Sustainability: Manley and Alfa Romeo Think Small

As we told you last week, the Alfa Romeo brand’s near-term future contains far less excitement than initially thought. In Fiat Chrysler’s third-quarter earnings report, the automaker revealed a severely pared-down product portfolio for the struggling Italian brand. Gone are plans for a new 8C and GTV.

As the product picture becomes clear, it seems Alfa has even fewer items to dole out than once believed — which might be just the thing for a brand that’s struggling to leave the launch pad.

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Earnings Report Shows Fiat Chrysler Giving Alfa Romeo All the Attention It Deserves - Which Apparently Isn't Much

Sports car fans had best brace themselves for a big letdown. Fiat Chrysler, currently pursuing a merger with France’s Groupe PSA, has given investors a peak at future high-end product, and two anticipated models seem to have fallen off the drawing board.

Those products would be the reborn Alfa Romeo GTV and 8C, which are nowhere to be seen in the brand’s near-future product timeline. However, if crossovers are your thing, you’re in luck.

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Across The Block: RM Sotheby's, Milan

Our annual feast of dead bird, fine pigskin, family arguments, cheap electronics, and roughly 200 (of 600) good episodes of The Simpsons is upon us. And once again, we take a glimpse into the wild world of classic car auctions, sure to be another magnificent family tradition.

Due to the holiday weekend here in the States, this week we look east to Milan for RM Sotheby’s Duemila Ruote 2016, an auction featuring over 400 collectibles — all at no reserve. I loved looking through this catalog. The exotics are awesome, of course, but the relatively pedestrian cars that we just don’t see here are what catch my eye.

Or, with one example, turn my stomach.

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LA 2015: 1968 Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale is Beautiful, Angry (Video)

Classic cars are the ultimate form of navel-gazing. And a car like the 1968 Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale is the ultimate nerdgasm.

The 33 Stradale was so limited that when it rolled off the production line, no one knew how to fix it. Its composed of equal parts of unobtainium and eludium. Cars like this are harder to find than unicorns humping a rainbow.

At $10 million it’s hard to think that it’s anything other than comically overpriced. But when it starts up and screams like that, it’s hard to think about anything at all.

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2016 Alfa Romeo 4C Spider Review (With Video)

2016 Alfa Romeo 4C Spider

1.75-liter DOHC I-4, direct injection, turbocharged, CVVT (237 horsepower @ 6,000 rpm; 258 lbs-ft @ 2,200-4,250 rpm)

6-speed “Alfa TCT” dual-clutch automatic

24 city/34 highway/28 combined (EPA Rating, MPG)

28.1 (Observed, MPG)

Tested Options: Rosso Alfa Red paint, Fascia Stone Protector, HID Headlamps, Carbon Fibre Trim Kit, Convenience Package, Racing Exhaust, Red Calipers, 18/19 Inch Staggered Wheels, Leather Package,

Base Price:
$65,495*
As Tested:

$72,295*

* Prices include $1,595 destination charge.

Up ’til now, if you wanted an Italian, mid-engined, street-legal track roadster made out of exotic materials, you needed to be a one-percenter to afford one. But all that is changing with the relaunch of the “other Italian brand,” Alfa Romeo. For the price of a single black-market organ “donation” you can get your hands on the new 2016 Alfa Romeo 4C Spider. Unlike Alfa’s last car sold in America — the Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione — the 4C Spider is pronounceable, will be available in quantity, and is ostensibly attainable at $53,900 for the coupé and $63,900 for the rag top that we got our hands on.

Like the hardtop 4C, this exotic isn’t an enormous bruiser that’s as wide as Kansas, and it doesn’t have a V12. Instead Alfa opted for a small four-cylinder turbocharged engine and a serious dedication to lightweight construction. In some ways you might call this the Italian Lotus. Until we see the 2017 Alfa Romeo Guilia, FCA’s 3-Series fighter, the 4C and 4C Spider are spearheading the brand’s American reboot.

Is that good or bad?

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Junkyard Find: 1981 Alfa Romeo Spider

Prices for (non- 164) Alfa Romeos have been getting somewhat crazy in recent years, but it’s still possible to get a restorable 1970s or 1980s Spider for non-insane bucks. The proof of this is that rougher examples still show up now and then at the self-service wrecking yards I frequent. In this series so far, we’ve seen this ’74, this ’78, and now today’s ’81.

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Audiacious Targets: Alfa Wants To Outsell Fiat In America

Alfa Romeo will outsell Fiat in the United States once the sporty brand gets a foothold in its new market, according to Peter Grady, head of network development for the Chrysler Group, in an interview Reuters.

