RE: Alfa 4C: The Comeback

RE: Alfa 4C: The Comeback

Author
Discussion

samjonno

7 posts

116 months

Wednesday 6th May 2015
quotequote all
Selling like hot cakes .....

In the UK:
- 14 sold Jan - April 2015
- 129 sold in 2014 which will include dealer demos / manufacturer launch / press demos.

braddo

10,494 posts

188 months

Wednesday 6th May 2015
quotequote all
Chris71 said:
All sounds very familiar from my brief experience of the 4C.

I wonder if they'll release an Evoluzione model with the steering geometry sorted out and a few calibration tweaks?

The idea of owning an Alfa sports car is very appealing, but if I was looking for a hardcore mid-engined sports car at this price I'd go straight for the Lotus Exige. It's about a million times better to drive as the 4C stands currently.
Prodrive sorted out the Brera for the UK. It would be interesting to see what they could do with the 4C.

mal999

8 posts

245 months

Wednesday 6th May 2015
quotequote all
I had a LE....it was great and awful, depending. Couldn't cope with the box - leaning forward to press buttons. Fast, yes amazingly so. I sold it - Why? Loads of reasons. And it went mouldy, yes if left outside (had a job to get through standard garage doors) and the rain went in through engine hatch and behind seats.
I now have a Cayman GTS, which is great and a mark 3 Toyota MR2 which for £3.5k gives me more smiles per pound than anything!

Countersteer

146 posts

137 months

Wednesday 6th May 2015
quotequote all
It's frustrating. It's an Alfa. In Italy this is perfection...

Bakazan

102 posts

137 months

Wednesday 6th May 2015
quotequote all
It's surprising how large it looks next to a vx220:


Alfa159Ti

827 posts

157 months

Wednesday 6th May 2015
quotequote all
petergrimsdale said:
So, business as usual then - another Alfa with bags of passion and charisma but some huge flaws that ensure that it will never be a real contender. How depressing; you would have thought that coming from the people who also make Ferraris and given the mountain that Sergio & co know that Alfa has to climb to regain it's credibility as a contender they could have sorted out that steering problem. I come from sixteen years of Alfa ownership,all of them very happy and relatively trouble free which is saying something (I'd make a great brand ambassador!), but weary from defending its reputation. I wait for the Giulia with trepidation.
Totally agree, though my Alfa ownership has only spanned six years, though I have had four of them during that time.

If the Giulia turns out the same way after all these years of waiting, whilst being fed scraps of info about it being recalled and redesigned to make sure it is good enough, then it will extinguish the last of my dwindling hope for the marque to ever amount to anything in the modern world.

D7Cup

123 posts

133 months

Wednesday 6th May 2015
quotequote all
Exige V6 for me every day on every aspect.

Dagnut

3,515 posts

193 months

Wednesday 6th May 2015
quotequote all
I don't understand the romance, Alfa brand hasn't carried any weight in decades.
You can't keep selling a brand on past glories, this car shouldn't have a weighted opinion based on expectations. I could understand the disappointment if they had been churning out Alfsuds and spiders but those days are long gone.
I think we should be looking at this as a good first attempt into the sports car segment, rather than comparing it to some fantasy. The Cayman was a bit of the mark when it first arrived and that was from a company who'd been making sports cars exclusively up until then.

kambites

67,578 posts

221 months

Wednesday 6th May 2015
quotequote all
Dagnut said:
I don't understand the romance, Alfa brand hasn't carried any weight in decades.
You can't keep selling a brand on past glories, this car shouldn't have a weighted opinion based on expectations. I could understand the disappointment if they had been churning out Alfsuds and spiders but those days are long gone.
I think we should be looking at this as a good first attempt into the sports car segment, rather than comparing it to some fantasy. The Cayman was a bit of the mark when it first arrived and that was from a company who'd been making sports cars exclusively up until then.
That was much my take on it before it actually appeared. I couldn't see how Alfa, whose recent history consists almost solely of rather mediocre FWD family cars, could hope to set up a lightweight mid-engined sports car properly. They should have paid Lotus Engineering to do it for them. hehe

Bodo

12,375 posts

266 months

Wednesday 6th May 2015
quotequote all
895kg!!
Is all that carbon fibre just decoration!?! This should be 700kg max.
Thumbs up for rwd and mid-engine though.

kambites

67,578 posts

221 months

Wednesday 6th May 2015
quotequote all
Bodo said:
895kg!!
Is all that carbon fibre just decoration!?! This should be 700kg max.
Thumbs up for rwd and mid-engine though.
I think people underestimate quite how big the thing is. Put one next to an Elise and it looks enormous so it's not surprising it's heavier. I suspect that gearbox isn't the lightest of things either.

Edited by kambites on Wednesday 6th May 19:53

daytona365

1,773 posts

164 months

Wednesday 6th May 2015
quotequote all
I for one think it's great. But it's price does it no favours, especially compared to semi hyper Japanese pocket rockets.

bubney72

1,102 posts

153 months

Wednesday 6th May 2015
quotequote all
Sounds like the tracking was out on your test car, easily done on our potholed roads. The example I drove had stunning steering response and handling.

Axionknight

8,505 posts

135 months

Wednesday 6th May 2015
quotequote all
daytona365 said:
I for one think it's great. But it's price does it no favours, especially compared to semi hyper Japanese pocket rockets.
Which ones?

daytona365

1,773 posts

164 months

Wednesday 6th May 2015
quotequote all
I don't know all that's available, but off the top of my head I was thinking 370Z, though it's nearly in GTR pricing territory.

edinph

386 posts

174 months

Wednesday 6th May 2015
quotequote all
As an Alfa fan (having owned seven) it continues to astonish me that they constantly release under-developed cars. It's NOT rocket science....................

Edited by edinph on Wednesday 6th May 20:52

corozin

2,680 posts

271 months

Wednesday 6th May 2015
quotequote all
£54,000.

That buys a Cayman GTS. No contest quite frankly.

melvster

6,841 posts

185 months

Wednesday 6th May 2015
quotequote all
People don't spend 50k on alfas

W124

1,538 posts

138 months

Wednesday 6th May 2015
quotequote all
I just don't get this. I drove one (albeit briefly) and thought it brilliant. Especially the steering.

daytona365

1,773 posts

164 months

Wednesday 6th May 2015
quotequote all
[quote=melvster]People don't spend 50k on alfas..........No ?