motor

AlienDB7 · 09-08-2003, 03:14 PM

Just came across this news:

FRANKFURT (Reuters) -- The head of General Motors said on Monday that its joint ventures with Fiat were running better than expected and the two companies were looking for other areas to cooperate.

GM Chairman Rick Wagoner said the savings from the joint ventures with Fiat were "running well in excess of our initial forecasts," even though both GM and Fiat are selling fewer vehicles using parts from the ventures than they had planned.

Wagoner declined to give a figure for savings but said it was running in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

He said Fiat and GM would continue to explore other areas where they could cooperate such as sharing platforms or the basic group of parts needed for building a range of cars.

Wagoner said there were few areas where GM and Fiat would cooperate in sales and marketing and said plans to sell Fiat's Alfa Romeo brand in the United States were "on the back burner."

He said GM had held its quarterly meeting with Fiat.

Source: http://www.autonews.com/news.cms?newsId=6339

So, there's still hope...

aawil · 09-08-2003, 03:49 PM

I think they(Alfa) were planning on coming back in 05 but pushed it back to '07 or '08. That's what i remember reading not to long ago.

draak666 · 09-08-2003, 05:06 PM

It simply amazes me that Alfa isn't sold in the US. I never knew. Such beatiful cars. Don't you people like 'em over there?

SFDMALEX · 09-08-2003, 05:40 PM

Alfa in US(well canada also) that would be great.

draak666- The only Alfa's we got here are the old spiders. Thats it.

AlienDB7 · 09-08-2003, 06:08 PM

What a coincidence, I just saw an alfa romeo spyder in the parking on the way home

draak666: you'll be amazed how many cars we don't get here. No peugeot, alfa, seat, opel, smart, .... the list goes on. Many of the imports we get are americanized with softer suspension and cheaper plastic. Oh well, can't complain, consider how much we're paying

stracing · 09-08-2003, 11:05 PM

glad to be in australia. i get the best of both worlds...european and japanese cars

alfas are nice....i think anything italian is nice anyways

initiala4 · 09-09-2003, 12:18 AM

Alfa used to be sold in the US....even cars like Peugeot? was once sold in the US...i guess it was the market...

666fast · 09-09-2003, 01:07 AM

Originally Posted by initiala4

Alfa used to be sold in the US....even cars like Peugeot? was once sold in the US...i guess it was the market...

Yea, Alfa, Peugoet, Fiat, even Lancia. They were all sold here at one point. It wasn't the market that killed them off it was their craptacular dealer networks. The cars were pretty good priced for the time, but when they broke, it costed an arm and a leg to fix. It also didn't help that when they broke, it took too long to get them fixed because everything had to be shipped here.

WhiteP · 09-09-2003, 01:18 AM

Finally, I want the ALFA 147GTA so much. ITALIAN.
The speedometer looks like the one in Ferrari too.
Can't wait to see them on the street.

Imre · 09-09-2003, 02:49 AM

I`v heard that they(alfa) planned to return in US 2003 but something went wrong and they are trying again.

stradale · 09-09-2003, 06:20 AM

Originally Posted by 666fast

Originally Posted by initiala4

Alfa used to be sold in the US....even cars like Peugeot? was once sold in the US...i guess it was the market...

Yea, Alfa, Peugoet, Fiat, even Lancia. They were all sold here at one point. It wasn't the market that killed them off it was their craptacular dealer networks. The cars were pretty good priced for the time, but when they broke, it costed an arm and a leg to fix. It also didn't help that when they broke, it took too long to get them fixed because everything had to be shipped here.

It also didn't help that they broke down too much. Those cars of that period were of terrible quality. My dad owned an Alfa Sud and a 33. Especially the 33 was bad, it was in repair once a month. And that is even a car built after Alfa Romeo left North America...

The time for a comeback has come I think. Those cars you mentioned are pretty well built nowadays. The AR 156 is even a very popular car for leasing. Who would have thought?

Roadster44 · 09-12-2003, 05:50 AM

Good to hear Alfa are in a strong enough position to move back to the american market, but it's not really a true Alfa anymore, what with the shared platforms/engines with GM .... it just seems to me alfa is slowly loosing its 'soul' what with FWD only, and now working on sharing more and more parts with generic GM products

I'll stick to my old Alfa 75 3.0, it might be ugly to some people's eye's(not mine) but it has true alfa 'soul' with the v6 engine and rwd chassis 8)

stradale · 09-12-2003, 06:44 AM

^^^^^^^^Then you'd be pleased to hear the new Alfa Romeo V8 coupé (concept 8C competizione is at the IAA in Frankfurt at the moment) will have RWD. Alfa Romeo is also planning to use AWD on some models.

The GM thing scared the hell out of me too, but now it seems it's not gonna be that bad. The engines will not be completely GM. Just the lower part. All the rest is going to be pure Alfa Romeo. So the new engines will have the same old Alfa feeling and sound.

Don't listen what other people think about the 75. IMO the 75 3.0 V6 is a great car and I completely understand why you're driving it.

09-12-2003, 07:45 AM

yeh I've heard of this new supercar they plan, but I didn't realise that they were making their own engine for it, I read somewhere that it would be using one of the modular engines shared with GM, so I hope you're right.. and if they do make it it should be great, especially if they keep it rwd 8)

lets hope so anyway

stradale · 09-12-2003, 08:49 AM

As an Alfa Romeo enthousiast you have to be happy with this.