Three years passed and, just like the first time around, we saw little of substance, despite endless talk of a Volkswagen Golf-sized SUV.
That January, at the 2010 Detroit motor show, Fiat chief Sergio Marchionne warned that “Alfa has been underperforming for a long time”, and come April he announced yet another relaunch of the brand.
Roll on September 2011 and a further delay to Alfa’s SUV, this time to 2013.
The following January, Marchionne defended the move, saying he would “never again” repeat the mistake of rushing the failed 159 saloon into production. “We will launch the new Alfa models when they are ready, and we will not be pushed,” he said.
The SUV was moved onto the same platform as the Giulia saloon that had been mooted for a 2014 launch, but we didn’t get to see the finished product – the Stelvio – until 2016.
Thankfully, the wait was worth it. It didn’t bear much more than a trace of Kamal DNA but was one of the best driver’s SUVs we had seen. In short, a proper Alfa, after years of humdrum front-drivers.
We are supposed to see the Mk2 Stelvio next year, with the SUV making the switch to hybrid and electric power.
But with Stellantis’s recent intervention and a new boss, Santo Ficili, taking the reins in Turin, who really knows?