Car and Driver: Alfa Romeo Giulia Production to Begin Next Month, Says Sergio

-It’s been a rough road for the tantalizing but chronically challenged Alfa Romeo Giulia sport sedan. With production delayed for several months back in November and reports of failed crash tests, we we’ve been wondering when we’d ever see this thing on the streets. But according to Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne, production will begin in Italy on March 14th.

That’s the word from British source AutoExpress, which reports today that Marchionne revealed the production timing during a tour of Alfa Romeo’s Stabilimento Fiat di Cassino production plant in Piedimonte San Germano, Italy. Although with European deliveries starting first, it’s still not certain when the car will arrive here.

Unveiled in Italy in July of 2015, with a U.S. debut at the 2015 L.A. Auto Show, the Giulia is planned as the first mass-production Alfa Romeo to be available in the U.S. since the brand left this market in the early 1990s. And it’s a stunner: In 510-hp twin-turbo V-6 Quadrifoglio Verde form, the Giulia laps the Nurburgring in 7:43, faster than a Lamborghini Murcielago, and sounding gloriously angry. Alfa says lesser models of the Giulia will start at $40,000 with 276 horsepower, while the QV will go for around $70,000.

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The Giulia is slated to be the first of eight new global offerings from Alfa Romeo, including the brand’s first SUV, which would ride on a modified Giulia platform. Originally, the eight-vehicle lineup was set to be out by 2018, though Alfa Romeo now estimates the full roll-out will not be complete until 2020.

This story originally appeared on Road & Track via AutoGuide.

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