Alfa Romeo Strategic Review Ordered: Chrysler-Based Models In The Works?

Edward Niedermeyer
by Edward Niedermeyer

Automotive News Europe [sub] reports that Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne has ordered a strategic review of the Alfa Romeo brand, citing declining sales and mounting losses. Alfa’s sales have fallen from 203,000 units in 2000 to 103,000 last year, and the brand has lost between €200m and €400m in each of the last ten years. According to Marchionne, Fiat’s sporty brand has undergone too many reinventions. “You cannot be a newborn Christian every four years,” he explains. “It’s the same religion, eventually you need to own a religion and carry it to conclusion.” The recent delay of the 147 replacement due to name-related issues was merely the latest trouble for the Alfa brand, which has struggled with aging products and underinvestment. According to Marchionne, Alfa faces two possible futures: retirement or rebirth… on Chrysler platforms?

The retirement scenario is basic enough. ANE [sub] explains that it involves

Freezing investment in the brand after the 147 hatchback is replaced by the Giulietta. This means that the 166 will not be replaced, leaving the brand with the Giulietta and the MiTo, Alfa’s first small car, as its only fresh models. The rest of the Alfa range — the 159, the Brera coupe, the Spider and the GT coupe will continue to be sold.

Presumably such a freeze would be followed either by a slow wind-down of the brand, or a post-economic-recovery revival. With Chrysler’s fate looming as a giant question mark over Fiat’s future, a comprehensive investment in Alfa would likely be delayed until Chrysler shows signs of serious recovery. And as depressing as that scenario is, the scenario where Alfa survives is almost more frightening.

Two of Alfa’s oldest models, the 159 and 166 sedans desperately need replacing (the latter was discontinued in 2007). And according to Marchionne, Fiat might just stoop to basing their successor models on Chrysler’s Sebring and LX platforms. “Certainly the availability of D and E segment (platforms) in the United States which are capable of being Alfa Romeoized is there,” says Sergio. “We need to look at the economics of that opportunity.”

Now before, the howls hit a fevered pitch at the idea of a Sebring-based Alfa, remember that Chrysler’s mid-sized sedan is being extensively re-worked by Fiat’s engineers this year. So, in theory anyway, a future Sebringetta might not be quite as bad as, say, the current Sebring. And an LX-based 166 replacement would be Alfa’s first rear-wheel-drive sedan in decades. And in any case, there are no plans to sell any Alfa models in the US, a point that Marchionne was crystal clear about when asked at Chrysler’s five-year plan presentation. And at least Marchionne realizes that “the heritage of the Alfa and Dodge brands is completely different, the DNA is completely different. We would lose a lot of the appeal of Alfa Romeo if we try to Americanize it through a merger with Dodge.”

But now that we’ve equivocated excessively, feel free to rage against the very notion of a storied enthusiast brand sinking to the level of re-working Chrysler products.

Madness? This is Fiatsler!

Edward Niedermeyer
Edward Niedermeyer

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  • Gcorley Gcorley on Dec 02, 2009

    Am I the only person to see the irony in all this? Fiat was supposed to be saving Chrysler LLC! Now we hear, firstly that future Lancias and now possibly Alfa Romeos will be based on “Chrysler platforms”! Everyone seems to forget that the Sebring and 300C are based on platforms borrowed from other OEMs. The Sebring/Avenger (JS) was developed off the Mitsubishi Eclipse/Galant platform (PS) and the 300C (LX) is based on the old Mercedes-Benz E-Class MY96 platform (W210). The Fiat platform (C-Evo) that is talked about as a basis for the C/D platform for the replacements of the Sebring/Avenger, was actually the Fiat version of the GM based Epsilon platform. So what is Fiat actually contributing to this “marriage of unequals”? A Fiat Panda 4x4 based Jeep!!!!

  • Midelectric Midelectric on Dec 09, 2009

    Poor sales are the result of trying to pimp a pedestrian FWD platform into something that's supposed to compete with BMW; all they've ended up with are heavy, unbalanced and mal-proportioned products that don't deliver on the promise of the brand. Pony up the dough to deliver a dedicated platform or go home. Alfas of old had a sedan, coupe and convertible built off the same platform that said volumes while having the ability to be built on the same line. By trying to take the expedient and seemingly cheaper route or corporate-wide platform rationalization, Fiat has actually made things more complicated without delivering the proper caliber product.

  • TheMrFreeze That new Ferrari looks nice but other than that, nothing.And VW having to put an air-cooled Beetle in its display to try and make the ID.Buzz look cool makes this classic VW owner sad 😢
  • Wolfwagen Is it me or have auto shows just turned to meh? To me, there isn't much excitement anymore. it's like we have hit a second malaise era. Every new vehicle is some cookie-cutter CUV. No cutting-edge designs. No talk of any great powertrains, or technological achievements. It's sort of expected with the push to EVs but there is no news on that front either. No new battery tech, no new charging tech. Nothing.
  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
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