Autoblog

Alfa Romeo isn't kidding around about its return to the US market: Fiat Group CEO Sergio Marchionne revealed that Alfa is planning to open a factory in the United States.

Citing the drop in the US dollar against the Euro as a principal motivating factor, Marchionne said that manufacturing cars in America was vital to the profitability of Alfa's stateside venture. The Canadian-Italian industrialist anticipated that Alfa would only begin making a profit after three or four years in the US.

This won't be the first time a Fiat division has manufactured in the United States. In 1909 the Italian automaker inaugurated a plant in Poughkeepsie in upstate New York which it closed a decade later.

Meanwhile, industry sources indicate that Alfa's main factory at Pomigliano d'Arco in southern Italy will close for two months beginning in January as a last-ditch effort to get Alfa Romeo build quality up to spec or else face complete closure.

[Source: Automotive News (sub. req.) via Italiaspeed]

Quebec is probably the last place in North America where some businesses are still forbidden to open on weekends. Although the practice has long since dissipated in other retail sectors, car dealerships in Montreal still adhere to an archaic 35-year-old policy that dates back to when the Catholic church still had a strong hold on French Canadian society.

One dealership in this writer's home town is departing from that policy, and he's facing tough opposition. Pie IX Dodge Chrysler (pronounced pee nuf, on the street named after Pope Pius the 9th) is a dealership on the island's predominantly French east end, next to the Olympic stadium that once hosted the Montreal auto salon before it moved to the convention center downtown. They decided to open on weekends, selling cars on Saturday and Sunday, a move opposed by other area dealerships and their association (which also organizes the annual car show). Pie IX's sales have gone up, despite the protests outside. The demonstrators include salesmen from other dealerships (which remain closed on the weekend) and from nearby used car lots (which are open on the weekend). If new car dealerships were to open on weekends, the association says the salesmen will be overworked, while the used car lots will lose business. One protestor even went so far as to hit the manager at Pie IX Dodge Chrysler in the head with a block of ice and was arrested for assault. Demonstrators were also thought to have jammed the dealership's phone lines.

Despite the opposition, and with support from DaimlerChrysler, owner Claude Leclair says he plans to keep his dealership open on weekends, quoting sales figures of over a dozen cars each weekend, while competing dealerships are suspected to be operating in the red. Kinda gives new meaning to the old Quebec separatist slogan "Vive la Quebec Libre" – long live a free Quebec.

[Source: The Montreal Gazette via Jalopnik]

Unless we see LS 460s and Lucernes out on the greens tearing it up in a combination demolition derby-polo match, we're going back to sleep. In a snore-inducing move, Lexus has signed up with the US Golf Association to be the official vehicle of the US Open, US Women's Open, US Senior Open, and US Amateur. Lexus will also be the USGA's first-ever automotive partner. Tiger, however, will stick with Buick.

Lexus stepped up their involvement with the sport in an effort to further engage their customers, who are apparently passionate about golf. In support of their collaboration with the USGA, Lexus will be rolling out a multifaceted media campaign including advertising, direct marketing, events, and, of course, the auto brand will be on-site at USGA events. We're sure to see more Lexus branding and signage in television coverage, as well. The Lexus golf team has been expanded by the addition of some members from the Toyota team, and there's some big names playing for the brand. Lexus is actually involved in sponsoring many different types of sporting events -- polo, tennis, golf, sailing; a laundry-list of rarefied sports.

We suppose that there probably are a fair amount of Lexi in country-club parking lots, and most of them can haul a foursome's worth of clubs without a hiccup. Golf just seems so... dispassionate and indifferent from a car guy's point of view. Then again, that's the prevailing car guy notion of Lexus, as well; perhaps it really does make for a neat dovetail. Golf is not particularly easy to excel at, nor is it easy to build cars as obsessively tweezed as the Lexus lineup, but neither golf nor luxo-Toyotas get our adrenaline pumping as much as a simple parking lot autocross with something as mundane as a '91 Scoupe.

You can find the press release after the jump.

[Source: Lexus via Automotive News - sub req'd]