Hello, Giulia! Alfa Romeo's New Sedan Busts Out A Day Early

Everything has to be mass market junk, where have you been?

@28-Cars-Later I suppose you're right. But in order to justify the inevitably high price here, it needs something special besides an Alfa badge. The mass market has created -lots- of options these days. And in the US in particular, I feel the badge holds little weight, other than a heavy pull towards unreliability memories for those older people.

@Corey Lewis "The mass market has created -lots- of options these days." Which are all essentially sucky copies of each other. "And in the US in particular, I feel the badge holds little weigh" Why is BMW getting ready to sell what amounts to a German iteration of a Civic hatch? Unfortunately the badge matters, which is evident on this Alfa. FCA seems to believe they can sell Chryslers for BMW/Daimler/Audi prices because of the Alfa badge. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_2_Series_(F45)

@28-Cars-Later You are my Abilify cloud today! But my argument RE: Badge was that it won't work in this example. The Alfa badge in particular doesn't have enough pull.

@28-Cars-Later Depends on the marketing. I have to admit the latest Fiat 500 sedan truck thing commercial was quite clever. Maserati has done well for what it is, despite its last foray in the states being the disaster Biturbo and being associated with Chrysler's Lebaron. "The 100-year-old Fiat-owned maker of Italian sports car is offering a combination of new and redesigned sedans, opening dealers and spending more on advertising. We're not talking about threatening BMW or Mercedes-Benz, but Maserati has sold more than 9,100 cars so this year, quadrupling its year-earlier volume. Maserati's global sales also nearly quadrupled during the first half of the year to 17,500. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles CEO Sergio Marchionne has set even more ambitious targets for Maserati — a fivefold increase in global sales to 75,000 by 2018" http://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/chrysler/2014/10/04/maserati-fiat-chrysler-marchionne-dealers-sales/16689307/

@28-Cars-Later You liked the boner pills commercial? I found that really gauche.

@28-Cars-Later I thought it worked well, no more gauche than the decade earlier "That thing got a Hemi in it".

@28-Cars-Later Oh dear, you are the target FCA customer! How do you feel about that? #abilify

@28-Cars-Later Well we are probably both in the targeted age demographic but I imagine not in the targeted gender demographic (although everyone keeps saying cars are targeted at youth in order to be sold to older people so there's that).

@28-Cars-Later I always saw Alfas as a man's car, not something women were really into. You've gotta get your hands dirty fixing it, and such. I'd not have the kind of coin for a new Alfa purchase. Though maybe they'll have aggressive lease pricing.

@28-Cars-Later You'll be able to pick one up CPO I imagine on the cheap. I suspect the market will see right through what is essentially a reshaped Chrysler 200. Fun fact: Did you know the Chrysler TC by Maserati was supposed to debut before the Chrysler Lebaron? The idea was it would debut first and then the following Lebaron would have the "Maserati look" on the cheap and thus would help move volume. However it was two years late so the Lebaron coupe was sold first for MY87, thus the Maserati had the "Lebaron look" in the public's eye. History repeats itself with the 200 and Giula. "Chrysler's TC by Maserati was a "Q" body based on a modified second generation Chrysler K platform jointly developed by Chrysler and Maserati as a grand tourer and introduced at the 1986 Los Angeles Auto Show. After 2 years of development delays, the TC became available in late-1989 and 7,300 units were manufactured in Milan, Italy by the time production ended in 1990. All cars sold as 1991 models were actually manufactured in 1990." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysler_TC_by_Maserati

@28-Cars-Later "I suspect the market will see right through what is essentially a reshaped Chrysler 200." What are you talking about? The two cars share nothing.

@28-Cars-Later Per this link the Giulia is supposed to be a RWD vehicle. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfa_Romeo_Giulia_(2015) But then there are articles stating it is not. http://www.autoevolution.com/news/alfa-romeo-giulia-to-be-fwd-after-all-47840.html Which is it? If the model is not RWD, then how is it different than the Chrysler 200?