It seems like we've been waiting for the Alfa Romeo 4C for over a decade now. We know it really hasn't been that long, but the wait for this car has been real a patience-tester.

It now appears that the horizon is finally upon us; the 4C Coupe and Roadster appears to be within our sights.

At least that's what Chrysler->ke21 & Fiat->ke30 CEO Sergio Marchionne said at the Detroit Auto Show when he declared that the 4C will go on sale in the U.S. before the end of the year. "We're finalizing the car now, so it should be here by the end of the year," Marchionne was quoted by The Detroit News.

Yet even that latest proclamation was met with a little confusion after a statement earlier last week pretty much said that the 4C's U.S. debut will be delayed in light of continuing talks regarding the return of the Italian automaker on U.S. soil.

At this point, it's probably a more prudent approach to simply wait for the car to appear in dealerships. We've waited long enough for the 4C, anyway. What's another year's worth of keeping an eye out for its debut?

At the very least, we're waiting for a pretty spicy sports car, one that comes with a 1.8-liter turbocharged engine that develops 230 horsepower with a 0-to-100 km/h (62 mph) time of less than five seconds and a top speed of 155 mph.

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