Alfa to Grow Bigger than Fiat, Boss Promises

Now that Fiat has arrived in the United States, everybody's curious to see how far the Italian group is planning to go there, as the 500 is often regarded as the beginning of the Italian takeover. Still, Fiat bosses claim that the 500 model is just supposed to mark the company's comeback in the United States and not to "conquer" the country as some have suggested.

Fiat has hired Laura Soave as head of the North American operations and the first major milestone for the new branch is the opening of the first Fiat dealership in Los Angeles. The first 500 Prima Edizione units will be delivered in February.

"It doesn't need to be everything to everybody," Soave told The Detroit News when talking about what Fiat 500 is supposed to be in North America. "It doesn't have ambitions to conquer the U.S. market. It was designed for select areas," Fiat and Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne added.

But what's more important is that Marchionne also talked about the future of the Alfa Romeo brand that was recently linked with a possible takeover by German group Volkswagen. Marchionne emphasized that Alfa has a great potential and even predicted a bright future for the Italian iconic brand.

"Alfa will be a bigger brand than Fiat," Marchionne said. "It is my sincere hope it plays in a much bigger box."

Alfa Romeo will attend the 2011 Geneva Motor Show in March with 4C GTA, a concept that is believed to preview one of the models to part of the company's lineup in the near future.