Dear FIAT-CHRYSLER - Please sell Alfa Romeo to VW Group NOW!

The past few days, the internets have been swimming with stories I have found deeply disturbing.  First there are the confirmed rumors of an US Market Alfa Romeo SUV based on the Jeep Grand Cherokee.  Then yesterday, the Dodge Viper-based Alfa TZ3 Stradale was announced.  "The Heart of a Viper and Soul of an Alfa" was the tagline in the press release.  Excuse me?  What?  Since when is it ok to drop a body onto another manufacturer's chassis and call it an Alfa? Sure it's not an ugly car, but neither is it an Alfa!

To see this steroid-addled monstrosity next to the original 4-cylinder Tubolare Zagatos is especially humiliating to Alfa Romeo, which has always prided itself on its proprietary engines as well as unique chassis dynamics.  Even the least attractive, lowest end Alfa will drive and sound like magic.  That is the core ethos of the brand. And if this Viper TZ3 is any indicator of the way the wind is blowing, I think we'll soon see the end of Alfa Romeo as a truly special car company with any pride, authenticity, or soul.It doesn't have to be this way.  Alfa has been making some stellar road cars for years now, with excellent looks, quality, and driving dynamics. But Sergio Marchionne and the FIAT management are about to sink Alfa into yet another Italo-American platform-sharing morass not seen since Chrysler's TC by Maserati.  It irks me even further to hear so many long-suffering American Alfisti get so excited about Alfa's return to our shores! Sure that is great in theory, but forcing Alfa to compete in North America's volume-driven marketplace may ultimately undermine everything about the company that made it special to begin with.  Furthermore, there is much hand-wringing among certain Alfa fans about the idea of VW Group buying the brand away from FIAT and complaints that Alfa will "no longer be Italian."  Get your head out of the sand, friends! Alfa's about to become nothing but a phony "made in Italy" fashion label on a cheap shirt, and sale to VW is actually the only way to save it from some very bad decision making at FIAT-Chrysler that could damage the brand irreparably.  If VW Group were to purchase Alfa, chances are that Walter De Silva, who was the design director during the Italian marque's most recent heyday, and currently overseeing all VW Group Design, will be one of the guiding lights managing the company.  Alfa needs to be in the hands of a true believer like De Silva. Not in the hands of a soulless businessman like Marchionne who treats a venerable brand as a commodity.  It's disgusting, and it's time that American Alfisti stop drinking the kool-aid. FIAT needs to sell Alfa to VW Group before it's too late.

Have they failed to learn the lessons of the past?

Comments

[george gallo]

Doing a custom body requires a separable non unibody chassis. The Viper had that. Sure it is four times the engine size of any Alfa save the recent 8V. But it is actually smaller and trimmer than that turgid Maserati V8 powered answer to the 928 Porsche that few asked. The lines of the Zagato TZ3 Stradale are among the most successful in a long time, and better than the race car version sitting on a carbon tub of yet a different builder. As far as ugly, wasn't there a Zagato body that looked like a doorstop in the late eighties? Alfa has wandered on a strange path of semi validity for decades, yet all their products were developed to demonstrate a unique feel and sound and vigor by very talented people. One imagines that a future Viper will receive some of this blessing instead of the Alfa being debased by it. And perhaps by eventually destroking the V10 an inch (still giving five plus liters) that mill might learn to wind like an Alfa.

[george gallo]

Doing a custom body requires a separable non unibody chassis. The Viper had that. Sure it is four times the engine size of any Alfa save the recent 8V. But it is actually smaller and trimmer than that turgid Maserati V8 powered answer to the 928 Porsche that few asked. The lines of the Zagato TZ3 Stradale are among the most successful in a long time, and better than the race car version sitting on a carbon tub of yet a different builder. As far as ugly, wasn't there a Zagato body that looked like a doorstop in the late eighties? Alfa has wandered on a strange path of semi validity for decades, yet all their products were developed to demonstrate a unique feel and sound and vigor by very talented people. One imagines that a future Viper will receive some of this blessing instead of the Alfa being debased by it. And perhaps by eventually destroking the V10 an inch (still giving five plus liters) that mill might learn to wind like an Alfa.