Touring* » Вт фев 15, 2011 5:00 am
Look, I’ve been in this business now – in Fiat — for seven years. Every time I talk to somebody they tell me, you know, Alfa is just a wonderful brand. Well, Alfa’s been a money loser inside Fiat now since I’ve been around. They’re exactly the opposite of what we are institutionally; they over-promise and under-deliver every year.
- Они (т.е. Альфа) противоположны вам - (Фиату, что ли?) в том, что каждый год слишком много обещают и не исполняют? Да ты с дуба рухнул, что ли, синьор Маркьоне? Они уже давно и есть вы! Кто кому обещает? Одна фиатовская топ-марионетка ака "глава Альфы" обещает другой, причём обе заведомо знают, что при таком финансировании и подходе все эти сотни тысяч фиато-альф в год - блеф?
And the problem is it’s a great brand with a long history. I’m not sure if it ever really made any money. Even before Fiat ownership I’m not sure it was a great deal. But it always had this sexy – it raced Formula One — I mean it’s got this incredible appeal which goes back, you know, to the time they used to be on the racetrack, and it’s the embodiment of a lot of things which are typically Italian; sportiness, lightweight, and everything else.
- Клёвые и крутые производители пузатых пандопунто! Кто бы говорил - если бы не итальянский протекционизм, от Фиата японцы давно камня на камне не оставили бы!
And what happened is that when Fiat bought them back in the end of ’86 we Fiatized Alfa. Fiat was front-wheel drive; Alfa was rear wheel drive. So now all the Alfas are front-wheel drive. And we put Fiat engines inside the Alfas, and Alfa started losing more and more of its DNA as a car company.
- Это что, самобичевание? Или признание того факта, что Фиат внёс свою скромную лепту в Альфа-мани лузер?
And of all the things that we had to play with since 2004, you know, I kept saying if I can get to 300,000 vehicles I’ll be happy because it’s a re-launch of the brand.
- То есть релонч имени Альфа Ромео теперь понимается как продать 300К машин, всё равно каких? Круто!
We were selling over 100,000 cars in Europe. We have done two significant things since then; we’ve launched the Mito, which is a B segment car. And then we launched the Julietta, the C segment car last year. These are true Alfas, both of them. I mean they have the right engines, the handling, everything else.
- Эти два пузатых хэтча - тру Альфас? Он не ошибся случаем - точно речь про тру Альфас?
The real opportunity for us is to try and take this architectural development that we’ve done in the U.S. with the C-segment Dodge sedan coming out next year and using that basic architecture to develop the next evolution of Alfa Romeo and really turn it into a global brand.
- То есть сначала таки сделают бюджетный Додж-седан малого класса, ибо "горит", а потом чудным образом из шита конфетку, то есть следующую Альфу? Как по его шкале - это метод для создания тру Альфас?
We need Chrysler to get that done because we need to share the cost of development of an architecture with them. So without Chrysler, to be honest, Alfa Romeo would have been a nearly impossible task because the cost…would have been prohibitive. So we had to find a partner to do it with. We could have found it over time but the fact that we had access to Chrysler; it benefited Chrysler tremendously because they could also reduce the cost of the investment, but we needed a guy to do it with and Chrysler is the guy. And so the future is pretty good.
- Говоря другими словами, вложились в Додж, а в случае с Альфой опять "рискнуть" вполсилы готовы, но на большее - нет. Всё же, ничего не меняется в их королевстве.
Strangely enough, I actually think that Alfa will have, at least initially, will have a better success story in the U.S. than it will in Europe. Simply because – I’ll tell you why, because a lot of people know Alfa here in the U.S. because of “The Graduate.” But there’s a history there which I think we need to go revive, and I think we can come back into Europe and play a much stronger hand in Europe once we have an established U.S. base.
- Вся гоночная история марки значит меньше, чем один лохматый голливудский фильм? Славно!