Lifting the curse of the Alfasud
Jean-Philippe Imparato, who has been Alfa Romeo CEO for only 14 months, accompanied the press on the first occasion that Alfa’s brand-new factory in southern Italy had been seen by people outside of the Stellantis empire. In a previous guise, this building once hosted production of the 147 – one of nine different Alfa models made at the site since it was opened in 1972, initially to make the radical Alfasud.
In fact, a total of 3.8 million Alfas have passed through the factory gates.
Infamously, the Alfasud project (named in reference to Alfa beginning production in the less prosperous south of Italy) wasn’t a happy one. While the compact four door wowed the press and keen drivers, its build quality was abysmal and the workforce was rebellious.
Arguably, the debacle has haunted Alfa ever since, with virtually all subsequent models tainted to a degree by the Alfasud’s reputation for rampant rust and electrical fragility.
“I want to destroy this history,” Imparato said with some force. “I don’t want to hear again this condescending and patronising ‘it’s an Italian car’. When this perception is gone, Alfa will fly.”
The issue is personal to the Frenchman, thanks to his Alfisti father: “In the 1970s, he used to say to me ‘I need two cars to make one [good one]’, and he eventually moved to another premium brand, a German one.”
Imparato concluded: “The reason I’m showing this plant today is to show the advances we’ve made. This technology is more associated with Formula 1 and aerospace than the car industry.”
A huge investment
The fearsome emphasis on quality is being overseen by PSA Group veteran Sandrine Gredelu, who worked at the Rennes and Poissy plants, latterly overseeing the Citroën C5 Aircross and Peugeot 5008 models.
She acknowledged to Autocar that the Tonale approach is something of an experiment within Stellantis, as the attention to detail goes further than it would for a mainstream brand, but that comes at a significant cost, and such an investment needs to be paid back.
