With the Chrysler distribution network firmly in Fiat’s hands, the Italian automaker can finally begin selling its premium Alfa Romeo brand in the United States once again.
Next year, European buyers will gain access to a revised MiTo subcompact range as well as a new small crossover aimed at the Volkswagen Tiguan and Ford Kuga. For 2013, Alfa Romeo will be back in the U.S. – at least according to this latest plan.
With its last 164 sedan imported to the U.S. as a 1995 model, Alfa Romeo has been conspicuously absent from the world’s second-largest new car market for more than 15 years. Although it did briefly offer a handful of 8C Competizione coupes and roadsters, the brand won’t get off to a real start in this market until the production version of the 4C Concept arrives here.
With that more accessible halo car as its starting point, Alfa Romeo will launch in 2012 its next-generation compact premium sedan and wagon, models that will reprise an historic name in their quest to take on segment leaders like the BMW 3-Series and Mercedes-Benz C-Class. Designed with the North American market in mind, the new car will replace the 159 and be Giulia, an historically-significant nameplate offered here in the 1960s and 1970s.
From there, the brand will grow in 2013 with Chrysler’s assistance with a midsize SUV built off of the Jeep Grand Cherokee platform, a model that shares much of its architecture with the 2012 Mercedes-Benz M-Class. Potentially called Kamal, the SUV will be the “perfect combination of SUV segment versatility and Alfa Romeo dynamism,” the leaked presentation slide says.
A large Chrysler 300-derived Alfa Romeo likely to be built in Canada will also arrive in 2013, as well as a product co-developed with Chrysler’s engineers.
A reborn Spider droptop will also arrive in 2013, although it is expected to be developed entirely by the Italians.
A sales network
At its 1995 departure, Alfa Romeo was generally marketed as a boutique brand – and we say “generally,” because there was limited marketing support for the storied Italian brand.
When it returns in about a year, Alfa Romeo will benefit from both the deeper coffers of the modern Fiat brand and from its alliance with Chrysler. With Fiat set to own the bulk of Chrysler by the time Alfa Romeo is scheduled to launch here, the Italians will have complete say in how Chrysler’s distribution network is handled.
That means that Alfa Romeos and their parts will arrive in dealers through the same channels as Chrysler – and now Fiat – products do. That doesn’t necessarily mean that Alfa Romeos will be sold in Chrysler showrooms, however. While Chrysler dealers will likely be offered first dibs on Alfa Romeo franchises, don’t look for Giulias and 300s to be sold next to one another in showrooms. Fiat will likely require new structures designed the Alfa Romeo’s tastes for its mid-premium brand.
That’s something that was lacking back in the ’90s when the dated, but full-flavored, Alfa Romeo Spider and the complex Alfa Romeo 164 were sold through Alfa Romeo showrooms that were often in the back room of Chevrolet and Ford dealerships that didn’t really know what to do with Italian cars.
References
1.’Alfa Romeo’s product…’ view
