While sales of conventional wagons have declined in Australia during recent years, there has been steady growth in sales of European compact sporting wagons, epitomised by first the Alfa Romeo 156 Sportwagon along with, as launched late last year, the all-new Alfa Romeo 159 Sportwagon, and the importer and distributor of the Italian car maker is set to capitalise on this growth by adding another four key versions, a new entry level diesel and new automatics, to the Australian line-up.

“Nothing shows the change in this market sector more than the growth in our Sportwagon range,” says David Stone, General Manager of Alfa Romeo in Australia. “While the Sportwagon version of the 156 accounted for nearly of a half of 156 sales in Europe, it was less than ten per cent of sales here and we had just one engine variant. With the launch of the 159 Sportwagon, we were confident enough in the growth of this sector to offer the new car in three engine choices and now we are adding another engine and self-shifting gearboxes to all of the existing versions. More than that, we believe that these new versions will become the top sellers in the range.”

So why are these European wagons succeeding where their Australian counterparts are not?“ The Alfa Romeo 159 Sportwagon allows our owners to have their cake and eat it,” explains Mr Stone. “On one hand they have a uniquely stylish European car, with performance and handling to match, and on the other they have versatility and flexibility of a wagon to meet changing lifestyle and work needs. With traditional wagons, not to mention 4WDs, ownership usually meant giving up the style, performance and handling.
 

"This is why this market sector has grown so large in Europe and it is growth when we are now seeing replicated in Australia," adds Mr Stone. Alfa Romeo is also now capitalising on the growing diesel new car market, again a market sector it and the European marques have pioneered. The new additions to the 159 Sportwagon include a new entry level diesel, the acclaimed 1.9 litre 110 kW JTD unit, and an automatic gearbox as an option for the 2.4 litre version of the same engine as well as a new Selespeed sequential manual gearbox for the 2.2 JTS engine. The 1.9 litre engine is available as standard with the all-new Q-Tronic gearbox, an option on the 2.4 JTD Turbo diesel and the same gearbox is also available with the 3.2 JTS V6 engine, making this model the new ranging-topping Alfa 159 Sportwagon model.

“All the evidence shows that, even allowing for the skew towards automatics in the total Australian market, the diesel market and the wagon market are even more aligned to self-shifting gearboxes,” says Mr Stone. “This is why these new versions of the 159 Sportwagon are so important. We expect the 1.9 and the automatic version of the 2.4 to account for the majority of Sportwagon sales in Australia and, therefore, they will significantly grow total Alfa Romeo sales in Australia with their arrival.”