New GTV....?

PSk said:

Yes I'd like to see Alfa Romeo be brave enough to make a car like you suggest and win comparison tests because it is a better, more involving to drive, sounds best, etc., car ... but not the fastest.
Pete

Click to expand...

The trouble these days is that somewhere along the line manufacturers got caught up in the numbers game and consumers started choosing products with the largest numbers regardless of their usability. Maybe it was the computer game that started it all back in the late 80s when Windows machines kept cranking up the numbers on their processors and people bought them based on that despite their unreliability and non friendly interfaces. The numbers race then spread to other products and became a major factor in consumer choice, despite some people trying to convince them it wasn’t everything. People will buy a HIFI that boasts ridiculously inflated and bogus output power with crap sound over one with far less power but nicer sound. Nobody needs a thousand watt stereo, even if that figure was actually true. Alfa have been caught up in that bs and feel they have to make cars with insane horsepower. That being said the majority of their sales are for the lower powered models. The 4C suffered from low power numbers, despite the fact that 240 HP is more than enough to make it an absolute projectile. I’m sure they would have sold more if that number was much higher. Electric cars like Teslas rely on stupidly high power figures to sell. The fact that they have little else going for them doesn’t seem to matter to buyers. I don’t know how the public can be re-educated. My GT has 250 HP and will get me into trouble with the law very quickly but the power is usable. I doubt that owners of Giulia QVs would ever use more than that on public roads, but overall sales would suffer if Alfa didn’t make a halo model like that.

Geeze... The best thing to happen to our classic Alfas is FCA bringing Alfa back to the USA and bringing out new models. If you don't need 600 hp there's a pedal just to the right of the brake - don't press it down so hard.

Do you really think the numbers game is a new thing? Muscle cars from the sixties were a study in marketing numbers. Was it necessary for Cadillac to build a V12 or Packard a V16 in the 1930s? Hell, look at ads for Model T bragging about their whopping 20 hp! Numbers sell cars. And selling cars for profit the last time I checked is why car companies exist. That's pretty much the whole point in a capitalist system...

Being born, raised and live in the Detroit area I naturally know more than a few car designers. Almost all that I know, regardless of who they work for are gearheads in general and huge Alfa fans in particular. Some of them lurk on this BB. They design and build these cars from a position of passion. But they get green lighted because they are offering a product that the public wants.

I really don't get the attitude that no matter what these guys put out it's too big, too small, too fast, too slow, too powerful, too gutless, too pretty, too ugly, blah, blah, blah.

Maybe, just maybe you are just not the target market...

Yes I'm not the target market, but my point was more that the auto industry imo is not helping its future.

My point; these stupidly powerful cars just waste our resources, upsetting greenies and also hardly appropriate for the current world position on the automobile, which is it is an evil thing ... so Alfa in a rebirthing phase makes a stupid car, brilliant not.

My next point is we have governing departments pushing the autonomous car because they believe the death of humans by a car is unacceptable (but turn a blind eye when a country is at war with its own people ... weird) so what does Alfa Romeo do?, it creates a car that 99% of the population do not haven't skill and judgement to drive safely.

So sure a few teenaged will knock a few out when reading magazine articles but most mature people, yep Alfas market, will think what a stupid overkill of a car because the company lacks confidence to just design a good car ...

Honestly if hp mattered that much, none of us would ever buy an Alfa. It's not the 30s anymore, fuel is now expensive!
Pete

I guess I am also surprised that people are being so dismissive of the new GTV. I think this model could be very good for Alfa, and might just be the enthusiast's car people here are wanting.

If the fact that the car is stated to have "more than 600bhp" is what is turning people off to the new model, I wouldn't worry. The specs they are touting are obviously for the top of the range model. You don't have to buy that one.

From what I know, they are also likely to have the following powertrain options available:

• The "base" 2 liter turbocharged 4-cylinder, with 280bhp
• A rumored mild-hybrid 2 liter turbocharged 4-cylinder, with about 350bhp
• The current 2.9 liter twin-turbocharged V6 with 505bhp
• The diesel option from the current Giulias (ROW only - no US availability)

That is 4 other engine options that may be available in the new GTV. Remember, this wasn't revealed as an actual model announcement, it was part of a presentation to investors/shareholders.