought himself an 07 Passat TDI. When I used to work in a VW dealer, we had a few chippy owners who had VWs.

Where is this chipper? Must avoid it...

michaelanthony

There were two italian brothers (about 30) who owned a chip shop in rathangan and were in trying to buy a new 730Ld(about 110,000) but the the wife of one of them wan't happy about it so they backed out.