01 Mar 05
As reported last week, Alfa Romeo - set for a fresh take on life with its new Maserati collaboration within a Fiat Group looking to make the best use of its payout from GM - is to reveal two vital new models at the Geneva show. Both the 159 saloon and the Brera coupé are built on Alfa Romeo's Premium platform, originally to be shared with Saab but now unique to the Italian BMW wannabe.
This platform could spawn up to four more new cars in the next few years - a 159 Sportwagon, a Brera Spyder and a pair of crossover 4x4s based on the Alfa Kamal and Maserati Kubang concept cars - but the first Premium-based car we've seen in deep detail is the 159. It replaces the 156 and is designed to take on BMW's new 3-Series with more authority than any mid-size Alfa has yet managed.
The 159, named after Alfa Romeo's most famous post-war Grand Prix car, is pitched as a 'rational' car as well as an 'emotional' one. To make the marketing dream a reality, Alfa is aware of the need to improve its dealers - especially in the UK where its dealers tend to be part of large groups and Alfa sales haven't had the critical mass to make these fleet-oriented dealers take it seriously enough. "When there's a new Alfa, sales are very good at first," said the company's Italian spokesman, "but people don't come back for another one."
There has also been a big effort to improve quality and durability, which the new car's structural stiffness, claimed to be higher than that of the new 3-Series, will underpin: "The idea is to make the cars feel as good after three years as they do after one."
