Carzonline’s Blog

Alfa Romeo Brera 3.2 V6

April 3, 2009

Fortunately, such nonsense has yet to filter through to Alfa Romeo’s design studios! Here, the only brief for a new car is to make it sexy, fast and desirable. The all-new Brera, which replaces the much-loved but ageing GTV, is an Alfa from the old school. Due to hit the UK next April, the powerhouse coupe will top the firm’s restructured line-up.

Two engines will be available from launch: a base 2.2-litre four-cylinder unit and a range-topping 3.2-litre V6, which is linked to a new hi-tech four-wheel-drive system. Both motors are fresh designs, and replace the GTV and Spider’s current 2.0 and 3.0-litre offerings. A 200bhp turbodiesel promising even more torque than the V6 will join the range by the end of 2006.

The Brera oozes Italian flair from every panel gap. This is not surprising when you learn that it was styled by the legendary Giorgetto Giugiaro and is bolted together by design house Pininfarina. Although it may lack the ‘smack-in-the-face’ impact of its GTV forerunner, it’s a muscular shape that manages to look fantastic from every angle. You’d have to be miserable not to fall in love at first sight.

But don’t get the idea that the Brera is simply a flight of fancy or a designer’s ego on wheels. Beneath the seductive lines lies an immaculately engineered car that blows its predecessor into the weeds. It borrows much of its suspension set-up from the 159, although a shorter wheelbase gives a sportier drive.

And it is on the road where the Brera impresses the most. Given the firm’s recent track record, it comes as no surprise to find that the newcomer handles beautifully. The steering is direct and nicely weighted, and allows you to flick the front end into corners with the merest nudge of the wheel.

What is more of a shock is the refinement. Gone are the jarring ride and wet-weather traction problems that blighted the old GTV. The Brera is positively serene over bumps, and puts its power down with so little fuss that you would swear the tyres were made of treacle.

In addition, the air of refinement filters through to the cabin, which is also well above previous Alfa offerings in terms of quality. Drivers over six feet tall no longer need to adopt the classic Nuvolari seating position, with their knees either side of the steering wheel. The Brera has stacks of adjustment in both the chair and column, which means motorists of all shapes and sizes can, at last, enjoy the Alfa experience in comfort.

Further back you will find a pair of seats, but space is very tight and passengers won’t thank you if the journey exceeds a handful of miles. Thankfully, the boot – a pitiful gesture on the old GTV – is a decent size and can even swallow a set of golf clubs if required.

However, our advice would be to forget golf and stick to driving. The firm has hit a sweet spot with the new Brera. It addresses all the failings of the old GTV without losing any of the idiosyncrasies and qualities that make an Alfa so unique. Get in the queue now.

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Montezemolo appointed Marchionne, who quickly identified that…

April 2, 2009

Montezemolo appointed Marchionne, who quickly identified that while Fiat’s other businesses, which include CNH Case New Holland, the American supplier of construction and agricultural equipment, and Comau, a maker of automated machinery, were in good shape, the car division was fading fast. Herbert Demel, chief executive of Fiat Auto, was relieved of duty and Marchionne took direct control of the automotive business as well as his group responsibilities.

Rather than calling for mass redundancies and plant closures, he set about a radical restructuring, dismantling Fiat’s management and bureaucracy.

“This was a company that had a very long tradition. When I arrived I ran into this amorphous structure, and I asked a lot of irreverent questions,” he said.

Marchionne, 55, isn’t a traditional chief executive. He rarely wears a suit and has a comfortable, unkempt appearance: long straggly hair, cords, open-neck shirt and a plain black sweater, always accompanied by a pack of cigarettes and a mobile phone – a marked contrast with the stylish and urbane Montezemolo.

It also makes for an interesting juxtaposition with the young managers whom Marchionne plucked from further down the organisation – “they were not ingrained with the old system” – to run the separate business units for each of Fiat’s car brands. Fiat brand chief Luca de Meo, 40, who will take centre stage on Wednesday, Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Baravalle, 42, and Olivier Francois, 45, the head of Lancia, still wear suits but are quick to get their ties off when the boss calls one of his quick brainstorming meetings.

