I hope that's not true... the 8C is too sexy to be killed off. At least rebadge it as a limited edition Maserati then... I think 2008 for Alfa is too optimistic. Until Fiat resolves this whole GM put option, Alfa is not coming to the US. From what I've read Fiat is in a lot of trouble, so I'd say give them 5-10 years to sort everything out, then another 5 years to make a decision/business plan, establish a dealer network, and to design cars tailored to the US market. If they're going to return to the states, they've got to get it right, even if it takes longer than they expected. They already botched up once here in the US, so they can't afford to make another big mistake.
To avoid competition with the v-8 Maserati, Alfa should come out with their well admired V-6 in a slightly smaller, lighter 6-C Competizione in the same 8C body in the $50,000 range to knock the Porsche Boxster out of commanding that market niche. I would order one tomorrow. HEY Luca - hear me? If they do not, the computer generated pic I saw this week of the upcoming Lotus Elise 2+2 in that range will go a long way to get my hard earned dollar.
*I hope that's not true... the 8C is too sexy to be killed off. At least rebadge it as a limited edition Maserati then...* Copy-and-paste from EVO.... *...Plans to put the stunning Alfa 8c Competizione concept coupe into production have been scrapped at the 11th hour. The heartbreaking decision was taken by Luca di Montezemolo because he feared that the beautiful 8c would badly damage demand for the Fiat group's other great-looking rear-drive coupe, the Maserati 4200GT. The 8c was to be built on a tubular chassis, with a revised version of the Maserati's V8 drivetrain, but Alfa could not settle on a pricing strategy. With only a limited production run planned, the 8c would have had to be priced higher than the big-volume Maser, and this was at odds with the overall group strategy. It was also felt that the existing network of Alfa dealers was not set up to handle such a specialised, premium product available in very limited numbers. There is, however, a glimmer of light to come out of the 8c's sorry demise. Engineers have been ordered back to the drawing board to create a smaller coupe (possibly to be known as the Sprint) based on the next- generation Alfa 147. The team has been briefed to use as many styling cues from the 8c as possible, as Montezemolo still believes in the spirit of the idea. It will be a long wait, though. With not even an outline design in place, we don't expect the car to be ready before 2008 at the earliest...* http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/?evo/news%2Fevo_news_story.php%3Fid%3D52038 *I think 2008 for Alfa is too optimistic. Until Fiat resolves this whole GM put option, Alfa is not coming to the US. From what I've read Fiat is in a lot of trouble, so I'd say give them 5-10 years to sort everything out, then another 5 years to make a decision/business plan, establish a dealer network, and to design cars tailored to the US market. If they're going to return to the states, they've got to get it right, even if it takes longer than they expected. They already botched up once here in the US, so they can't afford to make another big mistake.* Maybe too optimistic, but I hope yours is too pessimistic....I really do hope!
Taking this post back to the past. Does anyone remember F.A.F. in Atlanta? That stood for Fiat Alfa Ferrari. Now, how many Fiats or Alfas do you remember seeing in their show room? Thats because they didn't go over too well in the US. I think if people learn from the past then we wouldv'e learned that the general public wouldn't quite get the cars we have come to love and once again they wouldn't go over too well. Now don't get me wrong I love my Gtv6 and all Alfas, but I just don't think that the company would survive too well in the US. It would be a miracle if the company would come across the lake and live well with the soccer mom driving mini vans.
this was in automotive news a few weeks back.. Alfa Romeo won't return to the U.S. in 2007 By Luca Ciferri Automotive News Europe / December 01, 2003 TURIN, Italy - Once again, Alfa Romeo has postponed its return to the United States. The Italian automaker will not re-enter the U.S. market in 2007 as planned, Fiat Group CEO Giuseppe Morchio told Automotive News Europe. An eventual return still is part of parent Fiat Group's strategy, but a date has not been set, Morchio said. "We have to fix our operations in Europe before we start thinking about North America." Alfa has postponed its return to the United States repeatedly since Fiat announced its strategic alliance with General Motors in 2000. At the time, Fiat said Alfa would introduce the redesigned two-seat Spider convertible in 2003. That introduction subsequently was postponed to 2004, then to 2005 and eventually to 2007. The first two delays resulted from design changes to the Spider's platform. Code-named Project 938, that platform was killed last year. Then Alfa decided to delay the Spider's return until it could introduce a complete range of new vehicles. Code-named Project 939, the new range includes four cars based on a platform that Alfa developed jointly with Saab. They will be redesigns of the 156 sedan and station wagon and the Spider and GTV coupe. All will appear in Europe in 2005 and 2006. Alfa also plans to introduce a crossover vehicle in 2006 and another in 2007. Alfa wants to introduce these cars in Europe before re-entering the U.S. market. It has projected sales of 50,000 to 60,000 cars a year in the United States. Alfa Romeo officially entered the U.S. market in 1952. A decade later, the company launched Alfa Romeo North America to distribute the cars. To expand its presence, Alfa Romeo started a distribution joint venture with the former Chrysler Corp. The joint venture's goal was to sell 25,000 to 30,000 units a year, but poor quality and reliability problems hampered sales. Alfa's best year in the United States was 1986, when it sold 8,201 cars. The Fiat Group acquired Alfa Romeo in 1987. Chrysler withdrew from the joint venture in 1991, but Alfa Romeo continued its sales operations on its own for a while. In 1995, it finally notified its 97 remaining dealers that it would stop exporting vehicles to the United States. In the United States, Alfa Romeo sold 414 cars in 1995, according to the Automotive News Data Center News of Alfa Romeo's delayed return to the United States comes at a time when Alfa is focusing on a turnaround in its core European markets. Through October, Alfa sold 138,631 units in western Europe. Compared with the year-ago period, Alfa Romeo's European sales were down 5.8 percent. That's a steeper decline than Alfa Romeo's rivals have suffered. In the first 10 months of 2003, industry sales in western Europe were down just 1.3 percent.
