Posted on 12/22/2012 1:06:21 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Fiat has been talking about Alfa Romeo’s return to the U.S. for more a decade—check out the timeline—but CEO Sergio Marchionne has finally made the decision: After nearly 20 years away, the brand will start selling cars here again in 2014. (We’ll believe it when we see it, but let’s play along for now.) The return to the States is part of a large revamp of the brand that will see a number of new models introduced in the U.S., Europe, and around the world, and this Alfa renaissance will lean heavily on alliances with Fiat, Chrysler, and Mazda. Read on for the latest intelligence from Italy, as well to see renderings of how we think the new Alfas will look.
Giulia Sedan
The central and first piece of Alfa’s U.S. relaunch will be the new Giulia sedan shown above. (A wagon will be sold elsewhere, but won’t make it here.) Based on the Compact U.S. Wide (CUSW) platform—a stretched version of the architecture used for Alfa’s Giulietta compact—that underpins the new Dodge Dart, the new Giulia will take aim at the Audi A4 when it arrives in 2014. In an effort to minimize cost, the first new Alfa to be offered in this country for nearly two decades will be built here, too.
The new Giulia’s CUSW bones also sit under the Fiat Viaggio, the Italian marque’s reworked Dart for the Chinese market. In selling two vehicles with volume aspirations in the U.S. and China under Italian nameplates, Marchionne is hopeful that this is the first step toward making Fiat as a whole a truly global player.
The Giulia will share components with the next-generation Chrysler 200 and will offer the Pentastar V-6 engine...
(Excerpt) Read more at caranddriver.com ...
Oh lordy. It will combine Italian engineering with UAW workmanship. What could possibly go wrong?
If only they could strike a deal with Lucas Electric to provide all electrical components.
(sorry, then Yugo would sue for copyright infringements)
I’m all for this. If you’re going to have a crappy car, at least get a pretty one.
D*mn, that Alfa was my first car as an undergrad.
Fun, fun, fun, albeit with Microsoft reliability.
But...
I would do it again.
I've actually liked what Fiat has done with Chrysler thus far. They hold the brand heritage of Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep in much higher esteem than the Germans ever did, and appear to actually understand it. The styling refresh of the Charger was very nice, much more sleek with great heritage cues.
I've had my misgivings about the Dart, being essentially an Alfa restyled for the US. Having seen a few in person, they're appealing visually for the more affordable segment, appear well put together and are selling well.
Time will tell on reliability for all of them. Chrysler had some problems of longstanding, or at least the impression of it, in their transmissions and their build quality. Daimler didn't seem to have done much about it, and introduced some very ugly cars during their tenure, regardless of underpinnings. The 300C was the only nice one of the bunch and even it was sort of blocky and tanklike, with gunslits for windows. The refresh for the 300 under Fiat has been nice, too, addressing that blockiness and visual heaviness.
I just wish they'd understood the origin of the “face” on that car, coming from a famous set of concept cars as it did. Nice as their rework is, that was all but lost.
wait til you get a load of the 8C - sweeeet!
Let’s see, a 750 Spyder back in the 60’s, then a ‘74 GTV, then a ‘79 Alfetta Sport Sedan (probably the favorite), followed by a 1966 2600 Roadster, and then a 1974 Spyder, and finally a 1961 101 Spyder. Have I left any out?
Loved everyone of them.
Don’t forget the Girling hydraulics.
Will they come with a little complimentary bag of rust in the glove compartment? (Just for old times’ sake?)
It won’t really be the true FIAT experience until it has a carb that needs to be adjusted to suit the current local weather conditions.
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