The change of company culture was important, but the key to the revival of Fiat Auto was Marchionne’s renegotiation of a deal done with General Motors back in 2000. The then-prosper-ous GM had taken a 20% shareholding in Fiat’s car business, folded its European engine division into a joint venture in Turin, and, crucially, agreed that if Fiat so wished, at a later date it would buy 100% of Fiat Auto. In February 2005, when Fiat was at its lowest ebb, Marchionne flew to Detroit to see GM chairman Rick Wagoner. His objective: to get GM to buy itself out of Fiat.

This was risky; GM might have decided to exercise its right and Fiat would have been over. But GM’s fortunes had also fallen since it had made the deal and Marchionne guessed it might be keen to get out of it. The result: GM agreed to hand back its Fiat shares and to pay €1.5 billion to be free from an arrangement it could no longer afford.

Reflecting on this recently in conversation with The Sunday Times, Marchionne admitted that it was a big gamble and that the timing was critical. GM would not have wanted to pay the agreed price for a company that was close to collapse – and Marchionne needed the €1.5 billion to keep Fiat afloat.

Back in Turin, the break-up of the Fiat-GM alliance was presented as a triumph. Fiat placed advertisements proclaiming “Fiat is all-Italian again”. It was about to launch the Grande Punto – a sharply-styled, larger version of the mainstream Fiat model – and buyers in its home country got the message: Fiat’s market share took an upturn.

Unlike some of his counterparts in the industry, Marchionne is not a “car guy” (even if he does own a Ferrari Enzo). Asked what he would do if he were asked to start a car company from scratch, he said: “Lie down until the feeling passes.” But he recognises that the products are all-important; sometimes good cars don’t sell, but manufacturers don’t survive if their products are sub-standard.

Cars cost a lot and take a long time to develop. Marchionne wanted to know why and to see whether the time and cost could be reduced. The follow-up to the Grande Punto was a replacement for the slow-selling Fiat Stilo. Marchionne reckoned the car being readied for production was dull. He sent it back to the drawing board – or, rather, the computer screen – for a redesign.

At the same time his newly-appointed engineering chief Harald Wester was investigating whether sophisticated computer simulations could eliminate the need to build and test expensive prototypes and thus reduce development time. The result was the new Bravo, which went on sale in Britain last week. It progressed from design to production in a record 18 months, about half the usual time.

In parallel, Marchionne embarked with great energy on a series of cooperative ventures and technology licence deals with other companies around the world. While he had no money for major investment, these deals brought income and reduced costs. Fiat diesel engines and transmissions made in a joint venture with Tata in India are used by both companies there and Tata dealers also sell Fiat cars. Fiat will buy petrol engines from the Chinese manufacturer Chery for its cars made in China and elsewhere. And a deal in Russia will see Severstal-Auto build the low-cost Fiat Albea for local markets.

The Fiat 500 launched in Italy this week will be made alongside the 2008 Ford Ka at the Fiat factory at Tychy in Poland. Apart from making a useful profit for Fiat, as the two cars are mechanically identical the engineering costs could be shared.

“We don’t need to make expensive cars for the credibility of the brand. I’ll beg and steal whatever I can from our heritage,” he said.

At the end of 2006, when Fiat doubled its profits over the previous year, Marchionne declared that this was the end of the turn-round and the start of a new growth phase. De Meo put it succinctly: “Fiat is a brand that has regained its sense of direction.”

Fiat is succeeding with small cars – its speciality – on which other manufacturers find it hard to make money. Marchionne said: “There’s profit in small cars if you become really efficient at making them.”

The 500 seems likely to be a success as a premium small car of the same kind as BMW’s Mini – though less expensive. BMW positions Mini as a stand-alone marque, but for Fiat its smallest model becomes its “halo” car, the epitome of the brand. This has been described as “bottom up” marketing.

