Alfa Romeo Milano gets a different name

With appropriate fanfare, Alfa Romeo presented its most important model in years last week: the brand new Alfa Romeo Milano. Although Italians probably still enjoy that memorable moment, it has been overshadowed by discussion about the name Milano. An Italian government official has delicately pointed out to Alfa Romeo that the name Milano should not actually be on it, because there is a law that prohibits putting Italian names on foreign products. The Milano is built in Poland, so it would have an illegal name according to that law. Surprisingly, Alfa Romeo is now responding to this.

Yes, really, it’s April 15 and not April 1: Alfa Romeo is putting the Milano name back on the shelf and is now printing the name Junior on its newcomer. It doesn’t do that without subtly handing out some sneers. “Even though Alfa Romeo thought that the name met all the legal conditions and that there are more important things than the name of a car, Alfa Romeo decided to change the name. Alfa Romeo would like to thank the public for the positive feedback, but also Italian dealer network for their support, the journalists for the enormous media attention surrounding the car and the government for the free publicity due to this discussion.”

The new name in the accompanying typography

It is of course quite a painful moment, but Alfa Romeo states that changing the name is ‘no problem at all’. It also seems that Alfa Romeo likes to keep the honor to itself in this whole story. CEO Jean-Philippe Imparto explains: “We have decided to change the name, even though we know it is not mandatory, because we want to preserve the positive emotion that our products have always generated and avoid any kind of controversy.” The name Junior is also one with a history within the brand. In 1966, Alfa Romeo printed the name on the GT 1300 Junior, which would become an icon in the history of the brand. Now it is up to the new Alfa Romeo Junior to repeat that again.