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There’s no doubt that the launch of an Alfa Romeo will cause a stir. It is still a national heritage to which many Italians are very attached, although not to the point of buying cars. Except that the discussions reveal a sense of lack of satisfaction, almost a disappointment which then found an outlet on matters of little relevance and, let’s face it, even a little specious.
An object of criticism is the bodysuit: it is the same as such and such a car. Of course, today they all look a bit alike. It is no longer the time when the Thema, the Croma and the Saab 9,000 came out of the pencils of real artists, all on the same platform and yet so different. Until the genius of Pininfarina arrived, who even created the 164 from that project, leaving the world speechless. So, instead of criticizing that a compact SUV looks like other compact SUVs, why doesn’t anyone ask why there is such uniformity? Where have the priorities of aesthetics gone? What replaced them? The consumption? The security? The desire to always and only attack the majority segment of demand, neglecting niches?
Then the name: Milan and not built in Piazza Duomo. Born as a specious controversy and ended up like Ennio Flaiano: serious, but not serious.
It is clear that there is an underlying malaise. Heck, it’s not often you get to say hello to a new Biscione car. One expects something different, unique. An Alfa Romeo, if it’s fair to say, not just any SUV with a coat of arms stuck on it. Years ago a brilliant Silvio Berlusconi teased Fiat, suggesting putting the Ferrari emblem on the Panda to sell a ton of them. As a clever marketing man, he knew it was just a joke that wouldn’t work. A brand is precisely a… brand. Not every product can support every brand.
Alfa Romeo is one of the very few brands in the world to embody a type of driver: the Alfa driver. A person who wants to feel the road, has a sporty drive and wants to appear so. In Turin they know what it is: for the Stelvio advertising they used “pure Alfista”. But then all the advertisements, from Giulia to Tonale via Stelvio, avoid it. The protagonist is fascinating but in the mainstream sense, very well looked after, bordering on weak. The payoff insists on the “mechanics of emotions” and on the “Italian heritage”, as if Alfa Romeo needed them, given that it itself is a symbol of Italianness. But above all, cars don’t race, the adrenaline of “fast & furious” is missing.