One of the worst kept secrets of the past couple of years is VW Group's desire to acquire the Alfa Romeo brand from Fiat. VW had been on a buying binge, and it felt Alfa Romeo would be a perfect addition to its already multi-brand lineup. Thing was, Fiat made plain and clear that Alfa wasn't for sale, despite the Italian automaker's financial issues and vast reorganization efforts. More recently, there were rumors that VW and Fiat had entered preliminary talks for a possible merger.

However, Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne has just reiterated that Alfa will not be sold, but he remains open to forming alliances with other carmakers, specifically those in Europe where Fiat sales haven't been so good for some time. "We are not in the business of brand-trading," Marchionne made plain and clear. Fiat is busy working on Alfa's revival plan, which will see eight new models and anticipated annual sales of 400,000 by 2018. For comparison, just 74,000 Alfas were sold globally last year. And all of those upcoming Alfas will have one thing in common: an all-new RWD/AWD platform.