#Branding

One of the first rumors to come out of the Fiat/Chrysler tie-up was that Alfa-Romeo would replace its expired 166 flagship with a large, RWD sedan based on Chrysler’s updated LX platform. But with Lancia getting its own rebadge of the new Chrysler 300, and a possibly LX/LC-based entry-level Maserati in development, it seems that Alfa’s opportunity for a flagship rear-drive sedan has passed. Auto Motor und Sport reports that, rather than developing a large Alfa flagship, the brand will top out (in sedan terms) with its forthcoming, 159-replacing Giulia front-drive D-segment effort. That might not come as terribly shocking news to the brand faithful, as Alfa’s have been almost exclusively front-drivers for some time… but the fact that no fizzy, crackling Alfa-typical V6 is planned for the brand’s midsized flagship might come as a letdown (instead, look for turbocharged four-bangers making between 120 and 235 HP). All of which is very interesting in light of CEO Sergio Marchionne’s recent diagnosis of Alfa’s woes, in which he argued

I mean it’s got this incredible appeal which goes back, you know, to the time they used to be on the racetrack, and it’s the embodiment of a lot of things which are typically Italian; sportiness, lightweight, and everything else. And what happened is that when Fiat bought them back in the end of ’86 we Fiatized Alfa. Fiat was front-wheel drive; Alfa was rear wheel drive. So now all the Alfas are front-wheel drive. And we put Fiat engines inside the Alfas, and Alfa started losing more and more of its DNA as a car company.

The question “what is the plural of Prius?” had been discussed at some length here at at TTAC well before Toyota’s marketing team picked up on the idea and held a contest soliciting votes on the correct answer. And, as it turns out, etymological corectness doesn’t resonate withe masses quite like a nice, short name… which, incidentally, brings the debate full circle. TTAC started out calling multiples of the hybrid hatch Prii, before New Years Eve when we found out that Priora was the more accurate term because

Prius is the neuter nominative/accusative singular of the adjective prior, but the plural forms of the word – which means ‘earlier, better, more important’- would be Priora

Then, on New Years Day two years later, we corrected once again when we were informed that

Actually prius is an adverb, so it can’t have a plural. But the related noun form is prior, prioris, 3rd declension. According to my Bennett’s New Latin Grammar (CR:1956), the plural of liquid stem (ending in -l or -r) 3rd declension nouns is -es (that’s a long e, with a bar over it). So it should be Priores.

But it turns out that our attempts to unite the twin disciplines of auto enthusiasm and Latin grammar fell on deaf ears. Automotive News [sub] reports that Toyota’s month-long survey is complete and that fans have determined that the name should be Prii. According to Toyota’s presser on the matter

Prii becomes the word not only endorsed by the public who chose it, but also as the term recognized by Toyota

Debate over.

Given how far Audi has come in the last 20 years, you might think the Ingolstadt boys would be the last brand to start looking backwards. And yet, starting with its re-imagined ur-Quattro, Audi has begun to reference its past work more often, doubtless in an attempt to square its somewhat stodgy past with its fashion-forward present. But then, the ur-Quattro has always been a halo for the brand, in ways that the Audi 80 and its predecessor, sold in the US as the Fox (and later as the 4000), wasn’t always. Don’t get it wrong: the 80, which was sold in Europe from 1966-1996, was by no means a bad car… but the modern Audi era of success didn’t start until the 80 was replaced with the A4. Which is why it’s interesting that Audi’s plans for the next-generation of A3 explicitly reference the nameplate that defined Audi as a solid but decidedly unglamorous premium (rather than luxury) brand.

Porsche’s greatest strength may well be that, in this era of automotive homogenization, it maintains its unique technical traditions. Until Subaru brought out a rarely-optioned 3.6 unit to market, Porsche was the only automaker who offered a flat-six engine, a powerplant that was both unique and traditional. But now, it seems that Porsche may have to give up its unique engines in the name of corporate strategy and its goal of remaining the world’s most profitable automaker [sub]. When asked by EVO magazine if, in the future, Audis could use Porsche’s brand-defining boxer-six engine, Porsche’s R&D boss Wolfgang Dürheimer responded

I think so, especially for the V8 side, but I can also see some applications for the Porsche flat-six and future flat-four engines across the VW group. I think it cannot hurt Audi to have a Porsche powerplant in its cars.

