First it was SAAB, now...

VolvoMan · 01-12-2009 11:37pm #1

....it might be Alfa who are up for the chop: http://www.autocar.co.uk/News/NewsArticle/AllCars/245481/

mike65 · 01-12-2009 11:47pm

I suppose making nifty hatchbacks and coupes is out of the question?

samsemtex · 01-12-2009 11:50pm

i wouldnt be too worried there. Sure they are planning on expanding Alfa into the US arent they? No way Alfa will go the same way as Saab. FIAT arent in trouble and they are a brand with a lot more love than Saab. The thing about Saab is people stopped caring about them years ago. Thats not the case with Alfa.

unkel · 02-12-2009 12:05am

That article doesn't make much sense. Possibly made out of a pile of mis-quotations? Marchionne turned around FIAT from being a loser to being a winner. The man is a legend. In my book he is in the top 10 people ever who have been important to motoring.

L1011 · 02-12-2009 12:09am

They wouldn't mess with Alfa without first sorting out the basket case that is Lancia first, basically. Slow news week in the Autocar offices, methinks.

RobAMerc · 02-12-2009 10:32am

I think the idea of rebranding a Chrysler as an Alfa for Europe shows that Marchionne, while having shown to be brilliant business man in turing around Fiats fortunes, may not really get the Alfa brand.

Alfa do not need another mediocre product hoping to trade on the badge.

VolvoMan · 02-12-2009 1:23pm

RobAMerc wrote: »

I think the idea of rebranding a Chrysler as an Alfa for Europe shows that Marchionne, while having shown to be brilliant business man in turing around Fiats fortunes, may not really get the Alfa brand.

Whatever Marchionne is, he is unwise to be spouting this stuff on the eve of the launch of a totally new car, if it's true that is.

alias no.9 · 02-12-2009 1:48pm

Did I read the same article as some of you? Leaving out the Autocar fluff, Marchionnes quotes seem to be about strategies to make Alfa Romeo profitable, or did I miss something. Without any large Fiat platforms to base future large Alfas on, they're looking at Chrysler platforms which, to quote Marchionne from the article "are capable of being Alfa Romeoized". The 75 was the last Alfa that didn't share a platform and/or significant components with another marque, why is it a surprise that they're now looking for a platform sharing opportunity for future cars? Sounds like sensible business to me, exploiting the available resources. If you consider the 145, 146, 147, 155, 156, GT, GTV and Spyder all trace their origins back to the Fiat Tipo, I'm pretty sure they can find something useful to do with the 300C as the starting point.

unkel · 02-12-2009 2:25pm

alias no.9 wrote: »

If you consider the 145, 146, 147, 155, 156, GT, GTV and Spyder all trace their origins back to the Fiat Tipo

Where did you get that from? The last Tipo was years out of production (about '95) before the 156 was launched - on an entirely new platform iirc?

alias no.9 · 02-12-2009 2:50pm

unkel wrote: »

Where did you get that from? The last Tipo was years out of production (about '95) before the 156 was launched - on an entirely new platform iirc?

The 156 was based on the Tipo derived 155, with the wheelbase lengthened by a couple of inches. The Lancia Lybra also used this lengthened platform dispite bearing outward similarities to the Marea, which was underpinned by a recycled standard wheelbase Fiat Tipo platform. The 147 was heavily leveraged from the 156 but used the shorter wheelbase version of the recycled Tipo platform. The Tipo is long forgotten, but it's still hiding under some much newer metal.

First it was SAAB, now...

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