Alfa Romeo has officially withdrawn its 4C sports car from sale just one week after it was revealed that the new GTV coupé and an 8C successor have been removed from the future product plan. An Alfa Romeo spokesperson was unavailable for comment, but the Porsche 718 Boxster rival now no longer appears on Alfa’s configurator and was absent from a list of current and future models shown at the firm’s third-quarter earnings report last week. The 4C has consistently struggled to secure a strong foothold in the unpredictable sports car market, selling just 421 units in Europe last year. That compares with 9943 Audi TTs and 8202 Porsche 718s sold in the same period. Last week, Alfa Romeo boss Mike Manley told the company’s stakeholders that its future product portfolio has been “significantly scaled back, with a corresponding reduction in capital spending”. The removal of the 4C will make way for two new SUVs and refreshed versions of the Giulia saloon and Stelvio. The smaller of the two new SUVs, the Tonale, has been designed as a means of entering the competitive and highly profitable compact SUV market. It will take its power from a hybrid system shared with its Jeep Renegade platform partner and be priced to compete with the Audi Q3 and BMW X1. There has been no suggestion that a new partnership between Alfa’s parent company FCA and French automotive giant PSA could foster further sports car development, making it unlikely that a replacement for the 4C will appear any time soon. The new alliance is the fourth-largest car-making group in the world, but new CEO Carlos Tavares is known for bringing in drastic cost-cutting measures to improve
Origin: Alfa Romeo axes 4C sports car to focus on SUVs
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Yamaha axes all car development plans
Yamaha has confirmed it has suspended all car projects indefinitely, having concluded that it would struggle to deliver a unique selling point for any of the vehicles it developed in collaboration with Gordon Murray Design. The firm showed two car concepts at Tokyo motor shows in 2013 and 2015, the Motiv and the Sports Ride Concept, both based around Murray’s iStream manufacturing system. The latter car stood out in particular for using carbonfibre in its construction, promising huge rigidity and an impressive power-to-weight ration for the car. Although exact details were not revealed, it was rumoured to have weighed less than 900kg. Although McLaren F1 designer Murray had said the iStream system could be employed profitably for production volumes of between 1000 and 350,000 cars, Yamaha spokesman Naoto Horie confirmed at this year’s Tokyo motor show that the projects would not proceed, with the firm preferring to focus on smaller, more bike-like mobility concepts if it strayed from its core motorcycle projects. “Cars do not feature in our long-term plans any more,” said Horie. “That is a decision taken by President Hidaka for the foreseeable future, as we could not see a way to develop either car to make it stand out from the competition, which is very strong. “The sports car in particular had great appeal for us as enthusiasts, but the marketplace is particularly difficult. We now see other
Origin: Yamaha axes all car development plans
BMW axes a trio of models for 2020
If you have a hankering for a hunchbacked Bimmer, itd be a good idea to mosey down to your local dealer post-haste. BMW is axing three models for 2020, including a couple of five-door models.Gearheads know Munich has long abandoned any semblance of sense when it comes to naming its vehicles. For a spell, it tried to tell us cars starting with an odd number were sedans and the evens were coupes.Trouble was, the company quickly polluted its lineup with Gran Turismo and Gran Coupe versions, the latter of which was essentially a four-door version of a two-door version of a four-door car they were already building? GTs, on the other hand, added height and a hatchback to a variety of models.Clear as mud? Yeah, most customers thought so, too, apparently. For the 2020 model year, BMW is discontinuing the 3 Series Gran Turismo, the 6 Series Gran Turismo and the 6 Series Gran Coupe.That GC is about the only model for which this author will shed a tear, as it was a sensuously-styled tourer that coddled when asked and lit a fire on the road when prodded. The 3 Series Gran Turismo was the most expensive non-M 3er in this country, starting at a heady $51,050. At that price, you best be certain most customers walked straight over to the row of X4 crossovers sitting on the dealers lot. The 6 Series Gran Turismo was likely in the same boat, stickering at $76,700 in this country, a good five grand higher than the X5.The company is posting healthy sales numbers in Canada so far this year, with Julys tally of 2,722 units a 0.4-per-cent increase over the same month in 2018. Year-over-year numbers are less rosy, with the BMW brand down about six per cent, or 1,307 units through the first seven months of
Origin: BMW axes a trio of models for 2020
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