General Taken from my wife's FB page

[RobW]

nothing tragic IMO

when i bought my 500 i had intended to buy a 147 GTA, but when i saw the 500 advertised I knew I had to have that instead. Some cars have a special character/style.

when I sold the 500 looking for a car to drive to Italy in I intended to buy a Alfa GT, ended up buying a Bravo TJet Sport 150

all cool cars, with different characters

 

[cjc156]

All this talk of Alfa Romeo, reminds me of when I had a GTV, followed by a 156,and was an AROC member!. Great cars, and a point in Alfa's history that they should have capitalised on, but failed completely. I would be at the front of the Q if AR produced a good car to replace the 159, or even better the 166. I think the future looks bleak for a car maker selling only two models. No real strategy within Fiat for AR, as Maserati are likely to move down market and and take that position that AR was once moving towards.

I started out looking at a Mito and that is how I ended up with a 500.....

 

[loveshandbags]

All this talk of Alfa Romeo, reminds me of when I had a GTV, followed by a 156,and was an AROC member!. Great cars, and a point in Alfa's history that they should have capitalised on, but failed completely. I would be at the front of the Q if AR produced a good car to replace the 159, or even better the 166. I think the future looks bleak for a car maker selling only two models. No real strategy within Fiat for AR, as Maserati are likely to move down market and and take that position that AR was once moving towards.

I started out looking at a Mito and that is how I ended up with a 500.....

This month's CAR magazine has coverage of the Giulia (as a replacement to the 159) but it's not until 2014. 'Talk' of a new Sports cars is also covered given the plans to jointly develop them with Mazda (MX5).

There has been criticism of the Chrysler partnership as diluting the Fiat brand. The proposal to merge the brands of Maserati, Alfa and Abarth to keep the Alfa brand alive has further re-enforced this. Even the Fiat range are now 'shrinking back to a core range of Panda and 500 series vehicles' (Autocar).

From a interview in a US car magazine (Road & Track) Marchionne was quoted as saying that Pomigliano d'Arco was a 'controlled experiement' & that the Unions are still a problem with 'no-one is driving the bus' (in reference to the Italian government). Is it any wonder that a lot of his efforts are now in the U.S. If 'blame' is to be attributed it should be at the government in their 'left leaning' policies.

 

[alexGS]

I suppose producing competitive cars requires compromise of brand identity, but I didn't think it would end in a Alzda Romx5.

I'm pretty happy with my solution of having both my FIAT 500 and my Alfa Romeo 166 - the two together are better than my 156 Twinspark, which was a kind of halfway-house good all-rounder... I wouldn't be happy with either without the other. Now the only problem is that I do have to decide which car to drive each time I go anywhere, but it's usually an easy enough decision.

After all, most people have more than one pair of shoes you don't wear sneakers with a suit (unless you're Phil Collins), and you don't go for a country walk in dress black shoes (unless you're Graham McLeod).

-Alex