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The arrival of Alfa Romeo’s new premium mid-size Giulia sees a strategic shift for the Italian brand in Australia as it aims to take itself upmarket.
Premium brands like BMW and Audi are soon to become prime competitors.
To ensure customer expectations are met Fiat Chrysler Australia CEO, Pat Dougherty, discussed some of Alfa Romeo’s future plans with TMR.
“Clearly if we want to be premium we have to look, feel and act like we’re premium.” Mr. Dougherty said.
“We’re in the process of going around and talking to all of our Fiat and Alfa Romeo dealers and laying out what our strategy is going forward”
“By the time we get to a point where a majority of the products will have been launched we anticipate having a stand-alone Alfa Romeo network.
"That’s going to require investment from the dealers as well, so we want to make sure that we go to where the right locations are, the premium markets, and we don’t overpopulate the dealer network.”
The move to stand-alone dealers will see Alfa Romeo separated from the showrooms it shares with other FCA brands.
Currently Alfa Romeo’s range appears alongside Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, Fiat, and in some locations Fiat Professional commercial vehicles.
Giving Alfa Romeo dedicated sales outlets allows for more premium product in the pipeline to stand apart from the mainstream models in Fiat Chrysler’s lineup.
Specially trained staff and more premium feeling dealerships also become possible with standalone dealerships..
Existing dealers may still be able to combine their service and parts operations behind the scenes as a way of mitigating costs.
Giulia represents the next stage in a brand renaissance that began with the Alfa Romeo 4C sports car.
As reported previously by TMR, Fiat Chrysler’s ambitious five-year product plan has been rearranged to push new Alfa Romeo products forward.
The recent global unveiling of the Giulia QV left little doubt of that car’s potential to take on performance sedans like the BMW M3 and Mercedes-AMG C63. When asked about the wider Giulia range Mr. Dougherty was enthusiastic about the coming lineup.
“We’ll have it here in all of the configurations that have been discussed on a global basis.” He said,
“we have discussions almost daily with the product team in Asia and in Italy, so it’s exciting.”
The Giulia range is expected to arrive with four cylinder and V6 engines, built on a new rear wheel drive platform. An Australian launch has been confirmed but isn’t expected before late 2016 or early 2017.
MORE: Alfa Romeo Giulia News
MORE: Alfa Romeo Giulia QV Revealed
- Interested in buying ALFA ROMEO GIULIA? Visit our ALFA ROMEO GIULIA showroom for more information.
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13 Comments
Stand alone Alfa Romeo dealership would not survive with the small model range, maybe they need to add Maserati and have say 4 dealerships in Melbourne
I think the point is that once the new Alfa range is all here and selling they will want stand alone dealers. I think they are planning something like 8 new models by 2020
In Sydney, Ferrari & Maserati share the same dealership network. Not sure Ferrari (or Maserati for that matter) will want to dilute their prestige by having Alfa Romeo in the same dealership. Its like selling the Bugatti Veyron or Bentley vehicles through Volkswagen dealerships.
Alfa Romeo has an illustrious history that you may not be aware of. Alfa started Ferrari, has won every single motorsport you can imagine from Formula 1 (F1), Le Mans, touring car, targa's, etc, etc. When they dominated they REALLY dominated eg Alfa Romeo won every F1 race in 1950 bar one, in 1953 Alfa Romeo came 1st, 2nd and 3rd in Le Mans and more recently, less than 10 years ago have been the only car manufacturer to beat the germans on home soil in the DTM. They beat Ferraris, Lamborghinis and Porches for decades and were very well advanced in terms of aerodynamics. The last 20 years of Alfa Romeos have been a travesty. Its like Ferrari in 20 years slipping to the point of selling hatchbacks. Yes -if you understand Alfa's history , thats how bad they have fallen. Putting Alfa Romeo into a Ferrari and Maserati dealership makes total sense. Even if you dont respect Alfa's motorsport history, atleast the customers are already predisposed to Italian motoring and would consider an Italian "runabout" - que the new Guilia QV that is faster than an M3 and the C63 AMG. I am a Maserati owner.
Well said, God bless you my son! :)
I agree with you on their history, but that has absolutely nothing to do with what they are today. Alfa always built interesting cars, but the quality has been below par since the 70's. I like their styling a lot and think 159 and Brera are very beautiful cars, but I would never own one, as the dealer network is small and some of the quality questionable. It only makes sense to sell them alongside Fiat to grow the number of dealers. Stand alone dealers would go broke, as the cost of running a dealership can't be justified by the small numbers they are going to sell.
Fred I was responding to Hammer suggesting Alfa would not fit in with Maserati and Ferrari. Alfas illustrious history is easy for Ferrari/Maserati dealers to work with, particularly given their customers already have a disposition for Italian motoring. Your point about Alfas questionable reliability eg 159 / Brera, therein lies the problem. That is, the motoring public like you still think that Alfas are unreliable. I shouldn't use myself as a sole control group but I have had 3 in a row (3 litre GTV 156 and still own a 159) and have had trouble free motoring. Indeed, survey after survey shows Alfas are no better or worse than other European makes (dont get me started on VW/Audi) bar Porsche whom are streaks ahead. Sure theres plenty of work Alfa still need to do, however they are not the unreliable rust buckets you alluded to from the 1970's. Thats like saying Audi's still rust. Alfa has moved on in leaps and bounds and no where near as bad as what the stereotype would suggest. Plenty of work still to do though. As for tiny sales sending dealers broke, I can't comment as I dont know how to run a car dealership. However, what I do know is there are 7 new Alfas coming, of which the first of the new generation was the Alfa 4c (3 years on, no reported problems with reliability). Two are in the booming SUV segment, a large sedan, a coupe, this 3 series/C class/ A4 competitor, a convertible and a rwd Golf competitor. Hence by 2018, an Alfa dealer will have an arsenal of product to sell from $45k to $150k and given the $7billion in engineering development should be competitive enough to warrant a sceptical motoring public to investigate further. I wouldn't bet against Sergio Marchionne (CEO). He turned FIAT around when they were almost bankrupt, resurrected Chrysler and are now taking market share from the other big Detroit players. Ferrari is arguably the greatest brand in the auto world now and Maserati is booming when everyone scoffed they would sell 50,000 units a year when they were selling less than 3000. Last year they sold 35,000 and have a 4wd coming. Convincing dealers to invest in stand alone dealerships in another question all together. However there is an engineering led renaissance coming promising a bright future for the brand.
Would fit in well with the multi brand Zagame dealership then.
How is this any different to what they were doing before Chrysler took over? The 159, for example was always shopped against 3 Series and A4, I'd have thought.
You mean before FIAT took over Chrysler.
No, I mean before Ateco Automotive lost their distributorship and Chrysler Australia took over.
They need to sell alongside Maserati in the showroom if they want to beat Mercedes/Audi .
No they don't, Maserati compete with Porsche and Aston Martin if they compete with anyone.