Photo by Deudeuche86

The year 1972 saw a surprise in the automarket. Alfa Romeo rolled out its new model car Alfasud. Alfasud was an all new generation car including the engines. The body was all new shape and had no similarity to any of the earlier models of Alfa Romeo. The new car is also known commonly as ‘Sud’.

The Alfasud cars were all produced in four doo saloons. When the first car was revealed, it was appreciated by all the media and the auto circles.

This car quickly gained popularity as a good car for its excellent handling features. This car was produced by over 500,000 units in about 13 years before replacing it by Alfa Rover 33. The body was not altered or modified but the Alfasud was available in different engine capacities, the original being 1186 cc Fiat-4 engine. After about 5 years, higher capacitates were included as 1286 cc engine, 1300 cc engine and 1499 cc engine. The ‘Sud’ was the most successful model produced by Alfa Romeo. It gained popularity all over Europe.

Alfa Romeo had commissioned its new plant at Pomigliano d’Arco in southern Italy, initiating a new production line. The Italians had many experts at their disposal but the development of Alfasud was entrusted to an Austrian Rudolf Hruschka, who was known in the Auto Industry Circles and become popular in the market.

Alfasud was unveiled at the Turin Motor Show. The media immediately took the lead with all praise for the beautiful styled car by Giorgetto Guigiaro of ItalDesign. The initial model was introduced without the hatchback, which was adopted a year later. There was also a two door sports TI version launched by end 1973. This was also well taken in the market of the younger sports enthusiasts.

Alfa Romeo offered further luxurious models as Alfasud SE which was later replaced by ‘L’ model in 1975. After a reasonable two year service Alfasud improved into another model ‘5M’ with a five gear transmission that improved the traction quite a lot. Another score was made by Alfa Romeo by launching a three door station wagon by the name Giardenetta in 1975.

Photo by RABIIT

Alfasud cars were very well appreciated but the bodies rusted early. The usual reasons of the rusting defect are stated to be the substandard steel imported from Russia. The other notion is the bad storage conditions for the body shells at the plant. The other popular defect was the engine’s overheating in tropical areas and making it worse with air conditioners.
In 1980 all models were promoted by adding plastic bumpers.