Addio Lancia

I take a small amount of melancholy comfort to hear that Lancia will be discontinued, according to a teleconference given by Sergio Marchionne today. The indignities it was forced to suffer over the past 10 years or more were greater and greater with each passing year of mismanagement.  When the final lineup of rebadged Chryslers was unveiled, it was a bridge too far.  Lancia will now join the all time great nameplates in the pantheon of disappeared grands marques.  It will be where it belongs, in the company of Duesenberg, Packard, Cord, Auburn, Delahaye, and yes even Pontiac.  Let's hope maybe someday the name will be revived and stand once again for technological innovation and beautiful Italian design.  Until then, let's try to forget its sad decline and remember the halcyon days of Lancia's remarkable racing history and their achingly beautiful road cars of the midcentury years.

Sergio's Nationalistic Bluster doesn't impress me

"Alfa Romeo is not for sale," said Sergio Marchionne this week, batting down repeated rumors and rumblings about VW buying the brand from FIAT, which continues to face financial woes.  Any reader of this site knows that I believe strongly that Alfa would be better off in the brand portfolio of the German giant than in the hands of incompetent Italian management.

My heart of course likes the idea of "keeping the brand Italian." But the historical record has shown that in every industry in Italy, foreign management has saved Italian brands from their own ineptitude. FIAT is one of the last major Italian companies that isn't a subsidiary of a foreign corporation.

But Sergio, in the sort of blatant rhetorical posturing one would expect from a politician rather than a captain of industry declared that "Counting on foreigners to act as Italy's saviors is the greatest idiocy I have heard in my life." Was it idiocy in World War Two when the allies liberated your country from its own self-inflicted tyrrany?  And when Nestle and other major brands bought up all of your food and beverage brands and offered them to the world market, was that idiocy?

The only idiocy I observe here is the willfull ignorance of fact that all of the new Lancias are re-badged American cars, and Sergio's plans for the new Alfa roadster are based on a Mazda platform!  So let's cut this nationalistic bullshit and call a spade a spade.  This isn't about Italy. This isn't about national pride. It's about your ego and the self-delusional force-field you wear on a daily basis.Sergio receives a shoulder rub and advice on political posturing from il maestro.What Sergio did to Lancia is not only unforgiveable, it is concrete evidence that he doesn't mean a word of what he says.  Sergio, the sooner you realize that your false patriotism is killing what's left of Italy's noble car brands, the better off those brands will be. 

via jalopnik

Dear FIAT-CHRYSLER - Please sell Alfa Romeo to VW Group NOW!

The past few days, the internets have been swimming with stories I have found deeply disturbing.  First there are the confirmed rumors of an US Market Alfa Romeo SUV based on the Jeep Grand Cherokee.  Then yesterday, the Dodge Viper-based Alfa TZ3 Stradale was announced.  "The Heart of a Viper and Soul of an Alfa" was the tagline in the press release.  Excuse me?  What?  Since when is it ok to drop a body onto another manufacturer's chassis and call it an Alfa? Sure it's not an ugly car, but neither is it an Alfa!

To see this steroid-addled monstrosity next to the original 4-cylinder Tubolare Zagatos is especially humiliating to Alfa Romeo, which has always prided itself on its proprietary engines as well as unique chassis dynamics.  Even the least attractive, lowest end Alfa will drive and sound like magic.  That is the core ethos of the brand. And if this Viper TZ3 is any indicator of the way the wind is blowing, I think we'll soon see the end of Alfa Romeo as a truly special car company with any pride, authenticity, or soul.It doesn't have to be this way.  Alfa has been making some stellar road cars for years now, with excellent looks, quality, and driving dynamics. But Sergio Marchionne and the FIAT management are about to sink Alfa into yet another Italo-American platform-sharing morass not seen since Chrysler's TC by Maserati.  It irks me even further to hear so many long-suffering American Alfisti get so excited about Alfa's return to our shores! Sure that is great in theory, but forcing Alfa to compete in North America's volume-driven marketplace may ultimately undermine everything about the company that made it special to begin with.  Furthermore, there is much hand-wringing among certain Alfa fans about the idea of VW Group buying the brand away from FIAT and complaints that Alfa will "no longer be Italian."  Get your head out of the sand, friends! Alfa's about to become nothing but a phony "made in Italy" fashion label on a cheap shirt, and sale to VW is actually the only way to save it from some very bad decision making at FIAT-Chrysler that could damage the brand irreparably.  If VW Group were to purchase Alfa, chances are that Walter De Silva, who was the design director during the Italian marque's most recent heyday, and currently overseeing all VW Group Design, will be one of the guiding lights managing the company.  Alfa needs to be in the hands of a true believer like De Silva. Not in the hands of a soulless businessman like Marchionne who treats a venerable brand as a commodity.  It's disgusting, and it's time that American Alfisti stop drinking the kool-aid. FIAT needs to sell Alfa to VW Group before it's too late.

Have they failed to learn the lessons of the past?