(Washington, D.C. : Rightcommentary.com) While I was a fan of the Alfa Romeo Spider when it was around… it seems Alfa Romeo and Fiat left the US market ages ago. Well - I guess they in fact did. Now the car brand that gained fame as Dustin Hoffman’s ride in “The Graduate” is planning an encore, with parent company Fiat, Italy’s largest car maker, saying it will resume selling Alfa Romeo in the US perhaps as early as 2009.

Fiat withdrew Alfa from the US in 1995, a year in which its sales in the country were just 400 cars. In 2000, Fiat entered a strategic alliance with GM which acquired 20 per cent of Fiat Auto. The alliance ended acrimoniously in 2005 when GM paid $2bn to get out of an agreement which could have forced it to buy the car division outright.

According to the Financial Times tonight - Fiat is considering re-entering the US market, driven in part by the exchange rate decline of the US dollar against the Euro. Sergio Marchionne, Fiat’s chief executive, said he planned to start North American production of Alfa cars by 2011 or 2012. “I’ve always had the view that we had to produce in America,” he told the Financial Times in an interview. Mr. Marchionne said the weakness of the dollar against the euro compelled European companies to manufacture in the US. “Nobody making anything in Europe is going to make profits in the US,” he said. “You can’t. So we need to localise.”

Details are sketchy enough that some analysts question whether it will really happen. If it does, taking on entrenched rivals such as BMW and Audi will be daunting.

The limited edition Alfa 8C Competizione — a high-performance coupe expected to cost more than $200,000 — will go on sale in the U.S. this year, the company has said. A limited edition 8C convertible will come in 2009. Those forays could be followed by more affordably priced models, likely candidates being the 159 sporty sedan, the Brera coupe and the Spider two-seater.

Some analysts are optimistic about Alfa Romeo’s return to the U.S., noting that its recent offerings have been well-received in Europe.

Ciao baby!

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