Filed under: Frankfurt Auto Show, Etc., Euro, Alfa Romeo
Frankfurt Preview: Alfa Romeo allows individual pimpage
Click the image above for a gallery of high-res pics.
While mass customization has slowly become a mainstay strategy for automakers courting buyers from all walks of life, Alfa Romeo's particular program has some added cachet. Originally instituted with the introduction of the 8C Competizione, where buyers of Alfa's flagship have a hand in tailoring their ultra-exclusive GT to suit, the new "Ultra-Alfa" customization program will filter its way down to the Italian automaker's mass-market offerings. Three different "programs" will be available, ranging from "Vintage" to "TI", that find influence with every aspect of Alfa's heritage.
The "Vintage" program has a more classic feel, while the "Collezione" packages come complete with "perfumed" leather seats, contrasting stitching, metal inserts and plenty of other spizzarkle.The "Turismo Internazionale," or "TI" packages, draw more on Alfa's racing tradition and centers on performance items that include revised suspensions setups and brakes, along with exclusive wheel designs and high-performance tires.
You can read through Alfa's press release after the jump, and see its new-fangled wares below in the gallery before they debut next week in Frankfurt.
[Source: Alfa Romeo]
PRESS RELEASE:
'Exclusiveness and personality' have always been distinctive features of the Alfa Romeo brand, a fact borne out by the broad choice of bodies, engines, exterior outfits, interior furnishings and options, enabling customers to order the car that meets their needs and their desire to be different.
To extend this broad choice even further, and in response to the growing number of requests from the market, Alfa Romeo has now developed the 'Unique Alfa' Customisation Programme, a new departure for the brand that will enable customers to make their cars even more refined and exclusive.
The Alfa Romeo Customisation programme has been available on the entire range for a couple of months, and was born out of the experience of the Alfa 8C Competizione, the model that the brand has chosen to define its strategies with precision and authority. One of the winning features of this lovely GT is the fact that it was conceived to cater for every whim of competent, refined customers, who wish to state their personality by the way they configure their car, transforming a car that is already exclusive into something unique. By the same principle, the 'Unique Alfa' Programme, the expression of the best Italian products, now extends this opportunity to the other Alfa Romeo models. Alfa Romeo is one of the most prestigious brands in motoring history, and it indubitably conjures up the art of Italian living, expressed in a perfect synthesis of tradition and modernity, heritage and the avant-garde, beauty and culture. And it is thanks to this propensity for art and beauty that the Alfa Romeo Customisation Programme has taken shape, developing into three different areas that identify the brand's exclusive values and make its relationship with its customers unique.
The first area, known as 'Vintage', reinterprets Alfa Romeo tradition with elegance and modernity: intriguing colours that conjure up the Dolce Vita or victories on the world's most prestigious racing circuits, chromatic treatments that recall the timeless emotion of the prestigious finish, and upholstery crafted with the care and precision typical of a craftsman's workshop.
'Collezione' is the second area, which invites customers to explore the world of fashion and elegance. The interiors are designed to recreate a sensation of well-being and beauty, underlined by the materials chosen to give a feeling of sensory involvement: soft, perfumed leather covers the seats, facia, and panels; the stitching reveals and underlines the sinuous, elegant shapes; the real metal inserts propose different finishes. On the exterior, multi-layer lacquered paints give an extra touch of elegance to the lines of the body, drawing attention to the ornamental elements and the alloys with their luminous sparkle finish.
The third and final area of the 'Unique Alfa' programme is 'TI' (Turismo Internazionale), which obviously harks back to Alfa Romeo tradition, where racing and competitions have always played an important part in the development of cutting-edge technologies designed to guarantee the proverbial enjoyment of driving an Alfa Romeo, and safety in all driving conditions. The heritage of technological culture and a passion for the product have laid the foundations for the development of this area, which addresses customers who are particularly demanding where performance, dynamic behaviour and sporty personality are concerned, with mechanical components such as a low stance, boosted braking system, alloy wheels and high performance tyres. And in the immediate future, this exciting catalogue will also incorporate other features to raise the performance of the powerful Alfa Romeo engines even higher.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
SPG 7:15PM (9/04/2007)
I get more sick of hearing the term "Pimp" with each passing day.
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Jons 7:15PM (9/04/2007)
If just the quality of alfa could keep up with the design. You would not have to look any further for the perfect car.
The new Spider is just such a beauty.
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AMcA 8:05PM (9/04/2007)
This is SO smart. Every lux manufacturer needs to do this. Luxury cars can't be mass produced anymore. They need to be mass customized, because the run-of-the-mill cars have gotten so good.
MINI showed the way on this. Everyone needs to follow.
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1337 9:27PM (9/04/2007)
Mini was the first to bring this marketing concept to sub-$30k cars. However,strictly speaking, Rolls Royce, Bentley, Maserati, and virtually every automaker that sells cars for over $100k has been doing this for decades.
jayhawker 9:11PM (9/04/2007)
How many more companies are going to copy the Audi TT?
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Jay 11:10PM (9/04/2007)
Exactly how does this copy the TT? The two chrome 'rollbars'? The fact that it is a smallish convertible?
I cant see where you logic is. The Alfa and Audi look nothing alike. Have you even seen them in the skin - let alone together? Its not as if the TT was the first small convertible around either.
simianspeedster 3:27AM (9/05/2007)
BRING THIS CAR TO AMERICA, NOW!!!
Seriously, Alfa's return has been rumored to be anywhere from 2008 to 2010. If they bring the Brera coupe with the right powertrain, I might bite -- that is one sexy car.
Don't laugh at me for asking, but how is Alfa Romeo quality these days?
-SimianSpeedster
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Jules 6:03AM (9/05/2007)
it's quite good. I own a 147 since 5 years, and the ONLY things that went wrong were a lightbulb that popped when I hit a speedbump a bit too fast (the suspensions are sporty), and the cigarette lighter has recently stopped working cause it wont click when I push it all the way in, for some reason.
Remi 8:20AM (9/05/2007)
One of the best looking car in production today, and when you open the hood, it's still Wrong Wheel Drive... Sad.
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Larry 8:28AM (9/05/2007)
Yes, SPG, I trust you remember my rant on the subject of the word... just realize it is yet another example of the "lowest common denominator" of our culture that seems to be taking over!
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