|
GTV200 pretty much covered the entire chain of events. Alfa was more or less a profitable company until they were forced for political reasons to open a plant in the south of Italy which eventually made the AlfaSud. While the Sud was not a bad car, it was a financial disaster for the company and drove the firm into a never ending series of losses. Due to political pressure, they could never cut employees.
What was cut was quality control. Socialist polititians insisted that Alfa used poor quality Soviet steel in the Alfetta which lead to premature rust. The V-6 was originally supposed to be introduced in 74 in the Alfetta, but was postponed to 79 because of budget pressures. In the early 1970's, Alfa was at the top of thier game, similar to the position that BMW was in several years ago. The politicos drove it into the ground.
As for Fiat, they initially had no intention of buying Alfa becuase they realized the terrible financial shape the firm was in. Only when Ford with thier deep pockets showed interest did they politically outmanouver the Americans and pick up the firm. They essentially paid nothing for Alfa, only promising to keep employment at a certain level a number of years, a promise that Ford would not make (Ford and anyone else would have shuttered the Alfasud plant immediately). Since then, they have mismanaged Alfa as badly as the parent company.
|