Alfa Romeo's midsize sedan due in June, and we'll get it

Wed, Nov 26 2014

As the calendar shifts, so do Alfa Romeo's plans. At the LA Auto Show, Harald Wester, head of Alfa Romeo, said the brand would unveil its second US model – after the 4C Â– next June, but he wouldn't identify the type of car. A report in Automotive News Europe, quoting sources, says that it will be a midsize sedan in the mold of the erstwhile 159 (pictured) that was supposed to become the Giulia but now has a new brief and perhaps a new name.

"Giulia" should be familiar because we've been hearing about it for more than three years Â– in fact it was 2011 when it was thrown back on the drawing board for a complete redesign. Last year the plan Â– or the anonymously-sourced bits of the plan that we kept getting Â– were for the platform to go rear-wheel drive and do duty for both a BMW 3 Series and 5 Series competitor. ANE's latest intel is that the coming midsize sedan will be come in between the 3 Series and 5 Series Â– a strategy used by the original Cadillac CTS Â– slotting in beneath a "flagship sedan" that would fit between the 5 Series and 7 Series. That would appear to contradict a direct challenge to the entry-level segment's standard-bearer, and perhaps the M3, too.

Those two Alfa sedans would be part of an eight-model onslaught happening over the next four years, which is a new matrix compared to April of this year when that was reported to be six models over the next five years. ANE says work has started on three of them, a midsize SUV said to be the third. The push is to get Alfa to 400,000 annual sales Â– 100,000 more than the April target Â– with the US accounting for 150,000 of that.

News Source: Automotive News Europe - sub. req.

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By Jonathon Ramsey