16.01.2004 ALFA ROMEO UPBEAT AS NEW GT COUPE'S ORDER BOOK FILLS UP BEFORE DELIVERIES EVEN BEGIN

Alfa Romeo Belgium are in an upbeat mood at this week's Brussels Motor Show. With a large and spacious display, and a strong model line-up which includes the new GT Coupe, sales are forecast to continue the upward trend of the last decade in what is now one of Alfa Romeo's key markets outside Italy.

Generally, the Belgian new car market started 2003 badly, following the pessimistic economic outlook of the country, which is home to both European Union and NATO, but it suprised observers by staging a remarkable turnaround in the second half of the year. New car sales ended the year at 458,796 units, representing a drop of 1.9% year-on-year, but given the poor first five months performance, down 12.6%, the year end can be regarded at very satisfactory..

Alfa Romeo last year took a 1.49% share of Belgian new car registrations, outselling brands such as Skoda, Mazda, Honda, Saab, Jaguar and Mitsubishi, partly helped by the local market's huge appetite for diesels, which hit a massive 68.2% of all sales. Taking advantage of this trend, JTD versions of the 147 and 156 accounted for almost 70% of all sales of these models.

Alfa Romeo Belgium's enthusiastic Managing Director Hervé Aboab, told Italiaspeed, "Our 2003 performance was highly satisfactory, helped by demand for diesel, during a trying year for the Belgian market."

French-born Aboab, who has been Alfa Romeo Business Unit boss here for the last year, following stints in Turin as head of Lancia marketing, and in France with marketing responsibility for all three brands, foresees a bright future, "Belgium is one of our strongest markets outside Italy, sales tripled here between 1997 and 2001 and new models coming on stream will only strengthen our position."

Already demand for the new GT is high, despite the fact it only arrived in the dealer's showrooms just prior to Christmas and the first examples will only start being delivered to customers early next month. Aboab reveals that around 70% of GT orders received have specified the new second generation common-rail M-Jet diesel, an engine expected to be highly popular with the local market.

The new Bertone-designed GT headlines the large spacious stand here, which sees nineteen cars being shown. Four of the 156 saloon based 2+2 Coupes take centre stage offering visitors the chance to examine the full spectrum of engines, starting with the 150bhp 2.0 JTS, through to the powerful GTA-sourced 240bhp 3.2 V6 24v and finally the new 150bhp 1.9 16v M-Jet.

Three 156 saloons and two Sportwagons are joined by four 147's, three of the facelifted 166 executive saloons, one GTV, one Spider while Gabriele Tarquini's European Touring Car Championship winning 156 GTA SuperTouring completes the collection, perched on the roof of one of the stand's kiosks.