SPY PICS: Cold weather testing for 147 replacement

The Alfa 147 was developed from a cut-down 156 platform, but its successor, the 149, will share a platform with the Fiat Bravo -- the car that we will see in Australia marketed under the name 'Ritmo'.

Because the 149's dimensions are roughly equivalent to the Bravo's, it hasn't proved too taxing to build a 149 'mule' around a Bravo, for the purpose of cold weather testing. The vehicle captured in these spy pics by the frost-bitten bods at Carparazzi has the 149's nose grafted onto a Bravo body.

It's difficult to see from the pics, but the Alfa Romeo engineers slapped a Fiat badge on the hatch to obfuscate the unwary.

The new car is a Golf rival targeting driving enthusiasts aged between 27 and 40. As is often the case with Italian light or small cars, the 149 is perilously close in size to a mid-size car from a few years ago.

According to Carparazzi, the 149 will go on sale in Europe during the northern hemisphere spring of 2009 -- our autumn -- and will offer turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engines and a V6 for the GTA variant. The only body style will be the five-door hatch seen in the photos.

An artist's illustration -- the red car pictured -- provides a calculated guess as to how the production model will look.

-- with Carparazzi