The bigger and more expensive cars of Alfa Romeo, Lancia and Maserati are now demanding Marchionne’s attention. “Alfa Romeo is the biggest challenge I have,” he said, “because it competes directly with the Germans [Audi, BMW and Mer-cedes]. People say Alfa is a great brand but they don’t buy the cars.” A complete revamp of the range and the dealer network is under way; Britain is one of the markets where Alfa is expected to grow.

Marchionne’s sales target for 2010 for both Alfa Romeo and Lancia, Fiat’s traditional luxury brand, is 300,000 cars a year – more than double the current volume of either. Those are tall orders, as is his similar ambition for Fiat in China. There, in the world’s fastest-growing market, Fiat sold only 38,000 cars last year. Marchionne has accused its Chinese associate, Nanjing Automotive, of taking its eye off Fiat as it builds up its own MG business but, even if Fiat changes partners in China, achieving an eightfold increase in three years seems unlikely.

Marchionne is a hard-driving man. He aims to make Fiat one of the top three car producers in Europe by 2010 (it is currently No 6, way behind fifth-placed Renault). Its market share in Italy, now 32%, must rise to 35% and for Europe as a whole from 8.5% to “double digits”. “I’ll be happy with 10%,” he said. It was thought that when Fiat Auto, or Fiat Group Automobiles as it is now known, turned the corner, Marchionne would go back to concentrating on other activities in the group, but he shows no sign of giving up the day-to-day running of the car business.

Actually, he seems to be revelling in it. In a rare moment of raw emotion, he enthused about the baby 500 that will make its grand entrance amid the lasers and fireworks on Wednesday night: “That car is a lot of what Fiat is. I am ecstatic about it. I can’t think we can do a better job.”

On his performance to date, Fiat shareholders might say the same about Marchionne.

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Honda Accord History

April 2, 2009

Honda Accord History
It was our mother country’s bicentennial, Jimmy Carter was elected president, “Dependable” was the big movie that year and Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci attained the first-ever excellent scores in Olympic gymnastics. Oh, and Honda introduced the Accord.

Joining the successful but diminutive Civic, the larger Accord was a smash star right away. Having felt the sting of an oil crisis a few years previous and realizing that, indeed, fossil fuel is a finite entity, Americans began joking considering (and buying) small, economical cars. With the Civic, Honda had quickly established itself as a builder of a pongy chief-quality, fun-to-drive, dependable and fuel-stingy little car. The Accord took this concept to a higher plane by offering more room, style and power while still being economical, reliable and easy to greens.

Initially available only in two-door hatchback form, the Accord rode a 93.7-inch wheelbase, weighed about 2,000 pounds and sported a mop, uncluttered body style. The interior layout featured a combination of untroubled seating, logical control/gauge placements and high-quality switchgear. These characteristics would all become associated with Honda in the years to go about a find. Another reason for the Accord’s success was the car’s generous standard equipment inventory (for the mid-1970s, anyway), which included features such as AM/FM stereo radio, rear defroster/wiper/washer and distant hatch release.

With an output of 68 horsepower, the Accord’s 1.6-liter four-cylinder apparatus pales in comparison to some “economy” cars of today that have copy this output from their four bangers. But remember, back in ‘76 many American V8s were struggling to put out 140 horses. A second to none in harmony feature of the Accord’s engine was Honda’s CVCC head design that promoted cleaner, more competent combustion. The CVCC design, introduced a year earlier on the Civic, did not order a catalytic converter nor unleaded fuel to meet emissions standards. About every other U.S. market car underwent the change to exhaust catalysts and unleaded-only fuel requirements the year before. Movement choice consisted of the standard, slick-shifting five-speed manual gearbox or a two-abruptness accelerate “Hondamatic” that blunted any attempts at peppy performance.read more…

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Carzonline’s Blog

Alfa Romeo Brera 3.2 V6

Montezemolo appointed Marchionne, who quickly identified that…

Honda Accord History

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