Alfa Romeo is coming back to North America

[doh]

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNew...2?s_name=Autos


Michael Vaughan -- In North America, the Alfa Romeo brand has been as limp as linguini since Dustin Hoffman drove one in "The Graduate."

What a marketing opportunity they had back in 1967 when millions of movie-goers watched Hoffman driving his boat-tail Alfa Spider back and forth across Southern California searching for Mrs. Robinson or daughter of same. All that Simon and Garfunkel music played over and over again put me off the movie, but I did admire the car.

That was the high point for Alfa on this side of the Atlantic as it was all downhill from there. Right after '67 there were years when Alfas couldn't even be imported to the U.S. because of new emissions and then crash standards.

The design of the Spider went all wrong too as they squared off the boat-tail and the previously rounded nose. The sedans were uninspiring, the prices were too high, the quality was too low and dealers were awful. For years they tried to flog the old Spider based on the movie's success even by re-naming it the Alfa Romeo Graduate. By the mid-nineties -- a couple of years after the ever-reliable Mazda Miata arrived on the scene -- Alfa Romeo in North America was toast.

They endured in Europe because Alfa had a reputation that began in 1910 and a great racing history from the 1920s and 1930s winning all the important races. Alfas are still thought of in Europe as Ferraris on a budget. The loyalists are termed Alfisti (plural of Alfista) although many gave up when Alfa ceased to be an independent state owned company and was acquired by Fiat. Things got even worse when General Motors bought 20 percent of Fiat.

Now we learn, for the umpteenth time, that Alfa Romeo is coming back to North America and -- wait for it -- the newest Alfa may be built in the Chrysler plant in Brampton, Ontario. Fiat now controls what's left of bankrupt Chrysler and Fiat seems ready to assemble the new Alfa Romeo 169 sedan in Brampton instead of Italy. The 169 is a sleek four door premium sedan that will probably start at around $60,000.

The Brampton plant is operating well below capacity at the present time churning out Chrysler 300s and Dodge Challengers and Chargers and it certainly needs a new product to keep it busy. There has been no official confirmation of the Brampton / Alfa Romeo plan and after many false starts in trying to get Alfa back to North America, who knows if this plan will ever to come to fruition.

Fiat is trying very hard to make some sense of its new acquisition. Former Toronto resident, and now chief executive of Fiat, Sergio Marchionne appears to think that Alfa has a better chance of catching on in North America than Fiat. Chrysler's dealer network might be the way to get Alfa Romeo back into the world's largest luxury car market.

Marchionne, who turned around the near bankrupt Fiat after taking over in 2004, is known as a hands-on, hard driving CEO. He has bought a residence in Birmingham, Michigan close to Chrysler headquarters and a short flight from his mother's home in Toronto. He's not trusting the hired help, especially the Chrysler hired help, to manage the integration of the two companies on their own. Who doesn't remember what a disaster the Daimler-Chrysler "merger of equals" was.

Marchionne has to figure out how to benefit from Fiat's risky new stake in Chrysler. Alfa Romeo may be a big part of the puzzle. Alfa needs to sell 250,000 cars a year to make money; right now they're only selling a little more than 100,000 a year. Maybe North America can suck up the difference -- but maybe not.

They do have an instant classic in the 8C Competizione. It's an Italian beauty with a V8 engine produced by Ferrari that cranks out 450 horsepower with a price tag of more than a quarter of a million U.S.

[njtex]

To hit 150,000 units here, Alpha would have to significantly beat even Saab's pricing structure (with rebates). Maybe start with a rebadged Fiat sedan priced under $25k?

[ne_one]

Gah... I'm not sure how hefty the rates are for replacing panels in signs but could Chrysler not budget to remove the mess obscuring the "Daimler" portion of their logo?

[Rick 2000]

Alfa -Romeo coming back......................yaaaaawn

[PAULSTS1]

Don't yawn Alfa Romeo left 16 years ago a widow, it is returning as an Heiress! Take one of the models already signed off for entry the 8C Competizione: A Ferrari V8, sexy Italian body, exotic switchgear, only 500 will be available for a starting price of $229,000.

Here's the Alfa Romeo link: http://www.alfaromeo.com/cgi-bin/pbr...spx?language=1 after if comes up: click on Models, then 8C then prepare to drop!

[ohmywrd8]

This will definitely mix up the automotive landscape. I think it's exciting. After all we haven't had any good new brands in the US for a while.

