The US Alfa Romeo community (all eight of us) has been rocked by news of a surprising development over at FIAT:

Fiat announces that the ownership of Maserati, currently wholly owned by Ferrari, will be transferred as soon as practicable to Fiat.
...
"The technical and commercial collaboration between Maserati and Alfa Romeo will give the latter the necessary impetus to re-establish itself as a leading contender in its segment and to expand its presence in international markets, as has occurred for Maserati.”

More news about the buyout can be found here (reg req.) and here (reg not req.)

What does it mean for us? Well, that's not completely clear, but phrases like "gaurantees a return to the US" are definitely being thrown around. Of course, that's what they said when GM bought a chunk of Fiat six years ago, and look how that turned out.

Regardless, I've always thought Alfa would represent a great volume marque for Ferrari/Maserati dealerships. I mean, how many $100,000+ cars can you really sell in a month? It also makes a lot more sense to have a GT parked next to a Quattroporte than it does to have one parked next to a Punto. Finally, it'll give the marque a built-in dealer network that actually wants to deal with quirky Italian machinery*.

We have what must be one of the largest Ferrari/Maserati dealerships on the east coast barely a five minute drive from our house. Which is to say, it's about the size of the Chevy dealership in my home town (population 5200). Only, you know, with nicer cars out front. Time to go pay those guys a visit...

Oh, and the first one who comments "Alfas suck! Save your money and buy a (Oldsmobuick|Honda|Jeep|Truck|Minivan|Ricer)!" will get themselves Daffodilled. As Ellen would say, "Undahstand?!?"

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* The last real attempt to revitalize Alfa's long-neglected dealer network was the Chrysler merger back in the mid-80s. The combination of fiddly "forn" machinery and a network more used to cheap cars and simple pickups was, shall we say, less than successful. Alfisiti were worried about the GM merger for the same reasons.