We've admired Alfa Rome from a far. Like ex-girlfriends (or boyfriends,) the 13 years apart has made us forget how unreliable they were and how much frustration they caused. Now all may be forgiven and they have come back to us. Alfa Romeo is coming back on the U.S. market with 8C Competizione sales to begin this month. But don't get to excited, all the U.S. allocation of 84 cars is sold out. It seems there were already a lot of people already waiting in a line that didn't exist.

The rear-drive, carbon-fiber-laced Alfa Romeo coupe has a 450-hp, 4.6-liter V-8 engine combined with a six-speed electronically controlled manual gearbox.

The next opportunity for Alfa aficionados to grab the Italian car will be when the Spider version goes on sale in 2010. A large RWD car (both coupe and sedan version) might be available starting 2011-12. It could be built on a Jaguar platform. Also a X3 competitor will first appear in Europe in 2010 and likely a year or so later in the United States.

So if you want to own one of what will likely be only a handful of Alfas imported to the U.S., make friends with your local Maserati dealer--that's where they're currently being sold through.

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