Sergio Marchionne,
the charismatic CEO of Chrysler and Fiat has once again reiterated that one
of his company’s brands, Alfa Romeo,
is not for sale. Volkswagen of
Germany has been, since 2010, expressed a veiled threat to go for Alfa as an
addition to its existing 12 brands.
Since then Marchionne has been consistently rebuffing those
unsolicited advances by the world’s third-biggest
auto company. VW Chief Designer Walter
da Silva has long been an admirer of Alfa designs and was probably very
influential in his company’s expressions of desire for the flaming Italian brand.
It is quite a well-known secret that Alfa has not been
selling as many cars as it would like, trailing by quite a margin other small premium brands such as Lexus,
Volvo Jaguar. VW reckons it can, given the chance, turn those fortunes around and make Alfa one of
the top premium names in the industry. Where this would leave Audi is still unpronounced.
Alfa itself is launching new products over the coming year to try and turn itself around. These
will include the Giulia sedan, an
SUV and the compact 4C sports car.
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