Yes, but what about Porsche? We’d heard a version of this rumor before, but this latest revelation seems to indicate that plans to share Porsche’s greasy bits are moving forward. Given that we’re moving towards the last hurrah of the internal-cumbustion engine, we’d hope that Porsche would hold onto its tradition of unique engines a bit longer. Apparently not.

Chrysler got so much buzz out of its “Imported From Detroit” Super Bowl ad that it sold out of apparel bearing the tagline “within hours” and even had GM Marketing boss Joel Ewanick admitting

Yeah, we’re getting our butts kicked.

Now Chrysler is literally wrapping itself in the tagline, covering its Auburn Hills headquarters with the semi-ironic (what with ChryCo headquarters being located in Auburn Hills and all) phrase. And Chrysler’s ad agency is even exploring ways to remake Chrysler’s dealerships into “Detroit Embassies.” AdAge quotes the Creative Director for Chrysler’s ad agency Wieden + Kennedy as saying

One of things we’ve been working on for last couple of days is a dealer kit. How can we make dealers around America feel like Detroit embassies? How can we put this feeling about Detroit and its optimistic resurgence in dealerships? We’ll help them keep that stuff rolling.

But will it make a difference?

Winter testing continues for the platform underlying Mercedes’ four compacts of the apocalypse, and Auto Motor und Sport’s cameraman have caught copious footage of the fun. But remember, the traditional B-Class hatchback won’t be headed stateside, having been nixed by MB’s US dealer net. Instead, we’ll get

a crossover, a sporty coupe and a sedan

based on the same front-drive platform. Heck, the platform may even spawn a baby Infiniti CUV, positioned under the EX, as part of Daimler and Nissan’s hookup. Given that this test mule is validating the internals of a new direction for the Mercedes brand in the US, do we like what we’re seeing?

Dodge brand CEO Ralph Gilles tells Automotive News [sub] that Dodge’s primary design cue, the “Cross-Hair” grille, will be limited to Ram-branded trucks as Dodge moves on to an undefined “different way.”

We did as much as we could with the split cross-hair grille. We had to be careful because the cooling work was pretty much done when we decided to rebrand the vehicles. That will continue evolving over time. The Ram brand, the truck look they have, they own it.

The obvious question: having relied on truck-derived styling for decades now, where does Dodge go from here? We’ve puzzled over this question since Chrysler announced that Ram would be split off from the Dodge brand, and over a year later, we’re still at a loss. So we’ll put it to you: what would you do to bring Dodge’s design into the post-truck era?

Automotive News [sub] reports that Mercedes-Benz has agreed to take over Smart car distribution in the United States from Group after about three years of operating as a Penske-run distribution channel. Beginning in July, Mercedes will take over all of Smart’s US-based operations because

1. It needs the small-car volume to meet new corporate average fuel economy standards that take effect in the United States in the 2016 model year.

2. Daimler AG integrated Smart into the Mercedes-Benz car unit September. The United States is the only market where Smart and Mercedes operate separately.

But the impact of this deal isn’t limited to ownership and operations, as AN [sub] reports that the four-door car being developed by Nissan for Smart USA has been canceled.

Chrysler and Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne has given Forbes’ Joann Muller what I believe to be one of his best interviews since arriving on the US scene. In it, Sergio dishes on everything from the bailout (“I risked everything – I got 35 percent of something that was worth nothing”), to Chrysler’s 2011 sales target (“a very, very tough uphill battle”), to its new product

I couldn’t have done more from a product standpoint than I’ve done. I mean you know, I tried every trick in the book that I knew and I invented some, but you know, 16 products in 12 months – at least that part of it was a record. The rest of it is to be proven.

But the strangest revelation from Sergio is that Alfa Romeo’s future success will be, in a manner of speaking, “Imported from Detroit.” Read the whole thing over at Forbes, or hit the jump for Sergio’s vision for his red-blooded Italian brand.