STUD or DUD? What The Panamera Would Have Looked Like If Italians Designed It?

Wow, that's extremely sexy!

— Caraficionado (View Profile)

Posted on 9/30/2011 8:03:20 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

Much better looking than a Panamera.

— PLAY (View Profile)

Posted on 9/30/2011 8:16:46 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 0   

Super sexy...I want to make babies with it

— Deutschland (View Profile)

Posted on 9/30/2011 9:23:28 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

...and too bad you are stuck in a time capsule (per your comment)...

— LACMAN (View Profile)

Posted on 10/1/2011 8:57:08 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 2   

(see above comment)

— LACMAN (View Profile)

Posted on 10/1/2011 8:58:17 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 2   

Certainly good looking. However all I can say is that the development of these models better be very well to an advanced stage if Marchione is going to stick with the 2014 dates. That's a ot of product that supposidly is coming out at one time. The problem as I see it is 2 fold.
1) Marchionne is not all that confident in Alfa. He has reason not to be.For as long as Alfa has been owned by Fiat it has struggled. The most succesful Alfa under Fiat's control I believe was the 156 and 147.When Alfa was intertined with GM 6 yrs ago they got stuck with the heavy and expensive"premium platform" that they were supposed to share with Saab. This platform hampered their ability to produce a cost efficient and competative product in the 159 and Brera.Sales were never very good. It has only been since the Mito and the Giulietta came out to replace the 147 that Alfa had some competative products. The problem is Alfa is supposed to be a sportier more upmarket brand then Fiat. The expectation is higher for product that offers performance and handling more on par with Audi,Mercedes and BMW. The Giulietta seems to have been somewhat successful in this. However the Mito is based on the Fiat Punto. Also there is no way Alfa can even get to a volume of 400,000 cars without a D segment and E segment car as well as an SUV.2) Further Because Marchionne expended so much money to revitalize the product range of Chrysler group he has had to put off expanding and replacing product in Fiat. Further this is dampened by a much weaker European market.The combination of lack of product and a weaker market is really hurting Fiat. This can quickly become a "Domino" effect in collapsing sales for them. It makes it harder and harder to get vitally needed new products to the market. I think Marchionne is going to have to either commit to Alfa or else dump it. With the C-Evo platform it would be easy to expand the Fiat product line in the US. First the US market is already established. The 500 may not be up to sales expectations but it is outselling Mini. That's not bad in 6 months time. The profit margin with C and D segment cars would be lower with Fiat but perhaps this could be made up in volume. The rear drive Alfa or Fiat could be successful if Fiat are able to lighten the platform and give it proper Italian styling. Further Fiat should replace the engine heads and fuel delivery, intake ETC. with an Italian design. The engine needs to sound Italian. The question is will Marchionne stick with Alfa or not.Or will he decide on this based on the economic conditions of the Eurozone?

— mini22 (View Profile)

Posted on 10/1/2011 12:06:37 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 2   

If the Italians had designed the Panamera, who knows what it would look like? I don't believe they have much experience with designing large luxury wagons. I honestly have no idea. I mean, these ARE the people who brought you both the 458 Italia and the Fiat Multipla.

But there's no question that this rendering is gorgeous.

— FromThePassengerSeat (View Profile)

Posted on 10/1/2011 1:52:28 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: -1   

Is there any more desirable marque than Alfa, not available here?

— sdcarguy (View Profile)

Posted on 10/1/2011 12:02:14 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1