Unfortunately, that's quite true. Even some of the so-called car enthusiast have no clue about Alfas, their glorious history, their product line, and what they stand for. And, I'm not even talking about soccer moms or redneck SUV/pick-up truck owners. The ignorance stretches to many North American BMW/M-B owners as well, and it's these people who you'd think Alfa would cather to. I think Alfa, if it where ever to come back to North America (NA), would fail miserably not due to shoddy products (which, unfortunately, they are capable of producing), but due to ignorance not just on part of the sales people (or dealers who may sell them), but due to lack of knowledge about the brand by ordinary folks. And who is to blame for that? Alfa Romeo themselves, IMO. Staying out of the NA marketplace for too long, and poor marketing has killed them; I do not think they will ever recover. As much as I hate to say this, I think Alfa is better off to stay in Europe (and other World markets) where people appreciate the brand, and not waste precious funds on such things as trying to set itself up in NA.
Alfa needs to come back to the United states with infallable reliability...ultra high performance to price ratio beautiful styling with a coupe, convertible and sedan and with its mystique it would survive.. Any thing less than what mentioned above and its not worth coming back... The Italian mystique is still in its brand image... The product just needs to be top notch all the way around.. Over powered...underpriced and styling that exudes sensuality...
Alfa doesn't build cars for this market, anymore. They're not building sports cars, anymore. Commuter boxes with Italian reliability isn't the formula for the US market. The first thing they have to do is put the drive wheels back where they belong -- in the back. Tacking the GTV6 name onto a FWD commuter isn't the way to recapture past glories. I've heard that Alfa was planning to build a US targeted vehicle, based on the GM Epsilon platform -- like the Saab. Sending products like that would only sink Alfa's reputation further. If all Alfa has to offer is a Camry in Italian shoes, they needn't bother -- they've got zero chance against the Japanese competition - Lexus, Toyota, Accura, etc.
I don't know? I could go for a cTS V series with 400hp with sequential shift technology wrapped in some sexy Italian sheet metal.....for 50 grand... How about a pontiac Solstice chassis with an italian V6 with Sequential shift technology wrapped yet again in some sexy sheetmetal for 30 grand? The 147 is a nice car too...I'd say it would do well here in the US if priced well...(reminds me of the upcoming A3 5 door) Why shouldn't alfa benefit...? They just need bang for the buck....a ton of reliability and great service depts.... If they could pull that off...The NAME Alfa Romeo would give instant Brand identity.... Something corporations spend a fortune to advertize and create.. its all waiting for Alfa if they can get their act together.... The name evokes legends....to many americans even to this day...even if they have no idea what an alfa looks like etc... 18 grand to 55 grand should be the alfa target pricing..
Alfa has a chance in the US, though not with their current line up. What they need to do is go back to rear wheel drive if not AWD, put in 350+ hp, slap on a supercharger, give it some italian exotic looks, and try to achieve a 50/50 weight balance. They have to do it for under 55k, anything higher and people will pass up Alfa and go straight to the more established brands such as MB, BMW etc. Alfa needs to get something out that excels over the Japanese cars in power, looks and handling. Aim for something like the NSX with a 55k price tag and they may have a chance. Chris
Now there's somebody who doesn't remember why Fiat isn't in the US anymore. Fiat has never been able to run a decent dealer network in the US ... and I'm told they're not much better anywhere else. It was only a matter of months after Fiat took over Alfa that I bought my first Japanese car ... after one of the Fiatized Alfa dealers ruined the engine on my GTV-6. (For the ten years prior to that, I'd been driving Alfas.) Before that, I had a Fiat 124, and got to see the results of the "Oldsmobile/Fiat" or "Cadilac/Fiat" dealerships Fiat tried to work with GM before. Conan the wrench and aluminum components don't mix. While there's more aluminum on GM vehicles now, there still isn't the peak tuning requirement needed to keep Italians on song. A FWD Alfa serviced by GM dealers has "dismal flop" written all over it.
NO WAY! Alfa should not get involved in a battle with Porsches, high end BMW's, and M-B's. What they should do is to build cars like they had in the sixties - small, nible, relatively inexpensive (say, US$30-35K), RWD (if it can be helped, although the current 147's, and 156's are still fantastic handlers inspite of being FWD), drop-dead style, and naturally with a sound only an Alfa can make. Alfa needs to stick to such models, and not the ultra expensive, ultra complex models. That's how they will succeed, IMO. There are already too many expensive POS's running around - Alfa doesn't have to join that crowd. Alright, fine, make a Brera with a V8, and price it in a way that it competes with Porsches, but the bread-and-butter is where it's at. Alfa is fully capable - probably more so than anyone else in this World - of making a relatively cheap, but thrilling run-about. The Sud was cheap (in more ways than one, unfortunately), but it did well in EU to keep the marque going particularly with the young people aching for a bit of class. Give you a starting point (or more to Alfa) - an Alfa that has a four cylinder engine, makes 250HP, has reasonable torque (not like the Honda VTEC's), weighs max. 2500lbs, is about the size of a current 156 for a sedan or 147 for a hatch, does 0-100km/h in about 5.5 secods, tops out at 250km/h, brakes from 0-100km/h in record distance, does 1.0g's on a skid pad, does 5litres/100km, is red (hehe), has FIAMM musical trumpettes, Pirelli tyres, Carello headlamps (I prefer Cibie, but Carello for the sake of authicity will be alright too), six speed manual tranny, costs no more than US$30K....stuff like that...! I'd buy one right now if it was like that. Or just bring over the 147GTA and call it a day!!!
