The North American debut of the 2017 Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio sedan was a highlight of the 2015 L.A. auto show. To get a clearer picture of what’s next for the legendary brand, we sat down with Reid Bigland, head of the Alfa Romeo brand in North America.
Reid Bigland: Look for production of the Giulia to start in late first quarter [2016] for Europe and late second quarter for North America. Both the Giulia Quadrifoglio and base model Giulia should be in U.S. dealerships by summer of 2016.
C/D: Speaking of dealers . . .
RB: Right now [there are] about 140 dealers in the U.S., but it’s continuing to change on a monthly basis and will likely spike as we get close to the on-sale date next summer. Right now it’s a mix of about 120 Fiat/Alfa Romeo dealers and 15 Alfa Romeo/Maserati stores; as the brand matures over the next few years, we’ll have stand-alone Alfa Romeo stores.
C/D: So the dealer strategy sort of follows your previous statements about keeping the Alfa brand unique and not just a collection of select corporate parts?
RB: That’s sacrosanct. You’ve seen scores of examples of people trying to masquerade a premium brand that is a rebadge of something else. The Giulia and 4C use chassis that are completely unique. The Giulia is built on the entirely new Giorgio platform, and if there is a parts bin that we are looking towards, it’s the Ferrari parts bin.
What’s unique about Alfa is that we can keep it in the pure-premium segment, and not have to get down in the $30k range where a lot of the German competitors are right now due to the addiction to [sales] volume. We’ve got that covered with our mass-market brands. The easy thing for us would be to roll the Giulia into the Chrysler/Jeep/Dodge/Ram stores and get 2400 dealers overnight. But that isn’t going to work, as rebuilding Alfa is a long-term journey. The cars need to be right, the cars need to be pure, and we need to create a separate experience from that of our mass-market brands.
C/D: Is the 4C going to see any revision or additional derivatives in addition to the recently released Spider.
RB: The 4C really is what it is, a bargain supercar. The car has been in the market for about a year, and we always intended to have a lease program for the car, but it’s been so hot we’ve had absolutely zero incentives on the car so far. We will probably initiate a lease program in the future.
C/D: What are the sales numbers to date?
RB: We’ve sold about 560 4Cs total, and we’ve received about 600 cars. I think we sold 178,00 Chrysler Jeep, Dodge, and Ram vehicles, last month.
C/D: Is there a limited-slip differential in the cards for the 4C?
RB: In the Giulia, yes. But we are making no announcements regarding the 4C.
C/D: Is the mid-size Alfa SUV still on track?
RB: That will be the next one up. Its size is just a little bit bigger than a BMW X3. Look for it to start appearing—realistically in early 2017, maybe earlier in Europe. It’s well underway; we’ve shown the car to our dealers, but it’s got to be right before we bring it to the market. Look for it to have peerless performance when it comes to zero-to-60 and Nürburgring times, the whole thing. It will have the performance, technology, and really gorgeous Italian design and style to set it apart.
C/D: Are you close to announcing the name of the Alfa SUV name?
RB: No word on the name yet.
C/D: What’s the single best thing about making the jump from Ram to Alfa?
RB: At every turn there is something exciting or interesting about the Alfa Romeo brand. I mean, the Honda Civic is a nice car; it’s going to sell well. But it just doesn’t get the juices flowing like the Quadrifoglio does.
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