What's up with Alfa Romeo's U.S. launch?

[XDCX]

In his meeting with the press yesterday Marchionne indicated that Alfa Romeo "isn't ready" to be relaunched in the U.S. and declined to provide a date when the brand would return to the U.S. For a full report from The Detroit Free Press - click here

The Detroit Free Press report suggests that Auburn Hills is placing Alfa on the back-burner so they can focus their attention on fixing the poor sales of the Dodge Dart and bringing a new nine speed automatic transmission to market.

Here's an excerpt from The Detroit Free Press report that caught my attention:

Marchionne said Fiat has shifted its attention to Maserati and now plans to reinvigorate that brand before it turns its attention to Alfa Romeo. Maserati unveiled a redesigned Quattroporte luxury sedan Monday and plans to increase its global sales from 6,300 in 2012 to more than 50,000 by 2015.

Call me a skeptic, but I think Fiat's troubles in Europe run deep and delaying a U.S. launch for Alfa Romeo provides Marchionne the option of selling the brand to the Volkswagen Group.

If Marchionne wants to buy the remaining shares of Chrysler and eliminate the possibility of an IPO he needs cash and VW has expressed an interest in the Alfa brand for a number of years.

To be clear, the possibility that Marchionne has delayed Alfa's return to the U.S. because he wants to preserve an asset he may need to sell-off, is pure speculation on my part. I've been wrong before and I may be wrong again. Time will tell.....

[79LilRedExpress]

He will never sell Alfa to VW... Just like Jeeps will never be built in China ...

[steve_biegler]

Ha Ha............Red is right! Never is a long time, as is ALWAYS. Never believe people who use these terms.

[AR2]

Alfa Romeo is being primped and primed for its Grand Entrance into the U.S market, don't you know? The "greatness" that is about to be bestowed upon us has be done just right.

So... does this mean we probably won't see Alfa Romeo in this market next year? I wonder what the Fiat dealers think of this, or maybe they don't care and are perfectly fine with the Fiats they have. I don't know and really don't care.

Does Marchionne even have a business plan any more? He switches from one thing to another at the drop of a hat it seems. Now he wants to concentrate on Maserati and dramatically increase its global sales to 50,000 units? I know the global market is large, but he can't even sell 50,000 Fiats in the United States - and he had to practically give them away to get anywhere close. 50,000 units... how many vehicles did Bentley or Rolls Royce sell worldwide last year and how many do they plan to sell this year?

[XDCX]

Originally Posted by 79LilRedExpress

He will never sell Alfa to VW... Just like Jeeps will never be built in China ...

I see what you did there.....

[XDCX]

Originally Posted by AR2

I wonder what the Fiat dealers think of this, or maybe they don't care and are perfectly fine with the Fiats they have.

In my opinion the Fiat Dealers have been royally screwed with inflated sales expectations, a very poor launch, a failed Fiat Brand Manager, crappy advertising and a product line that's still limited to a single vehicle.

Even worse, it appears that Auburn Hills is quietly walking away from their "Single Point Fiat Store" business model and they're allowing dealers to add Fiat to their existing CJDR stores. There are even rumors of "Service Only" Fiat franchises for CJDR dealers.

All of that said, I don't think the Fiat Dealers care. Auburn Hills hand-selected the Fiat Dealers with a strong preference for large/established dealers. For most dealers I'm betting their Fiat Franchise is nothing more than a little bit of red ink on an otherwise impressive Financial Statement.

Maybe this explains why OEMs prefer large dealer groups instead of smaller/private capital dealers? The Fiat Franchise debacle would make for a great Class Action lawsuit if the dealers ever wanted to take a stand against Marchionne and Auburn Hills.

Originally Posted by AR2

Does Marchionne even have a business plan any more? He switches from one thing to another at the drop of a hat it seems. Now he wants to concentrate on Maserati and dramatically increase its global sales to 50,000 units? I know the global market is large, but he can't even sell 50,000 Fiats in the United States - and he had to practically give them away to get anywhere close. 50,000 units... how many vehicles did Bentley or Rolls Royce sell worldwide last year and how many do they plan to sell this year?

With the exception of Peter DeLorenzo from the AutoExtremist is seems most of the auto press refuses to challenge Marchionne when he makes grand forecasts and then fails to deliver results.

To be clear, Chrysler has had an impressive run but the vast majority of that success has been based on vehicles that were in production or development long before Marchionne became CEO.

[JoeRocket]

Originally Posted by XDCX

In his meeting with the press yesterday Marchionne indicated that Alfa Romeo "isn't ready" to be relaunched in the U.S.

Awesome news!

Originally Posted by AR2

So... does this mean we probably won't see Alfa Romeo in this market next year?

God, I hope not. That would probably be the last straw for me. I wouldn't wish this wonderful Fiat experience on my worst enemy. I don't see AR being any different.

