SPIED + VIDEO: Alfa Romeo's All-New Compact SUV, The Stelvio, Nabbed In Action Near The Nürburgring

These days it seems like everyone and their mothers is making a compact sport-utility vehicle. Well, except for a couple automakers.

When Bentley and Rolls-Royce are producing sport-utility vehicles, you know that things are getting crazy. The next up? That would be Alfa Romeo.

Although one would think that the Italian automaker known for its sport sedans and sports cars wouldn't take the plunge, it's clear as ever it is in survival mode. The reality is that you have to mess up pretty bad to build a compact SUV and for it NOT to sell.

This brings us to the Stelvio.

Spotted in this all-new spy video, the Italian stallion is sporting some serious camouflage. This tells us two things:

1) This Alfa is far from seeing the light of day; and,

2) Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) may have some tricks up its sleeve.

That said, take a look at the all-new Stelvio as it undergoes developmental testing in the video below!

Shot outside Alfa’s Nürburgring test centre today, this is another batch of spy-shots of the production version Alfa Romeo SUV that Fiat Chrysler Automobiles boss Sergio Marchionne has christened the Stelvio and that is scheduled to start production in the final quarter of 2016, slated for sale early in 2017.

MDarringer - 6/18/2016 10:21:24 AM

+1 Boost

The Stelvio is by far more important for Alfa Romeo than the Giulia. The sooner the better.

mini22 - 6/19/2016 6:01:06 PM

+1 Boost

Agreed. Probably the only chance at all of sales success in the US for Alfa is this vehicle.

MDarringer - 6/19/2016 6:28:34 PM

+1 Boost

People do not realize how precarious the position is of FCA's Italian brands in the USA.

Sales at Maserati are dead to the point that you can easily get a Ghibli for price of the fully optioned Chrysler 300 and that is a good buy given that the Ghibli is a 300 with a better body. The Qporte is deader than dead and needs a $30K price reduction across the board. Want a brand new 2015? They are still on the lot.

The 4C sold to the few car crazies and then sales plummeted.

Fiat is in deep caca YTD (year to date) sales of the 500 are down about 50% and sales of the 500X that should be flying out of the dealers is no better than the terrible sales of the 500. The 500L's sales have always been nightmarishly bad and now the 500 and 500X are at that low volume rate. The 124 will likely be far less than those dismal numbers.

Annualize the 500 and it will sell 16.5K units. Annualize the Chevy Spark and you're at 28K units.

You'd be surprised at how similar the prices of these two cars are. Many buyers of the Spark go for optioned models and buyers of the 500 get deep discounts.

The only brands that FCA has that do well are Jeep and Ram. Dodge is up barely to an annualized rate of 550K units. Sales of Chryslers have dropped over 50K units on an annualized rate.

So we once again have "Chrysler" (Jeep, Ram, and Dodge) carrying the weight of FCA in the USA and Marchionne cash raping "Chrysler" to fund Alfa Romeo and Maserati so that when he spits out the carcass of "Chrysler" to GAC and retreats to Europe, Alfa and Maserati will have newish products. He can then reunite them with Ferrari and laugh all the way to the bank.