Alfa Romeo is finishing its first crossover and will bring the car to market in mid to late 2016 in Europe and the United States, Automotive News Europe is reporting.
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles CEO Sergio Marchionne confirmed the model in his call last week about the automaker’s second-quarter earnings. The BMW X3 and Audi Q5-sized Alfa hasn’t been publicly named, but will be based off of Alfa Romeo’s coming Giulia.
The car would launch in Europe around September 2016 with a U.S. launch three months later, Marchionne said.
The midsize crossover would complement Alfa Romeo’s Giulia and would be the third car launched in the U.S. after the Giulia and 4C.
“Alfa’s plan is progressing as we told you it will go,” Marchionne said, according to Automotive News Europe.
It’s unclear what engine the crossover would get, or whether it would receive the hilariously boosted 510-horsepower, Maserati-developed V-6 from the super-performance variant of the Giulia.
The crossover will likely be assembled at Alfa Romeo’s Cassino plant, which also produces the Giulia and Giulietta. Despite a U.S. launch, it appears that FCA only has one North American-assembled car coming out next year, the redesigned Chrysler Town and Country.
My entire adult life Afla’s return to the US has been only a couple years away.
Huh? The Alfa dealership down the road has been open for a good while now.
And what exactly is in there? Maybe a 4c?
According to the website they have 117 (New) fiat 500 variations, I’m sure he’s had a couple Alfas, but as of now, touché.
Also I think I called it a dealership, it’s apparently a “studio”, seemingly this subset of buyers are more easily parted with their money if you use tacky terminology in the process.
That’s my point. There’s no Alfas there.
Have you driven the 4c yet?
Go drive one. You might buy one. Fun little car to drive.
Alfa-Romeo crossover: The apocalypse is here.
The apocalypse has already happened. Alfa made heavy trucks for decades until the 1960s. There have also been Alfa Romeo vans until the 1980s.
I’ll get my Alfa fix by re-watching early episodes of Poirot where Hastings drags him to the racetrack.
I’ll watch the TG episode where they had to buy Alfas for under 1000 GBP!
That GTV on there, mmm. And here’s his actual car!
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e4/Alfa_Romeo_GTV_coup%C3%A8_916.jpg
They should have made the Giulia a baby Maserati and let Maserati do sports cars and sporty luxury sedans. Then they could’ve made Alfa into a company that just sells sporty CUVs, selling both this and what is now being badged as the Maserati LeVante. That would’ve at least provide a reason for both brands to exist, instead of the weird thing they’re doing now with 5-series/X5 competitors under the Maserati badge and the 3-series/X3 competitors badged as Alfas.
I’m sure plenty of enthusiasts would’ve complained about Alfa being turned into a CUV brand, but honestly a RWD $70,000 M3 fighter is a pretty big departure from what Alfa has been since at least the 1980s. They were basically a VW competitor selling mostly FWD cars.
Things can change, you know? VW doesn’t make “people’s cars” anymore, and there was a time when the most popular BMW was the Isetta…
To me Alfa will always be the car that Dustin Hoffman drove to UC to date Kathryn Ross.
That movie was so messed up. His parents are entirely to blame for his ruined life.
I recall my parents considering an Alfa sedan in the 70’s but got turned off when they discovered it was a creme puff Fiat.
I heard the 500’s back to Polski-Fiat again with a production move from MX. I wonder if the NA chassis and 6 auto were worth the development cost?
Joss,
Alfa didn’t belong to Fiat in the 1970s. That deal didn’t happen until 1986, and it took a years for Fiat-developed models to appear.
Likewise, the move of (North and South) American Fiat 500 production from Mexico to Poland won’t happen for a while. They’ve just shown a refresh of the current model, so an all-new model is at least a couple years away.
Was the Mexican-built 500 worth the development cost? Looks like they are moving a steady 30,000 units/year in the US, plus a bunch in Canada, Mexico, and the rest of the Americas.
Dont get his story bogged down with facts! Lol
Chances are Fiat and Alfa were sold at the same dealer, hence him thinking it was a upmarket Fiat.
The most interesting part of the story is how few details are revealed. Not sure where it will be built, but they’ll have to tool up in a year. Not sure which engine will go in it. It sounds like either Mr. Marchionne has to crack the whip and get some details worked out, or that FCA has hired some tight-lipped public relations pros.
We still haven’t heard a thing about engine options for the Giulia either besides the M3 fighter.
FCA doesn’t really have any appropriate engines for compact luxury vehicles, so they’re either developing some new ones or trying to find someone to buy them from.
How many things are we going to base on the Giulia exactly? And why are they making a cheaper, smaller Alfa when we were supposed to have the JGC based one already?
How many more years are we to wait for all these cars? Shouldn’t FCA worry more about paying off their $100M fines and making sure their cars don’t set people on fire or get haxxored?
This is the first Ive heard of a vehicle being based on the Giulia. The on-sale dates are clearly stated in the articles about the Giulia and in this one about the crossover, which should give you an idea of “how many years [youre] going to have to wait for all [two] of these cars”.
Your suggestion is that FCA stops developing and launching new models because they were fined in the US? How does that make any sense whatsoever?
That post was very unbecoming of you. Did a guy in an 87 Millano cut you off this morning or something? Got taken by a 4C at a redlight? It seems like youre making up things to bitch about because this is an article about an Alfa Romeo. Do you have some beef with this automaker? If you had an old Alfa that left you walking, well, thats just part of their charm LOL. Seriously, though, I dont get your apperant anger at the news that they’re developing a future vehicle based off one that was JUST introduced.
I think I was mixing platforms in my mind, with the 500 platform that they’re using for the Panda and so many other things.
The rest of my post was sarcasm, which I always employ when considering anything to do with the [mostly] vaporware Alfa Romeo.
However, it’s nice that there’s an “expected quality” to my posts around here! I like that.
Yeah Corey. Why would you ever be skeptical of Alfa Romeo being a successful brand? They are a strong brand that has market share in Europe similar to Mitsubishi’s market share in the US. You heard that they were on pace to sell 150K units in the US in 2018, right? And 400K units worldwide. They are going to sell 7 times the amount of vehicles in the USA in 2015 as compared to 2014. It will be at least 600 vehicles. How can you not believe?
IT’S GONNA HAPPEN!
Lol, you changed your post and made it more funny between the time I got the email and the time I clicked.
Ha. Alfa is one of those things that doesn’t deserve the benefit of the doubt.