Alfa Romeo SUV to relaunch Alfa in U.S. in 2013

Alfa Romeo will now return to the U.S. market in 2013, initially with an Alfa SUV followed by the Alfa Romeo Giulia Sedan.

It’s now two years since Alfa Romeo revealed its plans to return to the U.S. market – after an absence of 20 years – on the back of Fiat’s effective takeover of Chrysler. But all is not going swimmingly.

We mused on the rumblings about Alfa’s return to the US back in April, and concluded that the delay revolved around Alfa Romeo not having a big enough range to relaunch, although a modest model range hasn’t stopped MINI from mopping up 50k sales a year in the States.

The plan is now to relaunch Alfa Romeo properly in 2013 with a compact Alfa SUV (Jeep based, of course), which is seen as a ‘Safe’ way to go. That should be followed by a saloon version of the new Giulia – but therein lies a problem.

It seems that Alfa are trying to graft a boot on to the Giulia hatch to make a ‘Sedan’ to suit the American market, but Sergio Marchionne has rejected all the design proposals so far. Sadly, it seems Americans still want a boot on a car, or at least car makers think they do. Maybe Alfa should just bite the bullet and deliver the US the Giulia hatch and be done with it?

Sadly for Americans Alfa isn’t going to take the MiTo to the US, which is a real shame. It would have been a cool and funky alternative to the MINI and Fiat 500, both of which are doing well. But Sergio Marchionne doesn’t think there will be enough sales to warrant the effort.

For some reason Alfa seems to see the Giulia as the key to the US market; Alfa Romeo as an Italian alternative to BMW. Which we think is a hiding to nothing. Surely it would be better to be sporty and sexy and aim at a young urban market? Cars like the Jeep-based SUV make sense, but surely the right thrust would be specced-up MiTos and Giuliettas and a healthy push on the Alfa 4C?

Surely better than the Alfa Romeo 5-Series?