Alfa Names 86 North American Dealerships - New 4C To Retail For Only $53,900

86 dealers $70K + price gouge for the first 500 then $55K + price gouge after that IS NOT how to reestablish Alfa Romeo. The Fiero, oops I mean 4C, needed to be $35K and retailed more widely than 86 dealers. Matchionne clearly does not understand marketing. He has grandiose visions for Maserati taking on the Germans, but is not penetrating the market as that brand needs. Now comes Alfa Romeo which will sit below Maserati but target the same Germans and has equally DUMB market penetration.

This is just start. There will be over 300 dealers and more cars later. This is a good start IMO. They can't match the Germans overnight. They will only have one car to sell so 86 dealers is enough for now. Matchionne does understand marketing, look at the Maserati is doing. Jeep. He gets it. Fiat will be expanded also.

If I was running Alfa, I would have launched the Miata-esque convertible first at about 35-40K and sold a gazillion of them.

EXACTLY! I would have put Alfa in Fiat dealers and Chrysler wherever Fiat was not represented. A Miata with some power would make a good Alfa. Too bad Marchionne is going to market the Alfa Miata as an Abarth, a name that means NOTHING to the American market.

I wouldn't spend my 35-40K on a Miata that says Alfa-Romeo on it. Would you?
Convertibles occupy a miniscule share of the market. I don't understand why anyone would offer a convertible only car. If you are going to build a convertible, then at least offer a coupe version of the same car. Mazda built a beautiful little Miata coupe that I saw personally at the SEMA show. Would have bought one in a heart beat but they never offered it. Lots of sportscar guys don't want a convertible. The sales numbers bare that out. I believe Mazda would have doubled it's Miata sales had they brought the coupe to market. Consider how many RX-7s they sold over the life of the car and how few in comparison were convertibles.

I must disagree to a point. Putting Alfa with a Chrysler dealership would be a bad move. Marchionne wants to position Alfa as a more upmarket marque to take on BMW, Audi, and Mercedes. He has instituted separate training plans to distinguish Alfa from Fiat. He has determined that there is more profitability in positioning Alfa higher than it used to be. Therefore do not expect to see an Alfa spider compete with a Miata. Rather it will compete with a BMW Z4, Mercedes SLK, and Porsche's sub Boxster coming out in 2017.Alfa is coming with a full model range assault, including sedans and Suv's. It is risky but that may be the only way Alfa can really make it. If it offered lower priced models than probably have to go FWD. They have already tried that and it has not worked in Europe at all. RWD is more expensive but more closely adheres to what Alfa was originally. In the 60's Alfa did compete directly with BMW. Also at a higher price you don't need as much volume to make money.

By the way Maserati is increasing Ghibli production by 20%.