There has been speculation that platform is not all-new, but related to Maserati’s or Chrysler’s. I asked Harald Wester, the chief executive.
“It’s 100 percent new. Body and suspension. All our engines will be new and just for Alfa, though they will be made in the same factory as others [other Fiat and Chrysler Group engines] so they do share some basic engine dimensions.”
The current FWD Giulietta will be replaced, and that too will be on the same rear-drive/AWD architecture as the Giulia and others. Think about that: a RWD compact Alfa hatch at a time when even its BMW rival is going into front-drive.
That line-up will have a full range of engines: four-cylinder and V6 petrols, all with turbos, in various ouputs from about 150bhp to over 500. And four-cylinder and V6 diesels. Hybrids aren’t on the immediate roadmap.
The cars are light – a basic Giulia will be 1400kg, Wester says. All Alfas will have a carbon fibre propshaft, and aluminium doors and wings and suspension, says Wester, even though they won’t get the Giulia Quadrifoglio’s carbon fibre roof and bonnet.
But there’s the question of brand awareness. Wester claims huge on-line awareness, and the topgear.com response bears it out. Alfa was once among the two or three greatest car-makers on the planet – imagine today’s McLaren and Rolls-Royce combined and you wouldn’t be far off. But that was the 1930s.
In the 1960s it changed position to sell a lot more cars rather more cheaply. But they were about the best-engineered and sportiest cars normal people could buy: Alfa was better-regarded then than BMW is now.
But it’s one thing for people to know Alfa, quite another to buy one, I say.
He answers: “The market size is huge in these sectors, and it’s dominated by a couple of brands. There is loyalty to those brands but there’s a limit after many years, when you give those buyers an exciting new stimulant. There’s no mathematical equation to how many we’ll sell, but the probability is high.”
I say that people loved the Jaguar brand too, and the XF was a credible car when it launched, but it didn’t make much of a dent on the 5-Series.
“I don’t want to disrespect it, but the Jaguar brand isn’t on the same level of the podium,” Wester answers. “The Alfa name is like Ferrari.”
So he defaults to talking about what Alfas will not be. “In the current premium cars you are cocooned - the steering is light, there’s little feedback from the road. It’s like you’re driving by-wire.”
Alfas will make you feel “part of the machine,” he says, before quickly adding, in case he’s alienating someone, “but not uncomfortable.” Ah well, we’ll just have to see. We will get to drive the Giulia towards the end of the year.
http://www.topgear.com/car-news/opinion/opinion-will-alfa-romeo%E2%80%99s-big-2018-masterplan-succeed
Намерно не ги болдирав работиве претходно, да им се даде шанса на тролчињата да напишат по нешто.
Значи сите ќе имаат карбонски кардан и алуминиумски врати и суспензија, прекрасно.Ама оној вистински алуминиум, не од оној на ВЊ на кој се лепи магнет.
За управувањето не се сомневам воопшто, 159-ката има прекрасно управување, а 4ц со истото влезе високо на драјверс кар изборот на американците( второ место, трето ГТ3 РС).
Исто ме радува што однесувањето на суспензијата е базирано повеќе на механика отколку на електроника.
За Џулиета и Мито нема потреба да зборувате, Џули беше трета придружничка на 458 Италија и АМ Рапид на светско ниво во дизајн. Тука завршуваат сите дилеми. Мултиер моторите собраа многу награди,а перформансите на Џулиета ден денес се сон за новите компакти. Teк кога ќе стигне со заден погон и сигурно доста повисока снага. Категории како 2цм повеќе ова, 3 литри она се за мене небитни.
