1959 Alfa Romeo Giulietta 750 Spider Numbers Matching on 2040-cars

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Ram, Jeep redesigns on hold, Alfa Romeo models may come sooner

Last summer, FCA outlined an ambitious five-year plan that sketched out the company's product intentions for each of its brands through the end of 2018. However, even the best strategies sometimes need tweaking. According to Reuters after speaking with unnamed people at auto suppliers, FCA is now possibly delaying at least a dozen projects in North America for a variety of reasons. From vehicle to vehicle, these postponements allegedly last anywhere from just a few months to over a year. The sources from the suppliers claim that in some cases these tweaks are for engineering and design changes. The next-gen Ram 1500 reportedly has among the shorter delays and is being pushed from mid-2017 to November 2017, according to Reuters. Also, the much-discussed future Jeep Wrangler is allegedly moving a little later to July 2017. Among the vehicles purportedly seeing longer delays, the next-gen Grand Cherokee could get pushed back about a year to 2018. That then forces the launch of the three-row, luxury Grand Wagoneer to be even further away. Jeep's upcoming C-segment CUV and the all-new Chrysler 300, Dodge Charger, and Challenger might also see postponements. The one brand allegedly seeing an accelerated plan is Alfa Romeo. Without going into detail, the sources from these suppliers claim that the Italian automaker is getting even more vehicles for its lineup and could get them even faster than planned. "Those plans need to be flexible and fluid, with the potential to add some vehicles, pull some forward and extend the life cycle of others," FCA said to Reuters about all of these allegations. "We look at these programs on a vehicle-by-vehicle basis." Investment in the auto industry has been a major topic for FCA CEO Sergio Marchionne as of late. He believes consolidation is necessary so that companies aren't burning money on the same projects. Related Video: News Source: ReutersImage Credit: Bill Pugliano / Getty Images Plants/Manufacturing Alfa Romeo Chrysler Dodge Fiat Jeep RAM Sergio Marchionne FCA fca us

Notes from the 2016 Alfa Romeo Giulia reveal in Milan [w/video]

It's an interesting time for Alfa Romeo. Wednesday marked the brand's 105th birthday, but also a rebirth of sorts. The new Giulia is the first of several new vehicles to come out of the Project Giorgio skunkworks that has been quietly working to reimagine the brand. Fiat Chrysler is banking on these cars to finally turn Alfa around. Before the Giulia was rolled out, Alfa Romeo CEO Harald Wester acknowledged that the brand has had its share of missteps in the past. He then called out today's sporty offerings for having evolved into near-perfect but boring, commoditized cars across the industry. They have no soul, he said, nothing to differentiate one from the next. While I'd argue that each brand in the performance space still has something to differentiate itself from the others, anything that can be done to restore some of the man-machine connection lost to electronics and added weight can only be seen as a good thing. I like what I'm hearing from Alfa so far; below are some notes gleaned from the unveil event that make me think this reawakening might just work. The head of the skunkworks is Philippe Krief, a former Ferrari engineer. This is certainly a good sign for the car's dynamics and powertrain. Krief was quick to note that the Giulia uses "real" torque vectoring, not a brake-based solution like some others use. The rear differential uses a pair of clutches to apportion torque side to side. Alfa claims the car's steering will be the quickest in its segment, which I take to mean the one that currently includes the BMW M3, Mercedes-AMG C63, and Cadillac ATS-V. Immediacy translates to the braking system, as well. Alfa has come up with a new design that combines the stability control and brake servo into one unit; it's said to be simpler than two parts and also improves brake response. I'm pretty sure Krief even called its design beautiful while it flashed briefly onscreen. Quadrifoglio cars get carbon-ceramic brake discs to further improve performance and reduce weight. I didn't get to sit in the car, or even open the door, but I liked what I saw of the interior. The center console is angled to hem the driver in a little, which works well with the canted, sweeping dash. It kind of reminds me of the look in newer Mazdas – clean and simple with a good balance of organic curves and straight edges.

China-FCA merger could be a win-win for everyone but politicians

NEW YORK — Fiat Chrysler boss Sergio Marchionne has said the car industry needs to come together, cut costs and stop incinerating capital. So far, his words have mostly fallen on deaf ears among competitors in Europe and North America. But it appears Marchionne has finally found a receptive audience — in China. FCA shares soared Monday after trade publication Automotive News reported the $18 billion Italian-American conglomerate controlled by the Agnelli family rebuffed a takeover from an unidentified carmaker from the Chinese mainland. As ugly as the politics of such a combination may appear at first blush, a transaction could stack up industrially, and perhaps even financially. A Sino-U.S.-European merger would create the first truly global auto group. That could push consolidation to the next level elsewhere. Moreover, China is the world's top market for the SUVs that Jeep effectively invented, so it might benefit FCA financially. A combo would certainly help upgrade the domestic manufacturer; Chinese carmakers have gotten better at making cars, but struggle to build global brands, and they need to develop export markets. Though frivolous overseas shopping excursions by Chinese enterprises are being reined in by Beijing, acquisitions that support the modernization and transformation of strategic industries still receive support, and the government considers the automotive industry to be strategic. A purchase of FCA by Guangzhou Automobile, Great Wall or Dongfeng Motors would probably get the same stamp of approval ChemChina was given for its $43 billion takeover of Syngenta. What's standing in the way? Apart from price (Automotive News said FCA's board deemed the offer insufficient) there's the not-insignificant matter of politics. Even as FCA shares soared, President Donald Trump interrupted his vacation to instruct the U.S. Trade Representative to look into whether to investigate China's trade policies on intellectual property. Seeing storied Detroit brands like Jeep, Chrysler, Ram and Dodge handed off to a Chinese company would provoke howls among Trump's economic-nationalist supporters. It might not play well in Italy, either, to see Alfa Romeo and Maserati answering to Wuhan instead of Turin — though Automotive News said they might be spun off separately. Yet, as Morgan Stanley observes, "cars don't ship across oceans easily," and political considerations increasingly demand local manufacture of valuable products.