Alfa Yearly Sales Figures-1998

["David L Mericle" <DAVEMERICLE@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Folks!

I read with interest the posting about Fiat/Alfa sales figures for 1998.

There must be some mistake in the figures-perhaps something lost in
transit/translation (or some such)-but sales cannot possibly be that low for
Calendar Year 1998, either in Italy alone nor the rest of the world.

The Alfa Tipo 156 by itself (produced at what remains of the original
Alfasud factory down by Naples) will account for somewhere between 160,000
and 180,000 units sold in CY 1998-half of which are earmarked for Italia and
the other half for the rest of the world. Half of either of these figures
would be a number as large as the one reported for all Alfa sales in
Italia-and that doesn't include the 30,000+ Nuova Spider/GTVs produced at
Arese (production is hovering between 100 and 150 cars per day at the
factory northwest of Milano, depending on labor conditions and sales
demand), nor the 10,000+ Tipo 166 models (produced at the Fiat plant in
Torino since it's launch in October 1998), or the Tipo 145/146, and so on...

In fact, the 156 facility has just completed an extensive addition to the
production line-with the latest generation of robotic assemblers (perhaps
labor problems will finally be a thing of the past down south, unless the
robots unionize and go out on strike)-which is claimed to raise production
of the model by one third. And even this additional capacity is nowhere near
enough to satisfy demand.

In any event, neither Alfa nor Fiat Press have announced figures for '98
that I'm aware of, and I was just over there talking with company people
about the figures I've recounted above. In other words, the jury is probably
still out on CY 1998, but early indications make it appear that it may be
the best year for overall sales that Alfa has seen for between 10 and 20
years-and most of the success can be laid squarely at the feet of the
fabulous Tipo 156.

Which, in the end, means little to Alfisti in North America-because the best
Alfa in many years isn't sold here...

Happy Motoring!!

Dave Mericle-European Car Magazine
Orange County-Southern California-USA

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