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Ram and Alfa Romeo top J.D. Power study of best automaker websites

Imagining a new car can be terrific fun, especially if the new car is an Alfa Romeo. So say the fantasy engineers at the J.D. Power agency, who’ve found that Alfa and Ram, sister brands under the Stellantis umbrella, offer potential buyers the most attractive consumer websites, which are often their first viable encounter with those vehicles. Power found that those marques lead the mass market and premium categories in its twice annual Manufacturer Website Evaluation Study. In the premium segment, Alfa Romeo led with 755 points, up six points over BMW, 10 points ahead of Infiniti, 14 points past of Jaguar, and 18 points up on Porsche. By contrast, Volvo and Audi trail the pack with 689 points, and are behind Genesis (699 points), Tesla (720), and Cadillac (721), all of which perform worse than the premium segment average of 724 points. The summerÂ’s study showed that in the mass market segment, Ram leads with an impressive 735 points, which puts it six points ahead of GMC, seven points atop its stablemate Jeep, eight points beyond Subaru, and 22 points ahead of the industry average. Volkswagen finished dead last among mass market names, but only one point behind Ford, 684 to 683 out of a possible 1,000. Segment average, as noted, was 713 points. “Website satisfaction can be volatile, and automotive websites are not immune to changing preferences,” said Jon Sundberg, director of digital solutions at J.D. Power. “However, manufacturers have shown to be very agile when it comes to website design and ensuring their sites meet modern standards, more so than many other industries, as exemplified through the study data.” Marketing/Advertising Alfa Romeo Audi BMW Ford Volkswagen

Alfa Romeo 4C Spider reportedly dead in Europe, only dealer stock remains

It's been hard to get a reliable prognosis concerning Alfa Romeo in general, and especially hard to figure out what's in store for the brand in the United States. Last year the automaker canceled the 4C coupe, last week the brand's future product roadmap appeared to deep-six the anticipated GTV and 8C sports cars in order to focus on more efficient spending in more important segments. In February of this year, Alfa Romeo launched the 4C Spider Italia in a run of just 15 units, the two biggest surprises about that car being the $73,495 price and the fact that it extended the model's run into 2020. We're not yet into 2020, but it looks like the party's over. The French outpost of Motor1 is said to have confirmed with Alfa Romeo that the 4C Spider has ceased production. According to the report, the only 4Cs left across the Atlantic are the ones currently in dealer inventory.  Autoblog asked Alfa Romeo to confirm the news, a spokesman responded by e-mail, "I can't speak for other markets but the US 4C Spider is not cancelled and is still available for order." Introduced in 2015, the 4C Spider still gets on with a turbocharged four-cylinder putting out 237 horsepower and 258 pound-feet of torque. The 4C Spider needs an irrational generosity to love and drive every day, but the last OEM sports car on sale without power steering knows how to thrill when pushed. Our guess is that, overseas, exotic construction and communicative, go-kart handling couldn't make up for a high price relative to the established competition and lack of interior amenities and ultimate refinement. If the European news is true, sales figures lead us to believe it is but a matter of time before the same ax finds its way to the U.S. Alfa Romeo sold 421 4Cs in Europe last year, compared to 238 in the U.S. This year European dealers sold 196 units through the end of September, U.S. dealers moved 127. If we did lose the open-top sports car before 2021, the move would leave the Giulia sedan and Stelvio SUV as Alfa Romeo's entire U.S. lineup until more crossover-type vehicles show in 2021. No matter what happens, perhaps by 2021 Alfa Romeo will know precisely where it needs to go and have a clear plan for getting there, and perhaps it will be able to do so with the platform and financial resources within a merged Fiat-Chrysler-PSA Group entity. Even for fun, full-throated products, it's hard to get on in today's market without full-throated focus, support, and marketing.

‘Yee haw’ in Italian - Alfa Romeo Giulia is the Car of Texas

You can't underestimate the visceral pull of the new Giulia Quadrifoglio's 505 horsepower wrapped in Alfa Romeo's sweet, seductive sheetmetal. Autoblog said the hottest Giulia "puts some practical meat on the bone for American drivers bored of the usual Audi A4/Mercedes C-Class/ BMW 3 Series suspects." The Quadrifoglio delivers 60 mph in 3.8 seconds and laps the Nurburgring Nordschleife in just 7:32. This makes it - for the moment - the fastest four-passenger production car around the 12.9-mile circuit. Austin's Circuit of the Americas F1 venue isn't Germany's Nordschleife, but that's where the Texas Auto Writers Association gathered for its annual Spring Roundup - some 50 auto writers, broadcasters and bloggers evaluating 40-plus cars and crossovers in 11 categories, with best-of-class wins such as Performance Car of Texas, Family Car of Texas and – ultimately – best of show, the Car of Texas. In a vote as out of the blue as that one back in November, Giulia got the nod. When evaluating a Car of Texas at a track, the Giulia Quadrifoglio is a no-brainer. Beyond its brute power is a linear dynamic behind the wheel, even if the track's official road speed for this event was 60 miles per hour. Competing against it in the Performance Sedan category were the Dodge Charger R/T and SRT Hellcat, along with a Lexus GS F and VW Jetta GLI. Beyond its surfeit of power is the Giulia's raucous personality and – we'll admit – novelty. Many of the younger journalists at COTA had only vague memories of the brand. This was also, regrettably, a relatively weak grouping of performance machinery. The headliners – such as the Mercedes-AMG GT S and Nissan GT-R – were prominent, but cars most likely to be tagged a Car of Texas, such as a Shelby Mustang or hot Camaro, weren't. Ford brought only its Focus RS, and GM execs have deemed regional press events not worthy of their attention. Also, both BMW and Audi were no-shows, although – in defense of the Giulia – the M3 and Mercedes-AMG C63S were whipped by the Alfa in at least one recent hot sedan comparison. In short, Alfa swept a smallish field. But a win's a win, and every win bodes well for Alfa, even in a market where the first car is a truck, and the second car might be a second truck. Related Video: Auto News Alfa Romeo Ownership Luxury Performance Sedan no ribbon