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" Following news of a six-month delay back in November, we heard an interesting rumor that Alfa Romeo&amp;#039;s latest sports sedan\u00A0the Giulia was delayed because it couldn&amp;#039;t pass crash tests. Alfa denied the rumors, calling it\u00A0&amp;quot;not accurate or representative at all,&amp;quot; but the latest report makes us wonder if there actually was some truth to that rumor. Speaking at the Geneva Motor Show, Fiat-Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne admitted the Giulia was delayed for more than a little fine tuning. &amp;quot;The project was technically immature,&amp;quot; he said. &amp;quot;We will start only when we are on par with the Germans, otherwise it is not worth the effort.&amp;quot; What exactly he meant by &amp;quot;technically immature,&amp;quot; we can only guess, but it doesn&amp;#039;t sound good. Still, it&amp;#039;s better to fix whatever those problems were than to put a car on the market with major issues.\u00A0 A successful launch of the Giulia is especially important for Alfa Romeo as it attempts to break back into the the American market. Alfas in the past were notorious for their quality issues, and while the 4C has been generally well received, Alfa can&amp;#039;t afford to\u00A0botch\u00A0the\u00A0launch of the\u00A0first mainstream vehicle it&amp;#039;s sold here\u00A0in decades. Marchionne agrees, saying &amp;quot;the brand has historically failed to meet its technical ambitions. If we get that wrong we might as well go back home.\u00A0If the Giulia doesn&amp;#039;t give the best possible performance we&amp;#039;ve wasted our time, and a pot of money.&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/future-cars/news/a28381/alfa-romeo-delayed-the-giulia-because-it-was-technically-immature/>