TEASED + RENDERED SPECULATION: Alfa Romeo Prepares To Take On The 4-Series, A5 And C-Class With The All-new GTV

So Alfa Romeo has NOTHING that sells well and they are going to add a low volume product to the mix? #cancel If the GTV were priced like the Mustang/Camaro/Challenger with a lot of bang for the buck, then I'd say go for it, but this will just be a bauble and an expensive one at that with nothing to show for it.

With Marchionne out of the way, some sanity needs to be restored and putting Alfa Romeo on hold in favor of Dodge is the path to take.

Dodge has only a few specialty cars that sell - in the USA

One must remember that FCA is not an American Company - and sells cars around the world - where the Alfa name holds far more prestige than Dodge EVER will. FCA is not in the position to design/engineer/produce Dodge cars for the world market - set up dealer networks for them - and advertise for what would be a completely NEW nameplate for most of the world. THe current Dodge cars are ill suited to the rest of the world and are even long in the tooth for the US market.

Fca may as well try to re-establish the Alfa name - which is an Exotic name - that - even at small production - can be priced to produce nice profitability. Dodge was nothing more than Entry level American in the USA - and taking it upmarket is a laugh.

You have no idea of Alfa Romeo's world sales volume do you? Here's a clue. The Chrysler 300 outsells the entire Alfa brand in the USA 2:1. The Challenger and Charger outsell Alfa's ROW volume by 2:1 or a bit more. Thus, the Challenger, Charger, and 300 are infinitely more important to FCA than Alfa Romeo and Maserati combined.

Alfa Romeo is an exotic name? In Europe, its stinging reputation for abysmal quality and reliability has destroyed any exotic aura it may have had back in the 1950s.

This reborn GTV has little to do with the former lightweight 4 door it once was but it is an updated version of the too modern for its own good last edition (still with me?) of the coupe GTV. I wonder if they will do a cabriolet too. This new GTV should be able to do a good time around the Ring as well.

The real GTV (when running) is a HOOT. The fuel injection is the sore point as is rust. Either keep fuel injection carcasses around or switch to carbs. My buddy in Tucumcari has a 2000GTV.

After experiences with Alfa (a Giulietta) and the company, would rather buy a tricylce.

My buddy in Tucumcari is an Alfa fanatic, but he also curses them. He has a Giulia Quadrashitstorm and ownership has been painful. It goes into limp mode randomly. It's been fully fixed numerous times and still not fixed.

Dodge is not going to sell in Europe or the rest of world. Europe is not going to buy behemoths like a Dodge Challenger or Dodge Charger. Dodge should be supported in the USA where it belongs. Same thing for Chrysler. Chrysler is simply not a global name. These marquees belong in America. FCA is wrong for abandoning these brands. Alfa Romeo is a name brand routed in Europe and the rest of the world. True it does not have the best reputation. The latest being that it seems to be software challenged. I call all your attention to the latest article from Road and Track titled" There is never anything wrong with an Alfa Romeo". Why these problems continue to go on with Alfa remains a mystery. They are fun cars to drive. The Giulia has great steering, it handles and rides great. It has excellent acceleration even in 4 cylinder guise. The interiors are adequate even if not up to Audi standards. In every aspect both the Giulia and Stelvio are a viable alternative to the luxo German brands except for this software malfunction issue. Modern Alfa's don't rust, things don't fall off the cars or get loose. The 4 cylinder cars do not seem to have the same software issues as the V6 cars. After almost 2 years these issues should be resolved. Hopefully by the time the coupe comes around things will be improved. I've driven both the 4 cylinder Giulia and Stelvio. Obviously the dealership must have said a "Hail Mary" as neither car exhibited any issues in 1 hour of driving them. But to be clear Europeans and the rest of the world (perhaps with the exception of the Chinese)really do not like or care for American car brands. This is something the Trump fundamentally does not understand. Ford in the past has done very well in Europe but they primarily made cars that were Euro based in terms of size and driving characteristics. The Escort, the Capri etc. Vauxhall/Opel again made cars catered to Euro tastes even though at the time owned by GM. FCA tried renaming some of their Dodge products Lancias a few years back and this was a total flop. Ok I will admit Ford does ok with the Mustang but it is but a tiny tiny fraction of volume per total vehicles sold in Europe. So sure Dodge and Chrysler out sell Alfa 2 to 1 or 3 to 1. The point being that is in the USA. I'm sure they out sell Jaguar in the USA by a large margin as well and perhaps Volvo. Take the same products from Chrysler and Dodge and put them in Europe and I seriously doubt it. But I agree though Alfa is going for the fractional sales Halo product with the 8C. The GTV will probably sell at 25% of the Giulia 4dr sedan. I think with the future smaller than Stelvio SUV that will at least chase more volume as it should be priced below 40K.Darringer insists that for Alfa to be successful they need to be in the Subaru price range market which is in the 20K to 35K price range. Had they sold the Mito and the current FWD Giulieta in the US they would have been exactly in that price range. They have not done well in Eu

However the Mito and the Giulieta have not done well in Europe because they are and were accused of being rebadged Fiats. Darringer has stated more than once that Alfa should sell in the Subaru price range (20-35K). The question is how do you get there unless you cost base it on the FWD Mito and Giulieta. Again your going right back to Fiat which signifies cheap. With the exception of the "premium" platform shared with GM/Saab Fiat has based all previous Alfa products on Fiat platforms since the mid 1990's. That has simply not worked. Going up market was probably the right move. However I would have shared Maserati platforms for cost reasons rather than spend 3 billion developing a from scratch platform.