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Alfa Romeo 4C Spider lives to see 2020 and gets an Italia special edition

Alfa Romeo is launching a limited run of special-edition 4C Spider sports cars for the U.S. Called the 4C Spider Italia, only 15 of these cars will be built. Before you get up in arms about how exclusive and impossible to find this will be, consider Alfa 4C sales numbers. All of seven were sold in January, and 2018 saw 238 cars find owners. So, perhaps the limited numbers aren't that limiting. The 4C Spider Italia is essentially a $5,000 appearance package. It takes the standard 4C Spider (the coupe was discontinued in the U.S. last year) and then covers it in an exclusive blue paint called Misano Blue Metallic. Then, the front air intake and rear diffuser are finished in piano black. You also get a "4C Spider Italia" sticker for the side of the car that looks properly Italian. On the inside, there's an aluminum dashboard insert designating this car as the special edition model, and the center console has a plate with the exact number it is in the 15-car run. And that's it. Our brains most recently associate the "Italia" designation with Ferrari, but this package does nothing to bring it closer to the incredible 458's performance. You'll get the same 237 horsepower and 258 pound-feet of torque from the little turbocharged four-banger. Perhaps the best news out of this special edition car is that it's a 2020 model year. Alfa announced this car and confirmed the 4C Spider will continue at least through 2020. Even with the only option being a dual-clutch automatic transmission, the 4C is one of the most barebones, pure driving experiences you can get in a new car today. Its continued existence is only a good thing for us sports car enthusiasts. With the $5,000 tacked on to the base price, a 4C Spider Italia will run you $73,495, including destination charges. Alfa says orders for the special edition car will open up in the second quarter of 2019. Related video:

2024 Alfa Romeo Tonale First Drive: An electrifying Italian alternative

MILAN, Italy – Chicken or egg? ItÂ’s often a matter of perspective. In this case, the 2023 Dodge Hornet is based on the 2024 Alfa Romeo Tonale – itÂ’s even built in Italy – yet it was the Dodge that arrived first on American shores. By the narrowest of margins, true, but it happened nevertheless. That leaves the Tonale (pronounced "toe-nal-ay," not "toe-nail") to carve out a premium niche for itself above the buzzy Italian-American.   How? For starters, the Tonale is exclusively available as a plug-in hybrid in the United States. Only Canada and Mexico will get the lower-output, gasoline-only variant. Producing 285 horsepower and 347 pound-feet of torque combined, the plug-in powertrain consists of a 1.3-liter turbocharged four-banger and six-speed automatic transmission up front and a 121-horsepower electric motor on the rear axle. ThereÂ’s no physical connection between them, so power from the gas engine canÂ’t be sent rearward or vice versa. That means the Tonale is effectively rear-wheel drive when in electric-only mode. It can run like that for more than 30 miles if the 15.5-kilowatt-hour battery is fully charged, which requires about 2.5 hours on a level 2 setup. Provided you donÂ’t ask more of the powertrain than the battery and motor are able to deliver, it will putter along in combustion-free silence. Mashing the throttle will engage the gas engine no matter what hybrid mode youÂ’re in; more on those below. The standard Tonale is equipped with a MacPherson strut suspension with Frequency Selective Damping (FSD) shocks. They may sound like fancy electronic dampers but FSD shocks do their magic without any digital intervention. While not as sharp as performance-tuned shocks, nor as comfortable as those engineered to deliver the best ride, they offer a solid balance that is much less costly or complex than the adaptive setup that comes standard on the range-topping Veloce model. The VeloceÂ’s adaptive suspension is incorporated into Alfa's "DNA" drive mode selection system, tightening up in “Dynamic” and backing off in “Natural” and “Advanced Efficiency.” The TonaleÂ’s other sporty add-ons — aluminum steering column-mounted paddle shifters, aluminum pedals and red Brembo calipers with white Alfa Romeo script — are part of the “High Performance Driving Package,” which is optional on the mid-range Sprint and baked into the Veloce. The hybrid modes mentioned earlier exist outside the D-N-A dial.

Marchionne to make Alfa Romeo a separate company within Fiat

According to a report in Automotive News that quotes "people familiar with the matter," the next big play in Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne's plan for Alfa Romeo is to break it off from Fiat Group Automobiles and set it up as a separate company within the Fiat empire, giving it the same structure as Ferrari and Maserati. The idea, say the sources, is that a transparent, standalone Alfa Romeo that has to justify its every move could clearly prove its success in the public financial statements it would have to report, finally achieving Marchionne's aim of making Alfa Romeo "a credible business proposition."
That, of course, assumes that Alfa Romeo will make a success of it. The brand hasn't made a profit in any year of Marchionne's decade at the helm; sales last year fell to numbers not seen in almost half a century and its new product offensive might not include the two vehicles currently responsible for 99 percent of its sales. We're told that the brand's six new models will begin arriving in 2016 - a roadster, a midsize sedan and large sedan, a compact SUV and large SUV, and a large coupe.
Marchionne aims to expand Alfa's global appeal in several ways, the first by stressing that they are Italian products that 'belong' to Italy. This is the stance that appears to have put the kibosh on the roadster twinned with the coming Mazda MX-5/Miata. Alfa Romeos will all be made in their home country, and if they take off they'll help bandage Fiat's problem with underused plant capacity, a bugbear that is just as problematic culturally and politically as financially. Top-tier trims would use V6 engines developed by Ferrari, and global access would get a boost by selling Alfa Romeos in Jeep's 1,700 international dealerships.