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The Alfa Romeo
Brera has made its southern hemisphere debut at the
Australian International Motor Show in Sydney, in
anticipation of a 2006 market launch. It is no exaggeration
to say that, as in Geneva and Frankfurt, the Brera was the
star of the show. The word which sums up this car in the
flesh is ‘presence’ - photos cannot ascribe the impact one
feels when inspecting the car in three dimensions.
The car was
launched following a short press conference hosted by David
Stone, General Manager for Alfa Romeo in Australia. Stone
revealed a number of developments in the pipeline for Alfa
in Australia, partly in order to help Alfa Romeo adapt to
rapidly changing trends within the Australian marketplace.
The recent rise
in world oil prices has led to a significant shift in the
dynamics of the Australian car market, with the best-selling
car nationwide last month not the traditional large
six-cylinder Ford Falcon or Holden Commodore, but the
smaller four-cylinder Toyota Corolla. As new-car buyers look
for fuel savings, a further aspect of this trend has been a
rapid growth in the market for diesel-powered cars. Diesels
have always been a niche market in Australia, thanks largely
to cheap petrol and the fact that, unlike in Europe, diesel
fuel in Australia is no cheaper than its petrol
equivalent. With technological developments in recent years,
however, it is arguable that the time for diesels in
Australia has arrived, with Volkswagen-Audi, Renault and PSA
Peugeot-Citroen in particular launching an array of new
diesel models in recent months. Following experimental
trials of an imported Alfa 147 diesel earlier in the year, David
Stone announced that the acclaimed 1.9 Multijet version of
the Alfa 147 would soon be made available in Australia, to take
advantage of this trend.
Stone also spoke
about the excellent growth prospects offered by the new
159. Although not making its Australasian debut alongside
the Brera, the 159 is likely to be launched around mid-2006,
offering a range of three engines: the 2.2 JTS, the 3.2 V6
JTS, and what Stone described as, “a very powerful diesel”,
surely a pointer towards the remarkable 200bhp 2.4
five-cylinder Multijet. In the meantime, the Alfa 156 and Sportwagon
(of which there is one example of each model on display)
will remain on sale.
But all of this
was a sideshow to the main event. It was announced that the
Brera would be launched in Australia with the 2.2 JTS and
3.2 V6 JTS engines, the latter hooked up to the all-new Q4
four-wheel drive system.
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