Most liked posts in thread: Alfa Planning Affordable Halo Based on X-Bow

Alfa Romeo says the production version of the 4C rear-wheel-drive coupe will be a sold around the world, including the United States.

The halo car "will bring us back into markets such as the United States, where we are not present today," Alfa CEO Harald Wester said Tuesday, adding that the 4C will go into production in late 2012.

The automaker plans to build 15,000 to 20,000 units of the 4C coupe over five years, two people familiar with the matter told Automotive News Europe. Another 5,000 to 10,000 units of a roadster version of the 4C will be built for Abarth, the sources said. Abarth is Fiat's sporty sub-brand that markets high-performance versions of the Fiat 500 minicar and Punto Evo subcompact.

Fiat's struggling Alfa brand is set to price the production 4C at about 45,000 euros (about $62,000) in Europe, company sources say.

Alfa enthusiasts have dreamed for almost two decades of the return of an affordable rear-drive model after the Duetto Spider was discontinued in 1994.

Alfa's 8C Competizione, which was built from 2007-2008, was too expensive for most Alfa buyers. The spider version of the 8C cost up to 213,000 euros and the car's production run was limited to 1,000 units.The 157.5-inch-long, 200-hp mid-engine 4C concept took design cues from the legendary 33 Stradale, company sources say. Launched in 1967, the 33 Stradale was a rear-engine, rear-drive two-seat coupe powered by a 230-hp 2.0-liter V8 derived from Alfa's 33 race car. Alfa built just 18 units of the 33 Stradale.

The 4C concept was styled by the Fiat Group subsidiary's design center in Turin. The car is rakish, very compact and extremely low to the ground.

The 4C will go on sale at a crucial time for Alfa because by the final quarter of 2012 the company also plans to introduce the Giulia mid-sized sedan to replace the slow-selling 159 and launch the brand's first ever SUV, a sister model to the Jeep Compass/Patriot replacement.

Fiat S.p.A. CEO Sergio Marchionne wants to lift Alfa sales to 500,000 units by 2014. Alfa's global sales last year increased a modest 10.2 percent to 112,000 units.

Thanks to an innovative construction method, which combines carbon fiber and aluminum, the 4C will weigh less than 850kg (1,784 pounds).



Source - Alfa 4C will be a global car, will come to U.S. - AutoWeek Magazine

 

Alfa delays U.S. return again as European debt crisis deepens

FRANKFURT -- Alfa Romeo has delayed the U.S. introduction of several key models by at least another year and has cancelled plans to build a mid-sized SUV at Chrysler Group's factory in Toledo, Ohio.

Alfa Romeo CEO Harald Wester, in a presentation to financial analysts here today in connection with the Frankfurt auto show, said Alfa Romeo was scaling back its global expansion plans.

Wester's announcement marks the latest in a series of delays of the U.S. return of Alfa Romeo, the sporty brand of Fiat S.p.A. His remarks came one day after Fiat-Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne offered a gloomy assessment of Europe's debt crisis, saying the European common currency could come off the rails if political leaders don't resolve the lingering crisis soon.

Marchionne said the debt crisis has forced Fiat and Chrysler to examine the timing of new-vehicle introductions.

"We are reviewing volumes and the timing of new products to see when it is really necessary to launch them," Marchionne said.

In its global plan, unveiled in April 2010, Alfa Romeo planned to return to the United States in late 2012. Under the revised schedule, the first car won't come to the United States until mid-2013, when the 4C, a low-volume coupe arrives. The MiTo, a five-door hatchback, is scheduled to follow in the second half of 2013.

The Alfa Romeo brand is to be sold by a network of 130 Fiat dealerships, more than 100 of which are now open. The rest are to open by the end of this year.

Dealers must wait

Fiat dealers have pinned high hopes for Alfa, which would give them a range of larger, sporty vehicles to augment the Fiat 500 small car, the only model they currently are selling.

Those dealers now will have to get by with their Fiat models a while longer. The Alfa Romeo Giulietta, a compact hatchback, was scheduled to arrive in 2013 but now has been moved back to 2014. The crucial Giulia, a mid-sized sedan and wagon that were to have kicked off Alfa's return next year, will not arrive until 2014, under the current plan.

In the past 18 months Marchionne has rejected three rounds of styling proposals for the Giulia sedan and wagon, pushing its launch back.

At the end of July, Alfa had already postponed the two Giulia models until 2013.

Alfa also canceled plans for a mid-sized SUV, originally due in 2014. The vehicle was to have been built in Toledo on a shared platform with the Jeep Liberty. The new plan now calls for a large rear-drive sedan -- derived from the next generation of the Maserati Quattroporte -- to appear beyond 2014.

Subcompact first

In the revised plan, the five-door MiTo subcompact is the only Alfa model to keep the original timing for a 2013 launch.

The new delays led Alfa to trim its global 2014 target of 500,000 unit sales to just 400,000 units.

Alfa had been planning its return to the United States since it signed a strategic alliance with General Motors in March 2000. So the brand's return had been delayed for a decade -- so far. Alfa left the United States in 1995.

According to Wester's presentation, Alfa plans on selling about 155,000 units worldwide this year, compared with 115,000 it sold in both 2009 and 2010.

Source - http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110914/OEM04/110919898/1491#ixzz1Xxitq45Q

 

Those dealers that spent the bucks to remodel for Fiat with the plan that there would be Alfa's and Lancia's soon after so they would have something more to sell are sure taking a flyer now. The 500 is not selling as expected leaving these dealers with expensive showrooms that are not busy. Unlike MINI they went with a much bigger dealer base to start too.

 

Latest Alfa Romeo delay spooks Fiat dealers

Source - Latest Alfa Romeo delay spooks Fiat dealers - Autoweek