When it comes to premium and luxury car shopping in the U.S., buyers tend to think German and Asian brands first, Detroit and Tesla EVs second and perhaps British third. The Italian brands, like Maserati and Alfa Romeo, tend to draw more eyeballs at Concours D’ Elegance events and auctions than they do on car-buying sites or in Consumer Reports.

Now that the conglomeration of Stellantis has had time to jell following the mash-up of Peugeot and Fiat Chrysler, though, and auto sales are on a track to re-normalize after the worst of the COVID-10 pandemic, the French-Italian-American house of brands is putting its luxury chips firmly in the hands of the Italian brands that historically have never had more than boutique status in the U.S.

One wonders what the legendary Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca would think of the European ownership of Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge and Ram, and its plans to back Alfa Romeo and Maserati going forward. It was Iacocca, a proud Italian-American with a fondness for opera windows and button-tufted upholstery on his New Yorker and Fifth Avenue sedans, who tried to buy Alfa and invested in Maserati, and even produced a dog’s-dinner of a car, called Chrysler TC By Maserati, which was a K-car modified in Milan by the Italian design studios and ultimately involved a Mitsubishi engine, Cosworth cylinder heads and a Getrag gearbox.

Alfa Today in the U.S.

Alfa Romeo in the U.S. today has 135 dealerships in the…