Alfa Romeo Model Range - 1976

By the 1970s, Alfa Romeo was again in financial trouble and creative measures were attempted to shore it up, including an ultimately unsuccessful joint venture with Nissan endorsed by Ettore Massacesi of Alfa Romeo's parent company, the Italian-government owned Istituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale (IRI) and Prime Minister Francesco Cossiga. By 1986, IRI was suffering heavy losses, and IRI president Romano Prodi put Alfa Romeo up for sale. Finmeccanica, the mechanical holdings arm of IRI and its predecessors owned Alfa Romeo since 1932. Prodi first approached fellow Italian manufacturer Fiat, which offered to start a joint venture with Alfa. Prodi was initially unsupportive, citing the strained industrial relations between Northern and Southern Italy, with Fiat being based in Turin and Alfa being based in Milan.[dubious – discuss]

Fiat withdrew its plan for a joint venture when Ford put in an offer to acquire part of Alfa Romeo and restructure the company, while increasing its stake over time. However, Fiat put in a bid to acquire the entirety of Alfa Romeo and offer job guarantees to Italian workers, an offer that Ford was unwilling to match.

It also did not hurt any of the parties involved that an acquisition by Fiat would keep Alfa Romeo in Italian hands. In 1986, the deal was concluded with Alfa Romeo merged with traditional rival Lancia into Fiat's Alfa Lancia Industriale S.p.A.

Models produced from the 1990s combined Alfa's traditional virtues of avant-garde styling and sporting panache with the economic benefits of product rationalisation, and include a "GTA" version of the 147 hatchback, the Giugiaro-designed Brera, and a high-performance exotic called the 8C Competizione (named after one of Alfa's most successful prewar sports and racing cars, the 8C of the 1930s).

In 2005 Maserati was bought back from Ferrari and under Fiat's full control. The Fiat Group plans to create a sports and luxury division from Maserati and Alfa Romeo.[17] There is a planned strategic relationship between these two; engines, platforms and possibly dealers will be shared in some markets.[18]

In the beginning of 2007, Fiat Auto S.p.A. was reorganized and four new automobile companies were created; Fiat Automobiles S.p.A., Alfa Romeo Automobiles S.p.A., Lancia Automobiles S.p.A. and Fiat Light Commercial Vehicles S.p.A. These companies are fully owned by Fiat Group Automobiles S.p.A