Four years after it ended
production the Alfa Romeo 166 is reborn: at its home
motor show this week Guangzhou Automobile unveiled its
new "GAC Trumpchi" which is closely based on the
underpinnings of the Italian brand's last flagship sedan
and also features the 2.0 TwinSpark engine.
The Trumpchi is the first
self-branded car to be launched under the new "GAC"
brand name which Guangzhou Automobile hope will carry it into
the Chinese auto sector as a player in its own right.
Guangzhou Automobile currently has joint ventures with
Toyota and Honda, has forthcoming one in the pipeline
with Mitsubishi and and unfolding one with Fiat. Presently the sixth largest
carmaker in China, Guangzhou Automobile hopes to grow to
an output of three million vehicles a year within the
next five years and to stamp its mark on the auto scene with its own
brand.
The new Trumpchi will
be priced from US$18,000-28,500 yuan when it goes on
sale in China next March, which places it firmly in an
upscale bracket, and it will go head-to-head with
Toyota's Camry and Honda's Accord in the executive
vehicle market segment; ironically both these well
established cars are
currently built through Guangzhou Automobile's joint
ventures with the Chinese car makers. The Trumpchi's high pricing means it is unlikely to be
exported in the near futire.
While from the
underside and in the engine bay the Trumpchi looks
remarkably like the Alfa 166, the Chinese carmaker has
restyled the Italian car, bringing its design language more
closely into the sphere of the current-generation Camry
and Accord, and fitted a new interior. The Alfa Romeo
2.0-litre TwinSpark engine is rated at 148 HP in this
application and will
be offered with a 5-speed manual or automatic
transmission. There will be six specification levels at
launch ranging from 122,800 (US$18,479) to 189,800
(US$28,561) yuan. An entry level 1.8-litre engined
version will also be added to the range at a later date.
The Alfa 166 was
designed in-house at Alfa Romeo Centro Stile under the
direction of Walter de'Silva and was built between 1998
and 2007 with a mid-life facelift coming in 2003. It
featured petrol engines between 2.0 and 3.2 litres as
well as the 2.4 JTD turbodiesel as well as manual and
automatic transmissions. The 166's styling followed very
closely the brand's corporate language of the period
which flowed from the smaller, D-segment 156, and
succeeded the 164 which was Alfa Romeo's previous
flagship sedan. It has never been replaced with several
attempts to create a successor, often dubbed the "169"
in the media, never leaving the drawing boards.
The new joint venture
between Fiat and Guangzhou Automobile actually blossomed
from initial contacts that were made by the Chinese firm
when it was looking at simply purchasing the 166
production tooling, one of several available
Fiat Group discontinued lines and engines that it examined. From
that point of contact a joint venture arose which for
Fiat Group Automobiles will replace the Nanjing Fiat joint venture that
collapsed several years ago after making very little
impact on Chinese consumers, although noises currently emanating
from China imply that Guangzhou Automobile doesn't see
the Fiat joint venture as being a top priority in its
push forward with joint ventures and in particular its
major focus on developing
its own brand line.
