Alfa Romeo delays U.S. return again!

Bought a '68 Duetto in '68...loved it except for the electrical glitches. Courted my wife of 40 years in it. Too bad its unlikely I'll own another new Alfa in my lifetime based on delay after delay. Sad.

You wonder if Marchionne really has confidence in Alfa as a marquee. It almost seems like he is looking for any excuse to delay Alfa's return.No brand is going to be totally acceptable unless there is some commitment to it. Alfa cannot sustain itself on the Mito and Giulieta for the next 20 or 3 yrs alone. It is a shame really. Yes there is a debt crises but other car companies are still coming out with models. I hope this does not mean a delay in the D segment cars to replace the current 200 and Avenger. That would be a mistake. What marchionne should do is this. If he is not going to commit to bring Alfa to the US then he needs to offer the same platform architecture to Fiat that he was going to give to Alfa.Anotherwords a Giulietta platform and Giulia platform to a Fiat model range to be sold in the US along with the Chrysler and Dodge versions. Fiat has now been established and there is clearly interest in it. It is a known quantity in 2011 where Alfa is not. The only caveat is that it being Fiat the profit margins would not be as high as it would with Alfa.However this could be made up for in extra volume. So my suggestion. Bring in a Fiat Spider, a Fiat vehicle based on the Giulieta, and Guilia. Forget Alfa at this point. In fact if there is no commitment then contact Piech at VW and sell it. Keep the C-Evo platform architecture for Fiat/Lancia and Chrysler.Why hold on to a marquee that you cannot afford to do anything with.

It outsold Mini.

Yes the 500 is selling ok. It did not meet their overly optomistic target of 50,000 cars. Considering it really did not start hitting showrooms until spring 2011 it not doing badly.The point is that as they keep offering more variations of the 500-ie-Abarth,5door etc.,Fiat could easily add in other vehicle classes. It would be a no brainer to use the Giulieta platform for a C class Fiat.The engine technology is is the same as being used with Alfa so it would be a no brainer.

True and the replacements for the 200 and Avenger will be based on the Alfa Giulia platform. My point is that this could easily be a D class Fiat sedan as well. Considering that Fiat is now already here in the US i think it would be a natural.

I can only imagine the bastardization that will come out of that pairing.