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

Pebble Beach 2011 Gallery is Up!

For all 175 photos over 3 gallery pages click HERE

The featured themes this year were the Ferrari 250 GTO (roughly 20 of them in attendance!), prewar Mercedes-Benz, and Stutz automobiles. Best in Show was won by Peter Mullin's incredible Voisin.

Look for cameos by Stirling Moss, Gordon Murray, Jay Leno, Ed Welburn, Ian Callum and Jason Castriota!

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?

FIAT - Floundering Italian Advertising Talent?

I just caught an eyeful of the supposed "first new FIAT commercial" aimed at the US Market, via jalopnik. And folks, I almost lost that Tiramisu I had for dessert.  Porca Miseria!

FIAT has two monumental challenges in re-entering the American market. Not only must it overcome the fears of notorious Italian unreliability and indifferent service it engendered in older consumers 30 years ago, but it must essentially launch a NEW BRAND for the majority of their target entry-level buyer segment, who are too young and too car-ignorant to have ever known what a FIAT was in the first place. And if this ad is any indication of what they are bringing to the table, Sergio Marchionne may as well stay soakin' in that hottub with Berlusconi until they cook up something sexier.

If have rarely seen such bland, meaningless stock imagery combined with such artless cinematography of the actual car. The first shot where we actually see the product (after 35 nauseating seconds!), the car drives over a distracting manhole cover in the road. Couldn't they have chosen a different snippet of footage to start off with?? Combine this with the computer generated "flower-petal" imagery (at 0:41 and 0:52) which is blatantly yanked from the original VW beetle and iMac campaigns from c.1999, and seems utterly out of place in this commercial. 

The messaging touts the car as an expression of the "Italian Way" yet we never are shown the original car or how pervasive and loved it is throughout Italy. No, instead we are subjected to cloying imagery of an archetypal Italian Grandma kissing a child, and fields of olive trees. The only reference to FIAT's history is the parade of badges towards the end, which will bewilder most Americans (who, as I said, have no real idea what a FIAT is) and only emphasizes the fickle nature of the company's branding over the years.

In the end, I am left trying to take stock of what I am supposed to come away with.  Where is the "Zoom Zoom" or the "Let's Motor"?  "Life is Best when Driven" probably sounded cool in Italian (I have a strong suspicion this ad was done by an Italian agency because the cheese factor reeks distinctively of Parmeggiano) but in English it just sits there in all its inglorious passive voice.

I could rant like this for hours, but I think i'll shut up and let you watch it already!

La Dolce Vita, it ain't!

And the music was awful too, wasn't it? But at least they didn't use Opera...

Street Sighting: FIAT 500 Abarth replica

I snagged these shots in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. I have no idea where the owner was, but I kept hoping he would show up while I was standing there. I sort of doubt this car is a real Abarth, but it does have some fun go-fast details, and was clearly fresh from the restoration shop. Click the pic for more shots.