Autoweek / Alfa's return

[Ryan Fellini <rfellini@domain.elided>]

With regard to the cited Autoweek article on Fiat scrapping
their return of Alfa Romeo to the US and the apparent demise
of the Spider, Brera, and Saab 9-3X:

This makes absolutely no sense.  I think this is just another
example of automotive journalism at its worst.  Anytime
you read something like, "but sources in Europe say that plan
has been scrapped.", that should be taken with a huge grain of
salt.  It would be awesome to find out who these sources are..
maybe some guitar player in the London tube??

Fiat Group already made an announcement to their shareholders
that they are investing some $2 billion+ in the next few years
to launch 20 new models by 2005 (mostly Alfas and Lancias).
Alfa and Lancia are core to their profit model, as is the
return of Alfa to the huge US market.  If BMW can sell MINI's
like hotcakes, just think what can be done if Pininfarina
gets the design right and Alfa does some of this GTA magic on
the handling. This is not to mention that in the same direction
GM is making a big investment now with Saab, and Sweden is at
full speed designing new products.. so I doubt they are going
to ditch plans for this 9-3x/sports car...  GM as well as
made it clear that Saab is going to expand its lineup well beyond
two models..

On top of everything the writer makes the mistake to say that
GM may exercise the option to buy the 80% of Fiat Auto.  GM
oes NOT have the option.  The 'put' option is one that only
belongs with Fiat SpA.  It doesn't fit GM's model either to
spend so much money to buy companies.  Its obvious they rather
own minority stakes (ala Suzuki, Subaru, etc.)

The irritating trend is that auto journalists appear to spend
more time poking at companies hoping to generate gossip than
actually discussing products or anything relevant to auto
enthusiasts.  They, in my opinion, are actually contributing
negatively to enthusiasts... and seem to be helping financial
speculators instead...

Ryan
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