Alfa USA 2013/2014

One potential reason for limiting production is the lack of dealer coverage. I think Porsche has had to massively expand their dealerships with their new product lines. Ford / Jaguar made the mistake of expanding in anticipation of the X-type being very successful. I doubt Fiat / Alfa can use Chrysler dealers to service the cars, especially on short notice.

 

Doesn't explain the world wide restriction. There's a lot of Alfa dealers out there outside the US. Hell, there's a dealership in Tahiti and Vietnam!


http://www.alfaromeo.com/com/#/choose-a-country

 

Glad I found this thread.

The 4C looks great and I've been excited about it since they first revealed it. It sounds like it could be a good competitor for the boxster/cayman.

Too bad it sounds like Alfa isn't letting it reach it's potential. How sad.

 

Sergio is playing hardball with the labour unions in Italy and that may explain the delays in the introductions of new models and the restrictions in the number of cars produced.
So far the armwrestling has not gone well for Italy with Sergio turning to Serbia and making investments in the old Crvena Zastava plant for new cars production.
He is also maximizing the synergy with Chrysler by selling those cars in Italy with the Lancia badge.
The new Chrysler 200 is now the new Lancia Flavia!

 

Alfa dealers in Europe are not happy. Alfa stopped the production of the 159 in September 2011 without having a new car to replace it. Same thing happened a couple of years ago with the 166. A new model that will replace both the 159 and 166 is not expected before 2013. The only new cars you can now buy at an Alfa dealer are the Mito and the Giuletta. A sad situation for Alfisti. The last 30 or so years Alfas have always been cheaper then German cars, they had to be else nobody would have bought them. They lacked the quality and were worthless on the second hand market. Things started to change with the 156, which was a big success here in Belgium. My local dealer tripled his turnover with the release of the 156. I read here that people want to compare Alfa with Porsche? Alfas are small cheap economic hatchbacks in an Italian dress. 75% of the Alfas sold here in Belgium are diesels. Porsche makes cars for a completely different market. This could change, but I don't see it happening...

 

Alfa SHOULD be marketed as an alternative to the smaller BMWs/Audis...

 

The 4c is going to be a small lightweight car, something like 1900lbs. Think lotus exige in an italian suit. This may blow a boxter away on the road and track, but the buyer demnographic is going to have small overlap. The poeple who buy boxters in auto to pose around are not going to buy the Alfa which will be small noisy bumpy and not luxury in comparrision. The few who buy a boxter s whatever may consider a 4c.

I would speculate that for the firts 2 years they will sell all 2500 then when everybody who wants suchg an animal has one sales will begin to wither.

Look at the lotus elsie/exige, they sold 2500 here in of and maybe 100 last year. Many were bought by people who then could not live with the reality of such an focused small car and then sold to enthisiasts, of which there is a large group. If you go to a trackday, there are probably more loti than any single other car, yet there production was maybe 10% of corvette production in the best year, which was 05. Hopefully the 4c will be an ever better proposition to drive.

 

Can't wait for Alfa Romeo to be back!

 

I completely agree. And, there was a time when they were in the US.

 

I remember that time well.....BMW and Audi stayed in private hands, the Italian Government ran Alfa, 'nuf said....let's hope SM can at least put them on the path back to glory...it could be a home run if done properly.

If I were in SM's shoes, I'd do the new spider, rwd Guilia and the small suv as Alfas (which he is doing) but I would have done the 4C as a Lancia and marketed it/styled it as a spiritual successor to the Stratos, and I would have also done a new Delta, with all the cars sold at the Fiat Studios...my 2 cents...

 

I drive a rwd 325 so the Guilia would be my DD also. 1.8 T sounds good to me. This car needs to be to alfa what the first gen a4 was to audi.

AS for the Spider if it delivers the goods in terms of looks, driving dynamics and brio, pricing will be less of a factor.

 

http://www.insideline.com/bmw/bmw-toyota-plan-to-jointly-develop-sports-cars.html

looks like automakers need to hook up in order to share the development costs, not unlike Alfa/Mazda.

 

One of my guys bought the Scion FR-S and it's a pretty nice car. The rear looks Italian and the front Japanese. He likes it a lot.

 

Amen. This has completely ruined the lines of more cars than I can count. Modern BMW's and Mercs seem the worst. They look like trucks.

 

Love that Spider.

 

Looks Boxster-ish in the front headlights but I like it also. Desperately needed IMHO in terms of choice.

EU regs will result in cookie-cutter cars.

 

http://www.caranddriver.com/photos-12q2/463344/2014-mazda-mx-5-miata-artists-rendering-photo-463346

Mazda's version???? Possibly....

 

the new viper
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I'm assuming the Alfa will have more power.....