Alfa Romeo have brought the Alfa 159 to the Salão Internacional do Automóvel in São Paulo, but during a press conference last week it was announced that the are currently no plans to bring the new saloon to Brazil. To the disappointment of local Alfisti the South American region will not be featuring on the brand's re-launch programme in the near future.

The actual model on show in São Paulo is a black Alfa 159 3.2 V6 Q4 finished with a grey leather interior. It lines up in a small corner of the Fiat stand which has been dedicated to Alfa Romeo, and alongside a single example of the Alfa 147 2.0 Selespeed, a model which is still sold in very limited numbers in Brazil. Alfa Romeo has a long tradition of selling cars in South America, dating back many decades and it has in the past assembled cars here tailored for the local market. The new Alfa 159 saloon represents a new breed of exciting Alfa Romeo cars. Launched at last year's Geneva Motor Show it is already selling to sales targets across Europe.
 

Fiat Automòveis, the autonomous Brazilian arm of Fiat Auto, will test reaction to the new Alfa 159 model with the show-going public, but any launch in Brazil is likely to be some years away, probably after the brand is officially reintroduced in North America around 2008-09. In Brazil, close Fiat's attention is presently focused a replacement for its most important model, the Palio hatchback, which is due sometime soon, after a final facelift of the existing model occurs before the end of the year. After that the new Linea C-segment saloon developed in Turkey, which was announced last week, and which will debut in Istanbul next week, is also set to be introduced in Brazil with production localised.

The Alfa 159 saloon was styled by Giorgetto Giugiaro in association with Alfa Romeo Centro Stile and it offers brand new advanced standards to the driver in the areas of comfort and style, as well as in its  excellent chassis dynamics, and both areas of active and passive safety. Powered by a new 3195cc, quad-valve V6 engine, which produces 195kW at 6200rpm, and 321Nm of torque at 4500rpm, it has a six-speed manual gearbox and is fitted with permanent four wheel drive. Top speed is 149mph, it achieves 0-100km/h 6.9 seconds, while 24.6mpg is the manufacturer's stated official average.

Additional reporting by Claudio Perlini