The Alfa Romeo models we hardly remember
03/02/2017
Alfa Romeo is certainly one of the most admired car brands. And rightly so. A company that builds a 6C 1750, a P3, a Giulietta and a Giulia or a Montreal can only be admired and revered.
But there were also other models that have long been forgotten, if not forgotten altogether. Between 1960 and 1966, for example, Alfa Romeo built the Renault Dauphine under license because it wanted to counter Fiat in the small car segment. Some parts were adapted, but on the whole the Dauphine remained true to itself as an Alfa Romeo.
In the 1980s, Milan needed a successor to the Alfetta. The result was the Alfa Romeo 90, designed by Marcello Gandini (Lamborghini Miura, among others) and technically very similar to the Alfetta with its transaxle construction.
Only just over 56,000 units were produced in four years, followed by the much more sought-after Alfa Romeo 164.
Another strange chapter is the Arna, which was also created in the 1980s. Nissan wanted to enter the Italian market and needed a cooperation partner to do so. The result - a car with a Nissan body and Alfa drive technology. Nothing came of the planned large-scale production; just 80,000 cars were produced, a real flop.
Unfortunately, the importance of the unmistakable Alfa design was repeatedly ignored at Alfa Romeo, which is the only explanation for the Alfa Romeo 146. It was built together with the rear-wheel-drive Alfa 145 as the successor to the Alfa Romeo 33. It also marked the transition from the Alfasud boxer engines to the in-line engine. The car was built from 1995 to 2000, followed by the visually much more appealing Alfa Romeo 147.
Do the models shown here have anything in common? Well, they were probably all a little far removed from the brand's traditional DNA or they had a design that was too far removed from the typical Alfa Romeo styling. Only time will tell whether the off-road vehicles that Alfa Romeo wants to build today (keyword Stelvio) will be any better.
