Europe's Car of the Year is an Alfa Romeo.
by Alex Michalas Editor's Note: From time to time we do include news here that is not directly related with our favorite FantasyCars. News that we believe is interesting and important and
can be related to our FantasyCars in more ways than you may initially think! This time we just have to write our opinion on the latest from Alfa Romeo:  The European Car of the Year award is definitely the most prestigious car award in Europe and arguably one of the most prestigious
awards in the world. All cars produced within a year are eligible for the award and 50 leading automotive journalists from around Europe make up the committee that decides the winner. The
winner for 2000 was the Toyota Yaris city car, 1999 was Ford Focus' time and 1998 it was Alfa Romeo's 156 mid-size saloon that took top honours.
Alfa Romeo, the legendary Italian make that is a part of Fiat these days; Alfa Romeo, the company Enzo Ferrari used to work for before starting his own company; Alfa Romeo, the producer of some of
the greatest sports and sporting cars of the century and one of the greatest names in motorsport. Alfa Romeo, has indeed passed through some difficult times during the 80's and early 90's that have
resulted in no Alfa Romeo cars being currently sold in the US. Still, after the introduction of the amazing new GTV/Spider sportscars in 1995 and the equally great 156 saloon in 1997 things were really looking brighter.
And, in fact, they are. The new 147 hatchback (shown in the photo) has just been named 2001 European Car of the Year. A thoroughly deserved award for a genuinely good car as we also noted in
our British Motorshow coverage. So Alfa Romeo really seems to have again started producing the great cars it was once producing. Why
do we think this is important? Because with the introduction of the new generation of the GTV/Spider sportscars in 2003, Alfa Romeo will be making its comeback to the US and by the look of things the
new models are set to be really good cars. Do not also forget that, in the context of the Fiat Group (which consists of Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Lancia,
Maserati and Ferrari), Alfa Romeo's sportscars could very well play the role of entry-level affordable Italian FantasyCars, ie. become something like small affordable Ferraris that so many people have been dreaming of!
So, let's just wait and see if things turn out this way. In any case we think it sounds like an interesting possibility…
What do you think? How do you like the latest Alfa Romeos? Are you eagerly awaiting the new Spider and GTV that will be sold in the US? Talk about all these in our Message Board! |
