Autocar - First for car news and reviews

Leslie Brook December 1, 2009 6:46 PM

Sadly, I have to ask, does it really matter. Is it a real Alfa like my beloved Alfasud? or just a re-bodied Fiat Bravo.

Andrew Lee December 1, 2009 6:53 PM

How much does it cost to re-name a car at the last minute?! Quite apart from the disastrous PR fallout...

ordinary bloke December 1, 2009 7:25 PM

I think I'd rather see Marchione pull the plug on the brand than allow it to adopt Chrysler platforms and just become somebody else's re-badged/bodied model.

VelSatis23 December 1, 2009 8:47 PM

Alfas already are just a bunch of rebadged cars.

Richard H December 1, 2009 9:55 PM

Audis are rebadged VWs, which are rebadged Skodas & SEATs.

Alfas are individual, unlike most of the opposition. The build quality is good and the dealer network is much improved.

I'd rather have an Alfa than follow all the other sheep to a german, or german based marque.

I love my Alfas, don't kill it, improve it!!

theop December 1, 2009 10:21 PM

the Alfa dealer network in this country is appalling. APPALLING. Today Don't want to think how it may have been once if things are getting better Richard.

Other than that, Alfas are cars you can fall for... to your own detriment...I can see the attraction, and actually in southern countries like Italy Spain or Greece where people pay much more attention to style and aesthetics from their car to their clothing and grooming, I understand why most of them would rather die than be seen in an Astra or a Focus....

On a personal level I love them, but feel shortchanged as they are nowhere near fulfilling their pedigree and glorious history, UNLIKE Porsche or Mercedes and Ferrari& Lamborghini all of whom are successfully milking (and minting) their histories to huge applause and success.. Now, why can't alfa do that?

Alfa should be the BMW of Italy. Everyone should want one for the dynamics. Forget the looks. It should first DRIVE impeccably and then look whatever... Look at BMW, they hardly lost any customers with their ghastly current 5series.... Thats because it drives better than anything else this size.... Rant over.

scrap December 1, 2009 10:37 PM

The new Saab 9-5 is caught in the same trap. A promising-looking car, but even if it does come to market, it's probably already doomed to failure.

For these two cars to be successes, they need conquest sales - a bad smell emanating from HQ will be all the reason some buyers need to make the safe choice and go back to their Ford/VW/BMW dealer.

pdmc December 1, 2009 11:07 PM

I am beginning to wonder who is in control of who following the FIAT / Chrysler tieup. Chrysler is to all intents and purposes a dead shell of a brand, with a poor identity, woeful product range and even worse engineering.

Alfa Romeo may be fighting extinction for a long time now, but it doesn't deserve either that or the indignity of having its badge applied to half arsed abominations from the above mentioned second rate brand.

Marchionne should be shot with balls of his own verbal diahorrea. He is beginning to make sounds not dissimilar to that complete moron Berlusconi.

Clearly he is neither the car man nor the genius he was proclaimed to be.

From now on I shall refer to this turncoat as 'Marionette'.

Def: A marionette is a puppet controlled from above using wires, formerly strings but dropped due to increased durability of wires; a marionette's puppeteer is called a manipulator.

GazzyP December 2, 2009 9:54 AM

This could be the car to make a huge difference to Alfa.  The first offical photo looks pretry decent, and certainly sets it apart from the the Golf/Astra/Focus club.

The dealers are massively improved, and with our new dealership in Surrey, they are being sold alongside Aston Martins with the same level of service you'd expect when you by a 100k car.  This can only help the brand.

What with the Germans voting it very highly in the recent JD Power survey - surely Alfa has the potential for a strong future?

But why would Marchionne starve the brand of investment? Surely it would be better to sell it, as it must have more value as it is now, rather than a money starved brand with aging models that it would be become?  Could we see the VW group snap it up?  A Golf based Alfa wouldnt be a bad thing after all.

