Look, Alfa Romeo is just another global bland...er brand these days.
The heart and soul of the company was gutted from it when Fiat took
over and decided to base Alfas on Fiats and to go to FWD. I mean for
Alfa Romeo to go from being a company that built products that were
the best in the world in their day (and the pre-war Ferrari in
prestige, cost, and racing heritage) to being a re-badged Chrysler
product, is quite a fall from grace. Fiat has mismanaged the company
since they bought it - at least the Italian government left Alfa alone
(more or less) when they had the helm. Moving from Milan to Turin and
closing that huge Alfa factory at Arese makes no sense. At least they
didn't follow through with the plan to tear the factory down and
"develop" the property.
The Alfa that we knew and love is gone, I'm afraid. Our aging Alfas
are all that's left of a once glorious marque. We need to take care of
them so we can pass them along to the next generation of car lovers.
To paraphrase a song from the musical 'Camelot' - Don't let it be
forgot, that once there was a car, for one brief, shining hour, that
was known as Alfa Romeo. OK, it doesn't rhyme, but you get the idea.
George Graves
'86 GTV-6 3.0 'S'
On Dec 3, 2009, at 12:29 PM, John Brase wrote:
This from Autocar.uk
-----------------------------------
The Alfa Romeo brand's future has been put under review by Fiat CEO
Sergio
Marchionne.
With Alfa sales dropping and the brand losing money, Marchionne is
weighing up
how to refresh Alfa's line-up using Chrysler platforms.
"We need to work a lot harder on Alfa to make an intelligent
decision that
effectively preserves the highest possible value to Fiat,"
Marchionne told
Automotive News Europe.
Marchionne also stressed the need to adopt - and stick to - a long-
term
strategy with Alfa, in order to turn it into a profitable company,
citing the
company's numerous reinventions in recent years.
"We need to stop doing it. You cannot be a newborn Christian every
four years.
It's the same religion, eventually you need to own a religion and
carry it to
conclusion," said Marchionne.
Outlining Alfa's options, Marchionne said Alfa could replace the 159
and 166
with saloons built in North America on Chrysler platforms, but
unique to Alfa
and sold by Alfa worldwide.
"Certainly the availability of D and E segment (platforms) in the
United
States which are capable of being Alfa Romeoized is there. We need
to look at
the economics of that opportunity," Marchionne said.
Alternatively, investment in the brand could be frozen following the
launch of
the 147 replacement, which is now expected to be called the Giulietta.
That would leave Alfa with the Giulietta and the Mito as its only
fresh
models, with the 159, Brera Coupe, Spider and GT coupe continuing to
be sold.
Last year, Alfa sold 103,000 new cars compared with 203,000 in 2000.
The brand
has lost between 200 million (#182m) and 400 million euros (#364m) a
year in
the past 10 years, according to reports.
Marchionne - who also ruled out merging Alfa and Dodge - is expected
to
announce the future of Alfa in February or March next year.
---------------------------
John
Markleville, IN
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