NOVEMBER 9, 2006

Alfa Romeo heading back to the US

Alfa Romeo, which has not been exporting cars to the United States since 1995, is to return to the US in 2009 with a variety of different models which will include the 159, 169, 8C Competizione, Brera and Spider models. The cars will be sold through Maserati dealerships across the United States and, according to Alfa Romeo's president Antonio Baravalle, the aim is to sell 20,000 cars in the UDS in 2010. Baravalle says that the company is aiming to sell 300,000 cars around the world by 2010. At the moment the Fiat brand sells just 160,000.

The ambitious plans for Alfa Romeo underline the fact that Fiat is now recovering well from its recent troubles. The company recently posted a profit for a seventh consecutive quarter, thank to the success of new models.

Alfa Romeo will no doubt be considering a sporting programme of some kind to support its US attack. The last time there was a US porgramme was in CART in 1989 and 1990 but that was not a success.