[JBsZ06]

The Alfa GTV was the first true drivers sports coupes..

the bmw 2002 was nothing compared to the GTV back in the day (before bumpers and emissions)

If alfa comes back with a superior performance than it will succeed..

If its middle of the road... for its market segment ....its a downhill run back to italy..

[zmanjr]

on one hand i think this can be a good thing for chrysler, on the other hand i also feel for the creditors that got the short end of the stick, like the state of Indiana and the money we invested into Chrysler. It is a double edge sword do you do whats right for the workers and keep them employed or do you do whats right for the creditors who took a bath in bankruptcy court like the state of indiana and have the possibility that chrysler will be dissolved and sold off. But even if they are sold off parts will live on maybe only jeep of course. The Ram could be bought by Nissan as they had a plan to base the next Titan and Tundra off the Ram but scraped that after the Fiat deal for some very stupid reason. I am not saying that chrysler should be sold off in pieces, just a thought. I also find it interesting that Fiat paid no cash for Chrysler. I also think that at some point that Fiat will close down the Chrysler brand for a Fiat Brand and perhaps Dodge since the rumors are that Fiat wants to create a Ram truck division. So dodge could be replaced with Fiat perhaps and Chrysler with Alfa perhaps. I think that Fiat only really wants Jeep from this deal... I say give Fiat 5 years tops and as few as 2 years to get rid of Chrysler and Dodge... Perhaps GM Chrysler and Ford should merge into one company called American Motors Group LLC. and since the government does own a high percentage of Gm and about 10% of Chrysler it can be done i think...

[fp115]

This will be interesting. But I don't think it will really catch on for a while...

[igotzzoom]

Originally Posted by PAULSTS1

Don't yawn Alfa Romeo left 16 years ago a widow, it is returning as an Heiress! Take one of the models already signed off for entry the 8C Competizione: A Ferrari V8, sexy Italian body, exotic switchgear, only 500 will be available for a starting price of $229,000.

Oh yeah! Nothing spells mass-market hit like a quarter-million dollar price tag![/sarcasm] I think Alfa needs to position itself just below Maserati. I'd say their pricing sweet-spot would be between $40-60k. Let's face it, Alfa will never be a mass-market brand in the U.S. along the same lines as Ford or Toyota. I think if they aimed for annual sales of between 50-100,000 annually, they could be successful.

[EllwynX]

Originally Posted by PAULSTS1

Don't yawn Alfa Romeo left 16 years ago a widow, it is returning as an Heiress! Take one of the models already signed off for entry the 8C Competizione: A Ferrari V8, sexy Italian body, exotic switchgear, only 500 will be available for a starting price of $229,000.

Here's the Alfa Romeo link: http://www.alfaromeo.com/cgi-bin/pbr...spx?language=1 after if comes up: click on Models, then 8C then prepare to drop!

I like the GT and the Brera. And to a lesser degree the Spyder (not the 8C Spyder). But that's all.

[CadiEldo67]

Yeah I'd only be excited if I could get a Brera 3.2 for a decent price tag. If you go on Youtube and listen it sounds amazing and I know it's a GM/Holden engine but I can't remember if it's based on the HF V6 or what.

[PAULSTS1]

Originally Posted by igotzzoom

Oh yeah! Nothing spells mass-market hit like a quarter-million dollar price tag![/sarcasm] I think Alfa needs to position itself just below Maserati. I'd say their pricing sweet-spot would be between $40-60k. Let's face it, Alfa will never be a mass-market brand in the U.S. along the same lines as Ford or Toyota. I think if they aimed for annual sales of between 50-100,000 annually, they could be successful.

No sarcasm intended but you do realize that Maserati, Ferrari, Alfa Romeo all share the same Parent Company, Fiat SPA, don't you? That means they understand the business, would not one think? Also they just acquired Chrysler so they have plenty to sell.

[Burnout Czar]

Originally Posted by PAULSTS1

No sarcasm intended but you do realize that Maserati, Ferrari, Alfa Romeo all share the same Parent Company, Fiat SPA, don't you? That means they understand the business, would not one think? Also they just acquired Chrysler so they have plenty to sell.

I'm not exactly sure FIAT understands anything........

[SullyND]

Originally Posted by zmanjr

The Ram could be bought by Nissan as they had a plan to base the next Titan and Tundra off the Ram but scraped that after the Fiat deal for some very stupid reason.

A Nissan Tundra based on a Dodge Ram???



Huh?