At the launch of Alfa Romeo's make-or-break new premium saloon, the brand's chief executive Harald Wester didn't pull any punches.
Not only did he describe the current premium sector as one of "zero emotions" with models that may be functional but are "cold" and "technocratic" – a swipe at the Germans from a German – he also offered a harsh view of the mistakes made by Alfa Romeo in the past.
Alfa executives accept the brand has been in a tailspin for several years now, with no new models in the pipeline, a poor customer perception and falling sales. Its parent Fiat Chrysler (FCA) was busy with the merger, resurrecting Chrysler and Jeep and turning them into surprisingly profitable businesses. The story of Jeep's turnaround will feature in business school case studies in years to come and with it the reputation of FCA's sweater-clad chief executive Sergion Marchionne.
According to Wester – and repeated by Marchionne during the car’s unveiling – Alfa may have a rich racing heritage but the glory on the racetrack never translated into great financial success. And there were major mistakes along the way, not least the decision by Fiat, after it took over the brand in 1987, to converge its architecture and powertrains into Alfa models.
In a recent presentation, Wester used the example of the Fiat Croma, which Fiat tried to turn into an Alfa under the guise of the 164.
That was not the first time such a mistake was made: in 1984 Alfa did a deal with Nissan whereby the Nissan Pulsar was rebadged as the Alfa Romeo Arno. For Wester this was the cardinal sin.
Racing pedigree
How the brand survived these errors is down to the fondness with which it is held in the hearts and sepia-tinted memories of motoring fans. According to Wester, for years Alfas historical DNA was not respected. At the same time the German brands “built a phenomenal lead over us”. The models on offer didn’t bear any relationship to the hype about racing pedigree and history.
And so Marchionne, Wester and their team have hit the reset button. First up is the new Giulia, leading the way for seven more models in the pipeline as part of a €5 billion turnaround plan for the brand.
Perhaps as important is Alfa’s new approach to development. For this it turned to a skunkworks project team. The name refers to an elite group set up to research and develop a project – usually one that’s radically different from the traditional ways of a firm. The group is unshackled from the usual corporate formalities, policies and practices, given autonomy and unhampered by bureaucracy.
The names originates from a team set up by US aviation firm Lockheed Martin during the second World War to create a jet for the US military to combat German air power. They came up with the XP-80 jet in just 143 days.
For Alfa, the skunkworks has involved more than 600 engineers picked from within the Fiat group or poached from rivals.
The Giulia is their first project and took 36 months, a surprisingly short time for a new car. The team is now tasked with using the same platform and developing a further seven models for the brand, all due to be on sale for the end of 2018. That’s a pretty ambitious task.
Then again, ambition is not in short supply at Alfa. For a brand that sold 68,000 cars last year, the target of hitting 400,000 by 2018 seems mammoth. A host of new models will help, but even then analysts have questioned whether that sales volume is ever possible for a brand whose previous highest sales performance was 217,000 in 2001 when it had six cars on the market headlined by the incredibly popular 156.
Alfa executives retort that the secret to this success will be a return to the US market for the first time since 1994. With sister brand Chrysler providing a ready-made support network, Alfa hopes to win over the sizeable audience of middle-class motorists looking for an alternative to German giants such as Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz, and not finding the right answer stateside.
That’s also one of the reasons the launch car is a 510bhp V6, a version that’s unlikely to sell strongly in any of the firm’s seven Irish dealerships.
The car itself is perhaps less radical than some of us expected. Remarkably short overhangs suggest this is penned to be a fast-paced saloon, but from different angles it carries similarities to the likes of the BMW 3-Series and arguably elements that pay homage to the old 156, the last car to resurrect mainstream interest in the Alfa brand.
Under the bonnet it remains a mystery as to what engines may feature alongside the flagship V6. At an investor meeting in May, however, Wester spoke of the development of a six-cylinder (the V6) and two four-cylinder petrol engines alongside a four-cylinder and a six-cylinder diesel.
Power output would range from 110bhp to 310bhp for the four-cylinder petrols, 100bhp to 200bhp for the four-cylinder diesels and mid-300bhp for the 6-cylinder diesel. All Guilias are either rear-wheel or four-wheel drive.
Other features include a new torque vectoring system that offers much better control when cornering, along with a mix of driving dynamic systems, available via a knob just behind the gearstick. This lets you choose between Dynamic, Natural or Advanced efficient – DNA for short.
Cockpit changes
The cockpit is still very much Alfa, with the binnacle the preserve of the driver, while all the key controls are on the steering wheel. The central console is dominated by a large screen, controlled via a central knob, similar to BMW’s iDrive. Gone is the wall of buttons and small dials that defined the cockpits of previous Alfa saloons.
Some of us were hoping for a more dramatic design statement, perhaps from the same lines that brought us the Maserati Ghibli or the gorgeous 8C Competizione.
As to what’s coming next, the plan is for two new compact models – possibly a hatchback and saloon; another mid-sized model – possibly an estate or sportswagon; a new larger model to take on the likes of the BMW 5-Series; two new crossovers; and a new sports car. All of these are destined to arrive within the next 36 months.
So can the Giulia resurrect Alfa and lead its new model assault to the heady realms of 400,000 new sales in 2018? The jury is out on that score.
Motor industry analysts are forecasting that this is more about luring potential buyers to the brand than actually working to achieve the predicted goals.
Several years ago, VW Group’s chairman of the supervisory group Ferdinand Piech mischievously suggested he might like to add Alfa to his burgeoning collection of motor brands. Other senior executives within VW dismissed the idea, however, saying there was no room for it and any attempt to resurrect it would prove too costly. More recently, Marchionne has talked about the need for consolidation in the motor industry and earlier this year sought a merger with General Motors, a move rebuffed by the US car giant.
For Ireland, the resurrection of Alfa will be a slow burner. The Giulia will not arrive until the latter end of next year, so this will be a 171 registration car. Even then, with a limited dealer network in place it is unlikely to hit the heady days of 2001 when the 156 seemed to be the car to have in the driveway.
By the time the full range is on offer to Irish buyers, the success or failure of its critical relaunch stateside will be evident.
That, in many ways, will determine whether the Alfas carrying 181 registrations will ultimately still be under Italian ownership or whether the brand will still be there at all.
