REVITALISED ALFA ROMEO OUTLINE THEIR FUTURE IN THE UK
17 February 2006 - Alfa Romeo

This week the new directors of Alfa Romeo UK have been outlining their revitalisation plans for the British market.

Fundamental to their success is the new Alfa 159 four-door sports saloon. This range will be followed in quick succession by the Alfa Brera and the Alfa Spider, both due by the end of April. The 159 range goes on sale in the UK from 25 February priced from £19,995.

For this review I am giving over more of my limited space as to the future of Alfa Romeo in the UK because it is important when buying a car from some manufactures that the head rules the heart.

Because Alfa in the UK has been having a tough time over the last year or so due to lack of direction from senior management and the poor financial state of their parent company, Fiat Auto in Italy, customers have not been buying Alfa models in anywhere the numbers they need to for the brand to survive in this country.

To put this right, and because Fiat Auto is now profitable again, a whole new management structure has been put in place in the UK and the dealers are now fully motivated – just in time for the arrival of their most important new model, the 159 sports saloon. This is the car that Alfa believe will get them back on track and re-establish customer confidence. It will be shortly followed by the new sexy Alfa Spider which will encourage customers to buy with their heart but their head will agree.

New managing director, 37 year old Christopher Nicoll, has been transferred from managing director for Fiat Auto in Switzerland and Austria. British born Nicoll attended this week’s media introduction of the new Alfa 159 range.

Completing the senior management transfer from Switzerland is 31year old Nicholas Bernard where he was marketing director and now takes over the same role in the UK.

Bernard revealed that Alfa Romeo have in place a £6.5 million marketing budget to revitalise the Alfa brand in the UK market. Half of this budget will be spent on launching and sustaining the sales programme for the new 159 range. The remaining 50% will be spent on launching the new Brera but the lion’s share will be used to promote the new Alfa Spider in due in April. He said the long awaited Spider would be a ‘halo’ hearts and minds high profile convertible. This model will restore the sporting pedigree of the brand and benefit sales of all models in the range, hence the disproportionate marketing spend for the relatively small number of cars available for sale. The Spider is expected to sell for around £24,000.

New managing director Christopher Nicoll said, “The UK is a key growth market for Alfa Romeo but something must be wrong with our business operation as sales have continued to decline in recent years, down by 20% per cent last year.”

“With regards to customer care, the UK has a very negative history for this brand. My own experiences as a student in London 18 years ago proved to me than owing an Alfa was very costly to keep the car on the road, this will change” he said.

“Our targets are realistic and modest and our ambition is to achieve around a 0.7 or 0.8% share of the UK car market in the future. Initially around 10,000 annual sales is the realistic target with the new models we have coming and these new products will deliver more growth for the brand in the UK.”

Last year Alfa Romeo achieved 6,396 sales, a 0.26 market share.

He added, “We aim to sell in the UK in the first full year in the region of 3,500 units of the new Alfa 159 and this will be our best selling model replacing the successful Alfa 156 which in its best year in the UK 16,000 of them were sold.”

New marketing director Nicholas Bernard added, “The new 159 represents a 1 billion Euro investment by Alfa Romeo, it is totally new from the nuts and bolts through to the transmissions. It offers class leading safety with seven airbags as standard and the car has already obtained a Euro NCAP 5-star safety rating, the first Alfa to do so.”

He added. “The 159 range has three all-new direct injection petrol engines, 1.9, 2.2 and a 3.2-litre V6 unit. We also have two high tech MultiJet diesel engines, 1.9 and 2.4-litre. There is the option, depending on which engine is chosen, of Turismo and Lusso specifications and the 3.2 versions have Q4 permanent four-wheel drive. All five engines are mated with a new six-speed manual transmission and a six speed automatic transmission for selected models will become available later this year.”

Bernard added, “The new 159 is more entertaining to drive than the 156, it is more mature, it offers more space, it is longer and wider and with increased luggage capacity.”

“Our car will sell in what we call the D segment against the BMW 3 Series, Audi A4 and the Saab 9.3. We have modest objectives selling mainly to retail customers. I expect fleet business to account for between 35 and 40% of our sales. With only a £500 premium for our diesel models over petrol versions we see this as a big incentive for company car customers as well has retail buyers. We expect the sale split between petrol and diesel to even out at 50/50. If all goes to plan we expect sales of the 159 to increase to around 5,000 units in 2007 and we will be restricting sales in the fleet sector so as not to distress the car’s residual values.”

Prices for the Alfa Romeo 159 range start at £19,995 and range up to £28,195.

So what does my head and heart think? After listening to the new directors there is no doubt that the Alfa passion for their products has returned and as they now appear so want to sell sensible numbers of good cars rather than force sales with indifferent products - the signs look good. It is good to believe that the UK dealers are right behind the management and will at last support customers with better advice and customer care.

There is no doubt the sporty looking 159 is everything a proper Alfa should be. The glorious muscular styling is a joy and the interior of the car, especially the driver’s cockpit area, is everything a stunning Italian sporting car should be, lots of dials, lots of metal trim and well made.

Our driving time was restricted to two models from the range but for me the choice model, performance versus price, is the 1.9 JTDm 16-valve turbodiesel versions priced from £20,495. This is a premium price but it is a premium car and it looks the part. With a top speed of 130mph it is almost as fast as the 1.9 and 2.2 litre petrol versions and the 0-62mph is a very good 9.4 seconds, faster than the 1.9-litre petrol models and only marginally slower than the 2.2-litre petrol versions. With150bhp and a 320Nm of torque from just 2,000rpm it is willing and very strong engine. It is really responsive and very quiet. The fuel economy potential is goods ass well with 47mpg quoted as the overall average.

I found the comfort of ride good but a little harsher over poor surfaces than the 2.2-litre petrol model due to the stiffer suspension used to carry the extra weight of the diesel unit.

The styling is there, the engineering is good, the quality is back in the car and the infrastructure to look after customers in now in place. I’m sure Alfa can succeed with the 159.

Milestone. Alfa Romeo 159 4-door sports saloon. Engine 1.9 JTDm, 4-cylinder MultiJet turbodiesel, 150bhp, 320nm of torque. Performance: 130mph, 0-62mph 9.4 seconds, 47.1mpg 159 g/km. Insurance group: 12E. For: Unique Alfa styling at it best, roomy 4-door sports saloon, sporty to drive, great driver’s cockpit. Against: Hopefully Alfa depreciation values improve now.

From: Miles Better News Agency

www.alpharomeo.co.uk

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