TURIN, Italy - Once again, Alfa Romeo has postponed its return to the United States.
The Italian automaker will not re-enter the U.S. market in 2007 as planned, Fiat Group CEO Giuseppe Morchio told Automotive News Europe.
An eventual return still is part of parent Fiat Group's strategy, but a date has not been set, Morchio said. "We have to fix our operations in Europe before we start thinking about North America."
Alfa has postponed its return to the United States repeatedly since Fiat announced its strategic alliance with General Motors in 2000. At the time, Fiat said Alfa would introduce the redesigned two-seat Spider convertible in 2003.
That introduction subsequently was postponed to 2004, then to 2005 and eventually to 2007.
The first two delays resulted from design changes to the Spider's platform. Code-named Project 938, that platform was killed last year.
Then Alfa decided to delay the Spider's return until it could introduce a complete range of new vehicles. Code-named Project 939, the new range includes four cars based on a platform that Alfa developed jointly with Saab. They will be redesigns of the 156 sedan and station wagon and the Spider and GTV coupe. All will appear in Europe in 2005 and 2006. Alfa also plans to introduce a crossover vehicle in 2006 and another in 2007.
Alfa wants to introduce these cars in Europe before re-entering the U.S. market. It has projected sales of 50,000 to 60,000 cars a year in the United States.
Alfa Romeo officially entered the U.S. market in 1952. A decade later, the company launched Alfa Romeo North America to distribute the cars. To expand its presence, Alfa Romeo started a distribution joint venture with the former Chrysler Corp.
The joint venture's goal was to sell 25,000 to 30,000 units a year, but poor quality and reliability problems hampered sales. Alfa's best year in the United States was 1986, when it sold 8,201 cars.
The Fiat Group acquired Alfa Romeo in 1987.
Chrysler withdrew from the joint venture in 1991, but Alfa Romeo continued its sales operations on its own for a while. In 1995, it finally notified its 97 remaining dealers that it would stop exporting vehicles to the United States.
In the United States, Alfa Romeo sold 414 cars in 1995, according to the Automotive News Data Center
News of Alfa Romeo's delayed return to the United States comes at a time when Alfa is focusing on a turnaround in its core European markets.
Through October, Alfa sold 138,631 units in western Europe. Compared with the year-ago period, Alfa Romeo's European sales were down 5.8 percent.
That's a steeper decline than Alfa Romeo's rivals have suffered. In the first 10 months of 2003, industry sales in western Europe were down just 1.3 percent.
Source:
http://www.autoweek.com/cat_content...._code=02002682
Alfa Romeo won't return to the U.S. in 2007
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