Volkswagen to purchase Alfa Romeo: Marchionne to sell to Germans?

Posted: Wednesday 28 July 2010 by Alison

The Italians are not enjoying this rumour at all: Volkswagen could be looking at a purchase of Alfa Romeo if Fiat were to sell the struggling brand. Italy’s honeymoon with Sergio Marchionne would be well and truly over if the the Fiat CEO were to pass such a well-loved brand into the hands of the German VW Group, proving that the Germans are happy to tap the heritage and potential of a brand that the Italians either can’t or won’t. While on the basis of patriotism and nostalgia, the Italians are irked at the rumour, on the basis of car quality and bringing the brand back to life, there is more than one potential customer for a VW-built Alfa. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves - let’s look at the rumour in its detail.

According to Quattroruote magazine and Autoblog.it, VW design head Walter de Silva, has a soft spot for Alfas and has such has convinced Martin Winterkorn that if Alfa were to come up for sale, VW should buy. To this end, a project is already in place to quietly plan a takeover proposition which at this stage includes a one-billion euro investment. Given what is apparently a passion for Alfa design, de Silva has in mind already about eight models for Alfa, along with designs and drawings.

If this were true, things are already well underway at Volkswagen to buy Alfa Romeo without the Italian brand actually going on sale. But a stitch in time saves nine and despite the fear that Alfa models could start to take on German design characteristics - steady but a bit boring - could it be exactly what Alfa needs? We would need to do a double-take on the Alfa brand all of sudden becoming German, but if the rumour is to be believed things are more detailed than Volkswagen pipe dreams of owning a piece of history. Read on for the details.

If we look at the eight model range proposed, there is a lot of German sense and an attempt to modernise Alfa sports style. Classic B and C segment models in line with the A1 and A3 would be produced, along with a mid-large sedan and station wagon, and a sports car and coupé based on the BlueSport. We would then see an E segment flagship and a central-engine sports model based on the R8, which would be heir to the 8C with production of about 5,000 units a year. Nothing as gaudy as SUVs and crossovers would be planned to keep the historic Milan brand strictly in its sport tradition (we like this part).

The idea behind the overall range would be to compete directly with BMW, something which Audi already does, but we would think that de Silva has in mind specifically Italian design that would shake things up a little. This could be just gossip and the idea that Marchionne would never dare to sell Alfa Romeo could put a stop to the dreaming. But still, we know that Alfa is struggling, we know that Marchionne is unimpressed with the brand and that Fiat coffers could get a boost from a move like this. So how much would protecting a part of Italian history and design, and hopefully turning a historic brand profitable, impinge on these decisions? And are the Italians really so jaded that they can’t bring Alfa back to former glory and so will sell-off a large slice of Fiat instead?

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alfa156v6
29 Jul 2010 - 00:18 - #1

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It would be great. I think VW is able to bring Alfa back to its roots. They did a great job with Lamborghini. I hope Fiat will sell the brand.
bruno8
29 Jul 2010 - 12:01 - #2

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What an awful, terrible idea! I enjoy my character-full Alfa despite whatever small imperfections there may be. I could have bought a Polo or Golf or Jetta … but didn’t I got my Alfa instead. Already people are complaining that the new Giulietta isn’t “Alfa-like” enough and too “German”. I for one would be very unhappy.

VW would never engineer a masterpiece like the Busso V6. I think that Alfa156V6 above would be less happy than he thinks …
Alfafan
29 Jul 2010 - 18:37 - #3

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I’m with you Bruno8. I would much prefer to see Alfa back to its good ol’ production days making some great stuff in Italian style, than see it fall into VW’s hands to make some pseudo Italian-German thing that looks like Audi dressed in red….
Tony30
24 Aug 2010 - 19:29 - #4

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Please no, what a disaster this would be. Alfa need to get back to when the 156, 147 was just released. Spider/GTV and 166 (sales of 300000) in the line up all good cars. For some reason they ran there product range down and never updated. Since then only the 159/brera has been released ( bar the mito and Gulietta) these are pretty new to the range. Fiat/Alfa can do it but need to have a full range and dealers that know what they are doing. The Alfa Brand is great and Marchionne needs to understand this. If it fell into VW hands I would never buy a Alfa Again!

They need to release new cars more often Like BMW do so when someone replaces their car they are not waiting another 5 years for a new model version of their car look at the GTV/Spider from 1995 - 2006 until the new replacment came out. people usually replace cars more often than that. So what do you do buy the exact same car again? no you want a change! 5 Years of say the 916 spider you may buy a totally new version but would not really just want a face lifted version! BMW drivers wait until the new model of the 3,5,6,7 series come out and then replace as BMW replace model frequently.

Put me in managmnt at Alfa, I will sort it in a few years and put it at the top as should be, passion goes along way

Tony