[AR2]

I guess we have our answer as to why Alfa Romeo "isn't ready" to be relaunched in the American market yet. According to Autoextremist and Autoblog, Sergio does not want American engines in the upcoming Alfa Romeo models...

Sergio Marchionne. Editor-in-Chief's Note: Telling the assembled media how great the new Alfa Romeo will be - now officially the unicorn brand of the auto industry, by the way - he said, "I cannot come up with a schlock product, I just won't. I won't put an American engine into that car. With all due respect to my American friends, it needs to be a wop engine. There are some things that are well-done in Italy." Really, Sergio? Have you secretly attended the Dan Akerson school of insulting your own product development troops? And wait a minute, aren't you and your marketing boy, Olivier "I'm a genius just ask me" Francois, the guys who spend half their time in your commercials lecturing us Americans on how to be Americans? Wow. What a monumentally stupid statement and a dick-ish move. There's just no other way of explaining it. - PMD

http://www.autoextremist.com/on-the-table1/

http://www.autoblog.com/2013/01/16/m...t-power-futur/

I seem to recall Daimler getting called out for not allowing Chrysler engineering in their Mercedes models, but there doesn't seem to be a big outburst with Sergio's comments now. Interesting...

But of course, there seems to be no problem putting Italian and German engineering into Chrysler products - It almost seems to be expected at this point!

[XDCX]

Sergio Marchionne. Editor-in-Chief's Note: Telling the assembled media how great the new Alfa Romeo will be - now officially the unicorn brand of the auto industry, by the way - he said, "I cannot come up with a schlock product, I just won't. I won't put an American engine into that car. With all due respect to my American friends, it needs to be a wop engine. There are some things that are well-done in Italy." Really, Sergio? Have you secretly attended the Dan Akerson school of insulting your own product development troops? And wait a minute, aren't you and your marketing boy, Olivier "I'm a genius just ask me" Francois, the guys who spend half their time in your commercials lecturing us Americans on how to be Americans? Wow. What a monumentally stupid statement and a dick-ish move. There's just no other way of explaining it. - PMD

I love DeLorenzo's comment - I couldn't agree more.

I guess the latest spin is Marchionne indicates Alfa will return to the U.S. in 2013 by selling the $75K Alfa 4C sports car. Anyone want to guess how many $75K Alfa's Marchionne will be able to retail in 2013?

Concerning DeLorenzo, here's his latest comment concerning the Alfa launch:

Fiat-Chrysler dealers. Editor-in-Chief's Note: "The Great Sergio" Marchionne let fly that the Alfa Romeo 4C sports car (price estimates hover around $75,000 in case you forgot) would be here at the end of this year. That probably means that one will roll off the boat at 11:58 p.m. next New Year's Eve, but hey, that's 2013 in Sergio-speak. And the resulting cheers could be heard around the land from Fiat-Chrysler dealers desperate for some sign that Alfa really is going to happen. Except let's not forget that Marchionne also said five minutes ago that Alfa would barely register in 2014, so what's exactly going on here? The reality is that Sergio is going to push for the high-priced 4C to arrive in this country before the calendar year ends so he can tell everyone he brought Alfa in earlier than expected, in order to polish his Golden Wop status even further in the eyes of his acolytes and sycophants. And to Fiat-Chrysler dealers, I have to ask, really? Sergio throws you a promise of a dog bone and you treat it like a prosciutto-encrusted T-bone? What's the matter with you guys? Just once I'd like to hear a Fiat-Chrysler dealer say, "Yeah, right, I'll believe it when I see it" and move on with their lives. Just once. - PMD

I love DeLoreno's comment about the silence of the Fiat Dealers as it relates to the numerous mistakes and broken promises made by Marchionne. It's too bad none of the Fiat Dealers have had the courage to step up and confront Marchionne on his failures - it probably would have helped Chrysler from making more mistakes.

Who knows, maybe "mass-compliance" is a by-product of slaughtering 789 dealers during Chrysler's bankruptcy?

[XDCX]

When I was watching the Super Bowl I saw the commercial for Fast and Furious 6 which is scheduled for release in May. I'm not 100% sure, but to me it appeared that an Alfa Romeo was one of the cars that will be featured in the movie.

For a link to the movie trailer - click here (The vehicle in question appears at the 45 second mark - it's a red sports car with a distinctive Alfa front nose treatment.)

I wonder how much Auburn Hills had to pay for that exposure? (The last Fast and Furious movie featured the new body style Dodge Charger.)

To be clear, I'm not critical of Chrysler's decision to use product placement to increase vehicle awareness. If the price is right it may be a great use of marketing dollars.

On a side note, I was watching a recent episode of Pawn Stars and smiled when they appraised an old Fiat 500. There wasn't a single negative comment about Fiat's past and there were several favorable comments about the sales success of the current Fiat 500 and Fiat's status as being the parent corporation of Ferrari and Maserati. I'm sure Auburn Hills had to write a check for that exposure, and as before, if the price was right it was likely money well spent.