The MiTo, Milano, with a revised 159, Spider, and Brera is a pretty strong range.  Lets hope this launch doesnt blow it all!

NeilR December 2, 2009 10:14 AM

I have been following Marchionne's statements to the press and I can only conclude that  there is no clear strategy for Alfa Romeo's future.

In an interview with 'Automotive News Europe' yesterday Marchionne said: "The heritage of the Alfa and Dodge brands is completely different, the DNA is completely different. We would lose a lot of the appeal of Alfa Romeo if we try to Americanize it through a merger with Dodge,"

Is this the same Marchionne who said previously in an 'Autocar' interview: “The level of competition between these two brands is tremendous because they are both going after the same customer, Dodge is the American muscle car, while Alfa Romeo is the European muscle car. How we dovetail these two brands is very important.”

BigEd December 2, 2009 10:18 AM

Garbage. Marchionne IS Superman!

Pol Medhi December 2, 2009 2:38 PM

What is Alfa? It was a marque that makes sports luxury saloons. Now it make Fiats. Damn. Mr SM why don't u sell Alfa to the Jaguar owners. Alfas based on the current crop of Jags will be fabulous. Ya Ya keep ur Fiat based craps as well. Happy!

disco.stu December 2, 2009 5:52 PM

<Rolls eyes> Guys, there is nothing wrong with Alfa basing their cars off other people's platforms.  It's how they do it which matters.  

Platform sharing is the only way forward for manufacturers in the 21st Century - VAG has already announced it wants the vast majority of its passenger cars (VW, Audi, Skoda, Seat, Bentley, Lamborghini)based on 4 basic platforms within the next decade.  

The current Golf platform underpins a wide variety of vehicles already, and the engineers have shown they can turn out a range of very good vehicles.  How they tune those platforms is more important than where they got them from, as long as the basic starting point is good enough.  

So Alfa sharing platforms with Fiat, Lancia, Maserati, Chrysler, Dodge or whoever else is inevitable - as long as they invest enough money to make them all different enough and don't just slap different badges and bumpers on them and try and pass them off as different.

FrankAlfa December 2, 2009 10:23 PM

Well it all sounds as thought Mr. Marchionne is doing a bit of message sending to his workers in Italy to improve the product and the quality control and it seems Mr. Marchionne is sending a clear, undilluted message to the Italian Government regarding them wanting Fiat Group to increase production and not close any plants!  

Yes, this would certainly make a much better Dodge Caliber then the one on the road today!  It could also be the basis for the new Jeep coming soon!

MattDB December 3, 2009 12:54 PM

I love Alfas to the point that I have come close to buying one at least 3 times.

Reason for not buying every time is the rubbish service from a dealer.

Last time I went along on a Sunday, to be told by a Fiat Sales Manager that no one from Alfa was in today.  I asked him to take my number and have someone call me on Monday.  He said he did not have a pen handy but gave me the business card for an Alfa colleague and told me to call him.  I decided against the Alfa as it would mean having to go there again which I couldn't bring myself to do.

I have bought used cars from traders on ebay and received better care and service, just not good enough from a main dealer!

Lets name and shame them, Desira in New Southgate, London!!

manicm December 3, 2009 10:22 PM

So Fiat is going to do a 'Saab' with Alfa - sink or swim?

Challenger440 December 5, 2009 7:10 PM

New Milanetto, or whatever it's called, looks kinda bloated and heavy and very Fiat Bravo like.  What happened to light?   It won't sell like a Focus, it wont feel as tight and nice 5 years on, the way a Golf does and it won't make you laugh like a Clio 197...  in short, I bet it doesn't sell.  Fiat and Alfa should both go back to basics and make cheap, light, sporty cars that are good to drive, make you smile and are real alternative to the Golf / Focus...  how hard can it be?

stagata1 December 9, 2009 10:27 AM

Think 147 replacement, and, how much of an impression on the market has the 147 made? Will history repeat itself? I like Alfas and have driven many including the Sud but I just can't bring myself to buy a new Alfa.