Fiat’s CEO to unveil 4th rebirth plan for Alfa Romeo

[conaero]

Sergio Marchionne hopes that betting billions of euros on Alfa Romeo will reverse a decade of losses and six years of collapsing sales at the sporty brand.

Alfa’s sales are likely to fall below 100,000 units for the first time since 1969. Marchionne’s new plan for Alfa – his fourth since he joined Fiat in June 2004 – has the same goal as the one he introduced for its sister company, Fiat’s premium subsidiary, Maserati. Under the plan, Alfa will focus on developing premium vehicles to be exported worldwide from Italy.

“We continue to work in a pretty determined fashion trying to reshape the Alfa Romeo platform and I think we will be in a position to outline more at the end of the first quarter of 2014,” Marchionne said during a conference call with analysts on Oct. 30. “We will give an opportunity to look to the five-year plan based on the thorough assessment” of Alfa Romeo and the company’s other automotive brands, he added.

He said he would reveal a new five-year strategy for Fiat Group and Chrysler next year, most likely in late April in conjunction with the company’s first-quarter earnings report. An effective Alfa relaunch is a crucial element in Marchionne’s broader strategy to return Fiat’s automotive division to profitability in Europe by 2016. Fiat lost 700 million euros ($928 million) last year in Europe and so far Alfa has yet to make a profit under Marchionne’s nine-year watch.

The revised Alfa plan will focus on a new rear-wheel- and all-wheel-drive architecture being developed by a small team of engineers based at Maserati’s headquarters in Modena, Italy. Philippe Krieff, who reports directly to Harald Wester, Fiat-Chrysler chief technical officer and CEO of Alfa and Maserati, heads the team.

Alfa, however, will be unable to generate sufficient volume in its own right to achieve any worthwhile economies of scale. So Krieff’s architecture must be flexible enough to be used by Chrysler and Dodge brands as well. With a global volume of 101,000 units last year, Alfa sold less than one-tenth as many cars as BMW and Mercedes.

There are two key reasons for this: Alfa is product starved – its current models are the MiTo subcompact, Giulietta compact and 4C coupe. The automaker is also almost entirely dependent on a slumping European market. In the first 10 months of this year Alfa’s European sales fell 30 % to 53,604 units, according to data from the industry association ACEA.

Source: http://www.inautonews.com/fiats-ceo-to-unveil-4th-rebirth-plan-for-alfa-romeo#.Upyz-ha8FUM

 

[GhostyDog]

Time will tell, I wish they'd get their act together, its all gone quiet about the new Spider in colab with Mazda as well

 

[lisknik]

Just wish they would get their **** in gear before the brand dies!!!!

 

[conaero]

So, do we think this is the final roll of the dice and the rumoured VW take over still got legs?

 

[GhostyDog]

No smoke without fire, Marchionne can't have much shareholder love left for another attempt after this, I feel that the only reason Alfa is still around is because it is quintessentially italian, I hope they find their place in the world, and maybe niche sports cars is that place.

 

[WTI]

Last chance to dance then brand will go to VW/Audi

 

[vantastic]

Alfa is just a badge now, they left it to late with no new stuff for to long and anything they make now will be shared stuff with just a badge stuck on a Lotus, mazda or massa

Will stick with my old stuff

PS if the Germans get hold of it then that will be the end

 

[conaero]

Some interesting thought there guys. Such a shame, thinking back to the 90's and 2000's the GTV, 156, 147 & GT, all great cars, how did it go so wrong.

Van, I read with interest that 75 article you posted up for me. In 1985, pre Fiat take over, Alfa were producing 200k cars a year, Fiat have fumbled the brand, you can't deny, anyone remember Lancia???

 

[Supercharged16v]

Oh well.... not holding my breath or anything, but this is their last chance to make something.

The 4C ? YES ! But too expensive to be a mass production car.
The Mito and Giulietta are old news right now.

They need to focus on:

1 - Replacement of the 159
2 - Replacement of the 166
3 - Replacement of the GT
4 - Figure out what to do with a good hot hatchback - giulietta is quite big to be honest
5 - Get on with that Spider - Mazda deal

 

[conaero]

Oh well.... not holding my breath or anything, but this is their last chance to make something.

The 4C ? YES ! But too expensive to be a mass production car.
The Mito and Giulietta are old news right now.

They need to focus on:

1 - Replacement of the 159
2 - Replacement of the 166
3 - Replacement of the GT
4 - Figure out what to do with a good hot hatchback - giulietta is quite big to be honest
5 - Get on with that Spider - Mazda deal

...and a new GTV or a hard top of the Spyder, it was a big seller. My fear is though, what ever they produce it will end up having 1.75 Turbo units in them, Alfa = V6, end of!

 

[Supercharged16v]

Maybe, but you can still get one ;-)

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

 

[WTI]

What has been missing from the brand since the demise of the 159 has been the wow factor which got me into Alfas in the first place.
The Mito and the Giullietta are fine cars but neither would make me double look back as I parked up like I did with my 916 Gtv and GT.
The Brera is still beautiful nothing like it at that money on the road but it was another missed opportunity.
Fiat have ****** it up.Maybe as has been said the future may be niche sports cars.
Better start saving

 

[conaero]

I agree pretty much with all of that.

Alfa had a bit of mystique, and were different, now they are just Fiats with little appeal.

Mind you, my bro showed me a calendar last night, Top Gear I think, with an Alfa Disco Volante, how did I miss that!

 

[conaero]

Here you go, I wish Alfa would stop dangling these concepts in front of us and just build the **** things!

 

[vantastic]

The one above is just an 8C (massa) Alfa need to make sporty saloons and some one off mad stuff for silly money but I feel Alfa is lost to history, Fiat fecked it up many moons ago.

RWD
V6
Mad funny buttons
Good design

Thats what they need, and not sharing platforms with common shite, rant over off to bed, and will get up and drive my P4 to work

 

[WTI]

What he said ^^^

 

[vantastic]

What he said ^^^

Cheers

Also what the feck are they doing with superbikes? Alfa needs to make a new 155/75 and get back into a race, touring cars needs an Alfa, they cant live of the past for ever

 

[Alfamut]

Well, at least there are some positive signs that something is going to happen. Mr M has turned Maserati around to some degree, so he is no fool.

The Mazda MX5/Alfa Spider will be a big seller me thinks but I do agree that 4dr sports saloon and SW along with a GTV replacement are what is needed.

The history is important but so is volume.

 

[GhostyDog]

Well, at least there are some positive signs that something is going to happen. Mr M has turned Maserati around to some degree, so he is no fool.

The Mazda MX5/Alfa Spider will be a big seller me thinks but I do agree that 4dr sports saloon and SW along with a GTV replacement are what is needed.

The history is important but so is volume.

That last bit is so true, without volume they are stuck poaching pennies from investors pockets to enable development of new platforms.

In my opinion Alfa Romeo are Italys SAAB, by rights, on performance they should no longer be around, it's only through subsidy from Group that they are this saddens me greatly.

 

[conaero]

Very true Sean, fortunately the Italians are a very loyal and proud bunch, they dont sell off the family silver to Jonny foreigner as the British seem to do, lets hope they sort it, be nice to put Mrs Conaero in an Alfa that I can rag at weekends.