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According to the Freep, Fiat’s Sergio Marchionne is planning on running its Alfa Romeo right at the heart of the established import luxury market. With an LX-platform 169 sedan (still an acknowledged maybe) and a “GTX” version of the 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee. This is in line with Global Insight‘s breakdown of the Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep/Fiat/Alfa-Romeo empire. Got brands?
On a more promising note, GI’s analysis has an Alfa MiTo planned for 2011, “built on the Fiat 199 platform that will also underpin the Dodge Hornet [neé Chery, Versa].” Everything else, from Caliber to Journey to Sebring, will be replaced with new models based on Fiat’s C-EVO platform. Lots of brands and not so many platfoms. Good thing Fritz Henderson isn’t in charge.
31 Comments on “US Alfa Launch Looks Likely...”
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Ugh. It really hurts to see Alfa Romeo devolved into a shared platform brand but this has been going on for the last 15 years or so. The idea of an Alfa Romeo SUV is simply brand prostitution and completely unnecessary given the (lack of) segment growth potential.
Build that 2800lb, 4 cylinder, rear-drive car that channels the Alfetta Sedan or Giulia Ti. Let Dodge make a 200C version if they want. That’s the best thing that could come out of this mash-up. Let Jeep build Jeeps.
So there might be an Alfa-Romeo SUV, based on a Jeep Grand Cherokee, called the “GTX”?
Honestly, I find that incredibly awesome.
So I read the headline…. This old Alfisti gets tears in his eyes…. and then through his tears, he looks at at that picture.
ALFA IS IMPORTING A !#$%!#$%^ SUV!
I’m writing this on my assistant’s PC ’cause I just smashed the screen on mine.
Bah!
Does any American wake up and say, “Gee, if I could only buy an Alfa, my life would be better than it is?”
And wouldn’t it be a total bitch if the Alfa SUV turned out to be the company’s best selling model? Stranger things have happened.
Alfa is being SAABed.
Alfa has been talking about the US market for years now and the only question for me has bee Brera or 159? I would have been that first guy in line.
Now, meh.
Signal11: “Alfa is being SAABed”
Has been for quite a while. They may look good, but they’ve been Fiat’s under the skin for quite a while. The grass is always greener…
Alfa has almost been gone long enough for people to either forget about how shitty their cars were, or not have any knowledge or recollection of their products at all. This might actually work if they don’t screw it up right out of the box. The bad news is that if Chrysler has any involvement whatsoever in helping build Fiat’s new American empire, it could easily be a massive failure.
“built on the Fiat 199 platform that will also underpin the Dodge Hornet [neé Chery, Versa].”
But the “Versa” is a Nissan and “Chery” is a Chinese company, so they couldn’t share a Fiat platform.
Before bankruptcy Nissan had agreed to make a version of its “Tiida” rebadged as a Dodge Hornet for the Latin American market, made in Japan or maybe in Mexico, where Tiidas are made. Now the deal is on the rocks, and could be reborn.
So your’re saying that the Chrysler-Nissan deal is off, and now the Hornet will be based on a Fiat? Then what will happen with the other Nissan deal, the Dodge-made Nissan pickup truck due to replace the Titan?
There, there, Lokkii, just breathe into the paper bag for a bit…
We can hope against hope that Alfa won’t get Saabotaged. They’ll always have the best marque badge in the business regardless. Small comfort.
@Signal11 :
Alfa is being SAABed.
Alfa has been talking about the US market for years now and the only question for me has bee Brera or 159? I would have been that first guy in line.
The Brera and 159 are build on the General Motors Epsilon platform, the V6 is based on a GM block.
Making a Saab on the GC’s platform would only be incrementally worse.
If you Alfa fans don’t like this, just wait until Marchionne announces the “Alfa Romeo Piccola Capra” pick-up truck as the replacement for the Dakota.
This will never work. Alfa design is too European to ever appeal to the US public. Unless we get $8 a gallon gasoline – effectively transforming the US car market into the current European one – my money is on a Chrysler-Fiat bankruptcy.
That’s definitely what both Chrysler and Fiat need: more brands. Yup. Keep piling them on, it makes total sense. Worked wonders for GM.
Are they going to kill Lancia or not? If they are going to neuter Alfa, they might as just well kill it off and keep Lancia for their dirty perverted little badge/platform sharing schemes.
Am I the only one who thinks Chrysler will go bankrupt again before a mass market Alfa or Fiat-designed/Mexican-made/badge engineered Chrysler rolls into show rooms? Even if they can fast track the Fiat 500, that’s not gonna keep the lights on for the White Hat wearing Dodge Boys.
This is crap. If they brought the 159, I’d be first in line to buy a wagon. If I wanted a jeep, I would buy a Jeep, not an Alfa. How lame can they be to make a SUV? If that is what they do, I hope they go bankrupt too. Bring me Alfa as is dman it!
Just bring out the MiTo already!!!
i remember seeing spy shots of what was supposedly the Alfa 169 ages ago. i can’t imagine there would be enough time left to develop a model off the LX platform. the 166 came out around 1998, i’d think they would already be pretty far along in its replacement 11 years later?
@Mirko Reinhardt
The Brera and the 159 were built on the GM/Fiat Premium platform. GM never built a product on this one.
maniceightball
It wasn’t the fact that GM had so many brands that caused the problem, it was the fact that GM management is indecisive and, to be frank, ADD that sunk them.
Now if you look, really none of Chrysler-Fiat’s brands overlap that much. Jeep is, well, Jeep, Alfa Romeo is , well, Alfa, Fiat doesn’t exist in North America, and Dodge doesn’t exist outside of North America.
Chrysler is the only brand in limbo. In a perfect world, you could have an “American” luxury brand in Chrysler and a “European” luxury brand in Alfa Romeo, and have them appeal to different tastes. Those two together could have enough volume to warrant some special platforms between the two of them as well. This is a massive pipe dream, because it’d require both brands being properly supported and more or less treated as equals, not to mention repairing the seriously trashed Chrysler brand image. It would take a lot of work and dedication, but it’s not impossible.
Now a 2011 Grand Cherokee GTX makes sense. I would consider that! Make mine Plum Crazy, please.
a “European” luxury brand in Lancia” Alfa Romeo is a drivers brand.
I hope that after almost 40 years, Alfa has finally gotten it right with their 2nd gear synchros and cylinder head gaskets.
Kinda looks like a Flying Vagina.
@bocatrip. Head gaskets and synchros fixed decades ago. Actually, you wouldn’t have had a 2nd gear synchro issue if you knew how to drive a manual transmission properly.
The names Chrysler and Fiat just still seem like a punch line to me for some reason.
mpresley :
June 25th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
Does any American wake up and say, “Gee, if I could only buy an Alfa, my life would be better than it is?”
Yes. I would love a 159. Make mine black, with tan leather, please. And if (when) it breaks, I can drive my completely reliable (so far) Nissan.
“Alfa is being SAABed”
Funny, but this has been the case for awhile. The last Alfa Romeo sedan sold in the US (164… VERY beautiful) was based on a shared platform with the Saab 9000.
“The Brera and 159 are build on the General Motors Epsilon platform, the V6 is based on a GM block.”
I don’t think this is totally accurate. Fiat and GM developed the platform, but GM abandoned it as “too expensive” and never actually produced a vehicle based on it.
I DO believe, however, that the V6 is indeed the same block as the GM “High-Feature” family of engines with Alfa designed heads.
Make mine a Spider, with a JTDM engine please.
–chuck