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Pre-Production Review: 2013 Dodge Dart

The last time Chrysler made a serious attempt at the C-segment was in 1995 with the Neon. High initial sales were soon followed by less-than-stellar crash scores, a redesign that put off buyers, the death of the Plymouth brand, and the unholy offspring that was the Dodge Caliber. With Fiat needing to add a “ 40 MPG CAFE” vehicle to the fleet to continue their acquisition, the Dodge Dart was born. This first fruit of the Fiat/Dodge marriage isn’t just a rebadged Alfa Romeo Giulietta (pronounced Juliet-ta), and there’s a reason for that. Dodge wants a bigger part of the pie since sedans account for 80% of the compact segment. Rather than “sedanify” the Giulietta, Dodge took the extra step of crafting an entirely new vehicle that shares little with the Italian organ donor. Can some Italian spice give Dodge what they need to compete with the growing compact sedan segment? Dodge invited us to a regional preview event to find out.

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Avenger, Grand Caravan Marked For Death. Is The Dodge Brand On Its Way Out?

With Chrysler, Dodge, Ram and Jeep brands consolidating into single dealerships as part of Chrysler’s “Project Genesis” dealer overhaul, CEO Sergio Marchionne is voting overlapping models off the island, starting with Dodge’s Grand Caravan and Avenger. Automotive New [sub] quotes Marchionne saying

We cannot have the same type of vehicle in the showroom because the consumer is not stupid. We’re not going to create the confusion and conflict in the showroom.

Dodge’s minivan (which outsells its Chrysler T&C sibling, albeit at lower margins) and midsized sedan will be replaced in 2013 by a single crossover, based on the next-generation minivan platform. A compact crossover, based on a Fiat platform, will replace the Avenger “after 2014.” Oh, and the subcompact is definitely off. In other words, you can pretty much forget the product plans unveiled two years ago at Chrysler’s five year business plan.

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Piech Still Has The Hots For Alfa

Ferdi Piech is trying his hand at instigating a velvet revolution. He is dangling huge sales increases at Alfa in front of workers and customers, hoping that they string up Marchionne and ask Volkswagen to take over Alfa. Or something along these lines. Anyway, Piech said in Geneva that Volkswagen could nearly quadruple the annual sales of Alfa Romeo, if Fiat would only do the right thing and sell Volkswagen the ailing Alfa brand.

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Only In Italy: Unions Demand Alfa Romance With Volkswagen

Usually, unions take to the streets when their company is supposed to be sold. In Italy, unions demand the sale of their company.

In Milan, union representatives marched to the German consulate and handed the consul a letter in which they demand that Fiat lets Alfa go and that Volkswagen takes over.” With the letter delivered, the demonstrators grabbed megaphones and shouted: “Alfa has no chance with Fiat. We want Volkswagen!” Scusami?

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Alfa For Sale? Oh No No No No No

„I’ve said Alfa is not for sale“ grouched Fiat’s Sergio Marchionne at journos who badgered him about Alfa possibly going to Volkswagen. While he was at it, Sergio told Automobilwoche [sub] that business is so good that he probably will raise year-end guidance in the third quarter.

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Italian Dressing: Volkswagen To Buy Alfa?

Automobilwoche [sub] picked up strong signals that Volkswagen is interested in adding Alfa Romeo to their growing roster of brands. Last December, Marchionne had put Alfa on strategic review, and gave the brand, as Ed Niedermeyer put it so delicately, “a year to get its proverbial shit together.” They popped some Imodium, and in April, Marchionne was “determined” to build the brand into a “full-line premium carmaker.” Nevertheless, here and there whispers had popped up that Alfa could be sold if the right buyer would show.

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Curbside Classic: 1975 Alfa Romeo Alfetta GT Coupe/GTV

[An expanded and updated version of this CC is here]

We’ve had a lot of utilitarian vehicles last week, and even into this Monday, so with yesterday’s Corolla AE86 leading the charge, we’re going savor some delicious sporty coupes. This Alfetta GT coupe is an interesting follow-up to the AE86, for at least two reasons. Designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro, this lovely Alfa was not only a feast for the eyes in that largely vulgar mid-seventies period, but was also an influential one. The Alfetta GT was one of a few key designs of the period that had a profound and lasting effect on styling trends, including the Corolla itself. The other reason: cars like the fast, cheap but ultra-reliable Corolla GT-S helped put Alfa out of business in the US.

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Happy Birthday Alfa! Love, Zagato
Alfa-Romeo is turning 100 this year, and to celebrate, all the famous Italian design houses are showing their own conceptual expressions of Alfa-ness. And st…
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  • AZFelix Hilux technical, preferably with a swivel mount.
  • ToolGuy This is the kind of thing you get when you give people faster internet.
  • ToolGuy North America is already the greatest country on the planet, and I have learned to be careful about what I wish for in terms of making changes. I mean, if Greenland wants to buy JDM vehicles, isn't that for the Danes to decide?
  • ToolGuy Once again my home did not catch on fire and my fire extinguisher(s) stayed in the closet, unused. I guess I threw my money away on fire extinguishers.(And by fire extinguishers I mean nuclear missiles.)
  • Carson D The UAW has succeeded in organizing a US VW plant before. There's a reason they don't teach history in the schools any longer. People wouldn't make the same mistakes.