For the past 25 years, the relaunch of Alfa Romeo has been a staple auto news story. But, finally, it looks as if the brand has gained traction.
It’s thought that Alfa sold around 170,000 cars in 2017 – the majority of them the more upmarket and expensive Giulia and Stelvio SUV – a jump of about 60% on 2016.
Alfa Romeo Giulia coupe to pack 641bhp with F1 hybrid tech
Unsurprisingly, it’s the Stelvio that is making the most headway. According to JATO Dynamics, in February this year, the SUV outsold the Porsche Macan across the 28 EU markets. The Stelvio was also well ahead of the Jaguar F-Pace.
No surprise, then, that Alfa will be rolling out an even bigger luxury SUV after the Stelvio has been so well-accepted by the European market. The profit margins for luxury SUVs are especially handsome.
Conventional wisdom said the market for luxury coupés was in irreversible decline, but Alfa’s product planners have probably been keenly eyeing Audi’s success with its A5 coupé and A5 Sportback models and BMW’s strong-selling 4 Series range.
It’s also possible to imagine a five-door Giulia coupé, especially as sales of the A5 Sportback were a stunning 67,700 in 2017.
Join the debate
xxxx
Market position
why do they still make the MiTo?
FMS
Why do you keep posting
Why do you keep posting nonsensical, irrelevant, pointless nonsense/. TWIT
xxxx
170,000
Why is it only thought? surely there's info out there to write an article with an actually figure?
Anyway great to see some competition for the germans but the Mito and Guilietta are outdated, sell in ever decreasing numbers and will probably be dropped within a year. That shortfall of 55,000 will have to be met so hopefully a premium C segemnt will be coming out soon!!
GODFATHER
Problems ahead
the first year is always the peak so the sales will start to drop off as the hype deteriorates. Keeping the models relevant is where the Italian stumble. Just look at Maserati who where flying high when the models were first launched and now their a couple years old they are on their knees.
Jaguar on the other hand seem to take a life time bringing the high performance cars almost like they don’t want to. Ironically Alfa have shown what high performance models can do to rejuvenate the brand image.
GODFATHER
Problems ahead
the first year is always the peak so the sales will start to drop off as the hype deteriorates. Keeping the models relevant is where the Italian stumble. Just look at Maserati who where flying high when the models were first launched and now their a couple years old they are on their knees.
Jaguar on the other hand seem to take a life time bringing the high performance cars almost like they don’t want to. Ironically Alfa have shown what high performance models can do to rejuvenate the brand image.
WallMeerkat
As you keep saying xxxx, they
As you keep saying xxxx, they still have the aging MiTo and Guilietta on their books.
Seems to be an Italian thing, to keep small hatchbacks going as long as possible. The Fiat Punto was still on sale until recently, and the 500 has seen a couple of generations of MINI come and go.
These are the remains of the previous FWD Alfa generation. If they're selling in small numbers they aren't making much of an impact of sales, dropping them shouldn't make any difference.
I'd say Alfa would want to consolidate the premium large models before looking at small hatchbacks again. Especially if SUVs are a particular cashcow.
abkq
Of course Alfa's back-on-form
Of course Alfa's back-on-form is to be welcomed. But I suggest, controversially, that this is achieved on the driving dynamics of its cars rather than on its looks.
At some point in Alfa's history, some designer invented the vertical grille, which turns out to be a very strong visual statement and has served and continues to serve Alfa well.
Although the rest of the Giulia looks fine the rest of the Stevio remains an awkward piece of design. In profile especially. The way the glasshouse flows from front to back is bereft of confident ideas or articulation. There is no Alfa 'signature' about this generic profile.
The Mito & Giuletta are both design failures (I don't think this is controversial). Their replacements need a strong visual language that goes beyond the narrow vertical grille. However I am not confident that the Italians are still capable of producing echt-Italian designs now that the great design houses are but shadows of their former selves.
WallMeerkat
The vertical grille can look
The vertical grille can look good - see the 156 and 159 for example.
And if the MiTo had 159 style headlights it could've looked like a contemporary Ibiza.
https://imgur.com/uVHA8h4.jpg
I don't get the googly lights.
And as for the SUV - it's difficult to make these things elegant when they're just a fat arsed slab sided lump of steel and glass. It's like complaining that there are no sumo wrestler supermodels.
Jimbbobw1977
The issue with the Mito is
The issue with the Mito is that the interior was terrible when it was launched and just awful now, it was never good to drive having a rock hard ride and horrible elastic band steering.
The Guiletta to be honest was quite good to drive with a decent ride quality, the interior was okay not great though.
The range they have introduced seems to be good, however testers have reported a few electrical issues. Would be nice to see more on the road and break up the boring typical German saloon/suv choice
xxxx
MiTo. Axe to grind
I actually owned one for 12 months. On the plus side it was comfortable, on the negative side trim actually fell off (bonnet release and seat adjusters) and it's still the only car or motorbike that's let me down, sometimes when you started it the power steering wouldn't work.
Another bug bear was that you could feel the steering column rotating against your foot if you rested your foot in the wrong place when reversing.
That should drop it and bring out a post/premium A3 competitor!!!
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