Editorial: Don't Get Your Hopes Up For Rear Drive Alfa Romeos

by Derek Kreindler

Published: July 22nd, 2013

editorial don t get your hopes up for rear drive alfa romeos

All it took was one little article in CAR magazine for the auto blogosphere to light up with a million different re-purposed versions of the same report. And what a joyous bit of news it is; Alfa Romeo is going to be rear-drive only from now on.

We decided to run the piece because it comes from Georg Kacher, a respected journalist who is known for having his finger on the pulse of the industry. If he says Alfa is planning to move to rear drive platforms, they probably are. But the big problem is that they are planning it. Nobody said anything about actually doing it.

Alfa Romeo has planned plenty of things before. Like a return to America that never seems to materialize. It hasn’t gotten better under the Sergio Marchionne regime either, with flip-flops on future product (especially Alfa) becoming standard operating procedure. Personally, I could care less if they make it over here. Whatever they make is never going to live up to cars like the GTV, Junior, ~~Berlinetta~~ Giulia Berlina and Duetto, largely because Alfa’s absence has caused the enthusiast crowd to lionize the brand to the point where it can never meet their outsized expectations. And because Mazda has managed to fill that void by offering products that are just a bit better at resisting corrosion.

With the new Chrysler/Maserati rear-drive platform waiting in the wings and the Mazda collaboration with the Duetto, it’s certainly feasible for Alfa Romeo to go all RWD. But don’t be surprised if Alfa Romeo scraps the “rear drive only” plans and goes back to using front-drive. Marchionne and his crew are liable to change their plans quicker than Italy changes governments. Front-drive has a lot of advantages as far as packaging and efficiency go. These factors matter quite a bit in Europe, and as early as May, 2012, the plan was for FWD products with the large rear-drive sedan left on the cutting room floor. All of a sudden, things have changed.

Again, I won’t mind, as long as something materializes. Some of the better modern Alfas, like the 156, 159 and anything with a “GTA” badge on it, were all “wrong wheel drive” and hardly anyone complained.

#AlfaRomeo #Fiat #GeorgKacher #Maserati #Rear-drive

Derek Kreindler

More by Derek Kreindler

Comments

Join the conversation

7 of 34 comments

Nine11c2 on Jul 23, 2013

FWD cars have come a long way in terms of handling.. the difference only shows up at 8.5 tenths or more. Most people don't know which wheels driver their cars. RWD has such disadvantages anywhere it snows it is difficult to justify today as your daily driver..

Like Reply
- See 4 previous
- Danio3834 on Jul 23, 2013
  
  "RWD has such disadvantages anywhere it snows it is difficult to justify today as your daily driver.." I primarily drive RWD vehicles daily year-round including in deep snow and haven't found them to be particularly disadvantageous if one can handle the oversteer. It freaks some people out. Personally, understeer in the snow freaks me out A LOT more. As long as the vehicle is equipped with good tires, RWD is fine in the snow.
  
  Like
- Corey Lewis on Jul 23, 2013
  
  @danio3834 You must only be taking your cars to 5.45 tenths.
  
  Like
- Nine11c2 on Jul 23, 2013
  
  @danio3834 A FWD car with all season tires out performs a RWD with equivalent. They need the snow tires to be decent. Simple coefficient of traction - FWD have 55-60% of weight on drive wheels, RWD 40-5=45%. When it snows and ices here in the Northeast, on slight hills, all of the RWD Mercedes and BMW are stuck at the bottom - even with all the fancy traction controls. They simplhy don't have the weight/traction on the back wheels..
  
  Like
- Kristjan Ambroz on Jul 23, 2013
  
  @nine11c2 You are right on the all season tyre front. Still, the US is probably the only major market worldwide, where all season tyres (also referred to as three season tyres) play a real role - almost everywhere else with winter conditions it is considered essential to switch to proper winter tyres and in most cases a well engineered modern RWD car with proper winter tyres will not do at all badly, even on snow.
  
  Like
- Danio3834 on Jul 23, 2013
  
  @nine11c2 "A FWD car with all season tires out performs a RWD with equivalent." No explanation needed, I've also owned many FWD vehicles and am aware of the weight districution and traction advantages of such things. What I'm saying is I drive a RWD car with close to even weight distribution, that when equipped with good tires in the snow, shows a negligiable performance disadvantage over the similarly equipped FWD vehicles I've had in the past. It's easy to deal with during the few times during the year it really matters (during snow storms before the roads are plowed), and the rest of the time I get to have a car that is a blast to drive
  
  Like
Oldyak on Jul 25, 2013

Why the hell can`t they just start with a hopped up MiTo???

Like Reply

Recent Comments

Ltcmgm78 Just what we need to do: add more EVs that require a charging station! We own a Volt. We charge at home. We bought the Volt off-lease. We're retired and can do all our daily errands without burning any gasoline. For us this works, but we no longer have a work commute.
Michael S6 Given the choice between the Hornet R/T and the Alfa, I'd pick an Uber.
Michael S6 Nissan seems to be doing well at the low end of the market with their small cars and cuv. Competitiveness evaporates as you move up to larger size cars and suvs.
Cprescott As long as they infest their products with CVT's, there is no reason to buy their products. Nissan's execution of CVT's is lackluster on a good day - not dependable and bad in experience of use. The brand has become like Mitsubishi - will sell to anyone with a pulse to get financed.
Lorenzo I'd like to believe, I want to believe, having had good FoMoCo vehicles - my aunt's old 1956 Fairlane, 1963 Falcon, 1968 Montego - but if Jim Farley is saying it, I can't believe it. It's been said that he goes with whatever the last person he talked to suggested. That's not the kind of guy you want running a $180 billion dollar company.