On Monday, Stellantis put us all on edge, making us wonder if Italy secretly celebrates April Fool’s Day on the 15th. They dropped the bombshell that Alfa Romeo was going to change the name of its first electric model, first called Milano, to “Junior”, just five days after its official unveiling.
The move follows a highly publicized and widely publicized dispute with the government over the use of the name of an Italian city, Milan, for a car produced in Poland.
Now, that’s quite a story, is it rarely?But wait, there’s more, because Alfa Romeo has a replacement story worse than a baby who wastes his socks. Believe it or not, this is the time they’ve had to do it. Drop the nickname “Milan” at 11 a. m. !
Read more: New Junior, formerly Milano, is Alfa Romeo’s first vehicle
The first debacle occurred just 15 years ago, in 2009, when Alfa Romeo was preparing to unveil the successor to the VW Golf 147, which we now know as the Giulietta.
At the time, everyone knew that the new compact styling would carry the “Milano” plaque, a nod to Alfa Romeo’s headquarters. We, along with other media, have even reported on Alfa Romeo’s planned unveiling of the compact Milano on Monday, November 30. , 2009. Press materials had already been distributed to magazines, with the addition of embargoed photographs bearing the Milano car badge.
But unfortunately, that wasn’t meant to happen. As Autonews reported at the time, the company suspended the paints at the last minute with an email Friday afternoon at 6:21 p. m. Citing “organizational problems,” the inauguration was postponed indefinitely.
Read more: Italy says it’s illegal for Alfa Romeo to make the Milano in Poland by name
Why the sudden heart replacement? This was not due to a bureaucratic skirmish, but rather to a clever and old-fashioned confrontation with the other inhabitants of Milan. As it turns out, the domain employees weren’t too pleased that Fiat S. p. A. , Alfa’s owner at the time, put the Milan on the road. and engineers will be transferred to a factory in Turin, located about a hundred miles away.
To avoid drama and tension, as happened today with the Junior, Alfa Romeo’s parent company was easier to change its name than to deal with community forks, even if it meant shelling out millions for the change.