Volkswagen’s Ferdinand Piech takes another shot at Alfa Romeo’s current owners Fiat/Chrysler, claiming that Volkswagen could turn around Alfa Romeo and increase sales of the Italian brand up to 400,000 cars a year within 5 years, which is almost quadruple of what the brand is currently doing – about 112,000 cars.
Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne has stated repeatedly that the group would not sell Alfa Romeo anytime soon, even going on to say that as long as he is the CEO of Chrysler and Fiat, Mr. Piech will never have Alfa Romeo.
Such is the allure of the sexy Alfa Romeo brand, that these two bosses seem to treat the ownership of the brand as some kind of status symbol. Alfa Romeo certainly isn’t a profitable brand under Fiat, and in fact Marchionne claims Alfa had always been a money loser in the 7 years he has been at the company, even going as far to say that he wasn’t sure if Alfa Romeo ever really made any money.
On the matter of the sale to Volkswagen, he suggested the German car manufacturer group concentrate on fixing Spanish brand Seat first. Why does Alfa Romeo struggle to sell as many cars as it should, despite having good designs and brand image? Who knows, perhaps with reliable Volkswagen underpinnings it could really do much better than it currently is. The idea of an Alfa Romeo is certainly sexier than a Seat.
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i wish they bring in the Giulietta here. is so sexy !
U wish govt updates petrol to min. EURO4 1st then more great cars they bring in here.
NO NO NO !!! , nobody would want an Alfa then because its a VW underneath…
The giuletta is fine car , Alfa just need to replace the 159 faster….
who knows??? Alfa Romeo is infamous for their reliability issues. Unless u’re loaded or a die-hard fan of Alfa’s. No one in their right mind would even consider Alfa.
They do look good though…
Alfa
> have to have money to buy it
> have to have money to take care of its maintenance
> have to have extra money to pay for the tow truck
last but not least.. i love all of alfa’s cars.. but too bad..i could not afford the above yet..not yet.. :P
modern alfa’s are quite good actually…my best friend’s been driving a 159 for over a year and its been brilliant (it truly runs circles around those pesky m sport 320i’s for sure )..servicing is only done every 20 k so its been ok i guess…as for why it does not sell…hmm..,maybe its the fear of the unknown and ,maybe alfa’s rather weak and scary past in terms of ownership experience etc…but modern cars have come a long way…i believe its not the parts or platform issues but sales would increase under vw due to the manner in which it runs its business…seat has tried and failed to find its own niche as its products are similar to the big V and skoda..and given a choice of 1 to 2 k…people would opt for a vw i guess…..