Italy’s new Mini rival
By Jez Spinks | theage.com.au | 07 March
Alfa Romeo is about to do an Italian job on BMW’s Mini.
The Turin-based car maker’s new baby car may be shrouded in black disguise during cold-weather testing in Scandinavia, but Alfa Romeo’s trademark shield grille is clearly identifiable.
Cute styling and design influences from Alfa’s 8C Competizione are also evident despite the cladding for a car that is currently set to be called Furiosa.
The Italian word for ‘fury’ was chosen after Alfa ran an online naming competition in 2007, though the company may revert to its original project name of Junior because executives are not convinced Furiosa matches the car’s image.
The Junior (Drive’s preference for the name) will debut at September’s Paris motor show and reach Australia in mid 2009. Prices are likely to start from about $30,000, keeping the Junior above the Fiat Punto on which it is based and in line with the Mini Cooper.
It will be about four metres long – about halfway between a Mini and Alfa 147 in size – with three doors only and a two-plus-two seating layout.
The baby Alfa will use the underpinnings of parent company Fiat’s Punto small car, though according to Alfa it will have a more sophisticated suspension set-up.
Junior will become the company’s new entry-level model, sitting beneath the 149 (147 replacement) that has been pushed back to 2009 to allow Alfa’s engineers more time to focus on its important new car.
The new model not only targets a new, younger (18-30) audience for Alfa, it will also play a crucial role in the Italian brand’s ambitious target of 300,000 global sales by 2010 – about double its 2007 result.
The Junior is also likely to form part of Alfa’s line-up when it makes a return to the United States in 2009, 14 years after it left.
Alfa Romeo’s Australian importer, Ateco, says despite the car’s small proportions it will carry a price tag to match the brand’s upmarket positioning.
“The [Junior] will sit at the premium end of the small-car market,” says Ateco spokesman Edward Rowe. “It’s Alfa’s response to the Mini and [forthcoming] Audi A1."
Rowe says there will be a substantial growth in small cars in Europe because of the increasing importance of vehicle taxation – where registration fees and other charges are lower for smaller-engined vehicles.
It means there will be increasing demand for small cars that go beyond budget motoring.
“Customers still want style, luxury and performance [even in a small car] because it’s what they’ve come to expect,” says Rowe.
The Junior’s engine line-up will comprise two 1.9-litre turbo diesels, with the most powerful delivering 147kW to the front wheels. A 1.4-litre turbo petrol (T-jet) will also be available with varying outputs of 88kW, 110kW and 136kW.
A 184kW version of the T-jet engine is also rumoured to be in the pipeline for an all-wheel-drive Junior GTA model, which would take on the likes of the Mini Cooper S John Cooper Works and forthcoming Audi S1.
First published by TheAge.com.au on March 07 2008
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