Alfa Romeo Giulia

Hello ! I own a 2017 Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio. Ask me anything!

Intro: Purchased on Dec 23rd thru FCA corporate channels I now have close to 3k miles on the vehicle. The night I bought it home I swear you couldn't tell how fast the car was going because of how smooth it is. Was going 20 over the limit in a certain state that could get you arrested haha.

I have been seeing so many comments regarding Alfas Come back and thought I could help answer any questions (anything technical too). I will try my best to answer what ever I can.

Images:

YouTube channel I have been recording owner experiences located here:

Both Doug Demuro & Larry Kosilla have driven and worked on the car!

Driving it: A lot of people have had concerns about quality and reliability. I know this is very hard to believe but you know or have a gut feeling of when a car will be troublesome and break down etc. You can almost have a 6th sense about the health of a car and how it will be. The feel I get from this car is a unicorn. It will be reliable and tons of fun while still maintaining a bit of Alfa quirkiness.

Heading to bed, will be answering everything in the AM!

Anything else? Ask Below?

Hi

Over many years I've enjoyed reading the various long-term reviews posted here from time to time and I thought it was my turn to give back.

After months of indecision and mental gymnastics followed by the search for just the right car, on July 9, 2021 I bought a used with 47,912 miles for $31,320.04 out the door. The MSRPed for $52,340. While I considered and could afford going new, the $21,000 in depreciation in three years gave me serious pause. Now in my mid-30s I felt I was in a position to comfortably afford the car and the expected large upcoming maintenance and reliability nightmares. This particular car had one previous owner and was titled in West Virginia. I searched for months on end for a Giulia that was in the Ti Sport trim, in Misano Blue, with the (rare) performance package, at a reasonable price, and within like 300 miles of where I live in Maryland. This one was traded into a dealership in northern Virginia and I went out there the same afternoon I found the listing. The only two options this doesn't have that I wanted are the leather covered dash and upper doors and yellow calipers.

Album:

Previous cars

Prior to this I owned a 2014 Focus ST, which remains the only car I've ever bought brand new. I bought that October 6, 2014 for ~$30k, daily drove it almost seven years putting 42k on the clock, and traded it in for $17,250 which equates to depreciation of about $1,800 per year, or 30 cents per mile. Frankly this to me is a staggeringly low depreciation rate for a version of the Focus hatchback, no doubt helped by the chip shortage, and ESPECIALLY considering this model year was well known to be plagued by the DCT Powershift transmission issues on the non-ST models that I thought would be unfairly applied to the ST trim as well. My experience with the ST was entirely positive. I had literally zero issues with it while I owned it. After 7 years it was just time for something a little more grown up.

Previous cars I owned going back chronologically:

• 2010-2014: 2006 AP2 S2000, New Formula Red

• 2006-2010: 2002 AP1 S2000, Suzuka Blue

• 2002-2006: 1998 Integra (LS, boo)

I'm not a person that switches cars often. My first S2000 met its demise on a cold January morning highway ramp as I learned first-hand about the threat of liftoff oversteer that the AP1s were susceptible too. This remains the only accident I've ever been in. Because the S2000 is such an amazing car though, I took the insurance payoff and bought another, back when they were still affordable, for something like $16,500. Drove that car for four years and 40,000 miles before trading it in on the Focus for $15,000; essentially no depreciation, and still one of the worst financial decisions I've ever made aside from buying $PLTR near ATH 😭. The only reason I traded it in was because my wife and I were trying to have kids and I had to do the adult thing and trade it in for something with a rear seat (RIP my youth).

So how did I end up interested in the Giulia? I'd be lying if I said the main reason wasn't rarity. I'm not a wealthy person, so cars that are actually rare are out of my reach. From my time driving S2000s I came away with the impression of knowing what it was like to own an actually special car. One you didn't see every day; one where you waved to other owners when you saw them because they too "got it." Of course, my wife thinks this is stupid and decided to troll me by starting to wave to all of the school buses she saw because "they're so rare too!"

I looked at 3 Series, Audis, MB, but I couldn't get over the fact that you see hundreds of them every day. No one ever takes a second glance at those makes because they're so common and that really ruled them out for me. Above all I wanted something uncommon but also with an exceptional driving experience. I was loathe to surrender daily driving a manual after 20 years of it, but I felt like the stock of cars available with one had shrunk so significantly that it was no longer realistically possible to avoid moving to an automatic. One of the reasons I went with the Ti Sport trim was the column-mounted paddles to be able to replicate as close as I could the manual experience, even if my left leg is now as useful as a democratic vote in Utah. I've been very pleasantly surprised with the experience over the last year. I drive in manual mode probably 75% of the time, and for the other 25% when I'm stuck in traffic going 10 it's nice to be able to put it into automatic and Natural and not worry about it.

Mileage

Since the purchase, I've been keeping a every time I fill up with gas or have a maintenance or repair expense. Admittedly, because I work from home since COVID I don't drive as much as I used to. But this is my daily driver and only car. In the year since I bought it, I've driven about 4,400 miles, bought 236.8 gallons of premium costing me $1,039.21 (average $4.39/gal). My average distance between fill ups has been 198.6 miles with a minimum of 112 (to top off before a trip) and a max of 258. My minimum miles per gallon on those intervals was 11.83 and the max was 20.71. You'll note from the window sticker this car is EPA rated at 23 city/ 31 highway, if that gives you any hints about how I drive it.

Maintenance & Reliability

Oh boy, here we go. I read the reviews of comparable trims like .

I could go on....

The reality of my experience is .... none of these.

My Giulia has spent approximately 4 hours in the shop since I bought it, none of those for breakdowns.

I've spent $2,533.65 on maintenance and repairs:

• $947.19 installed for new rear rotors and discs at the dealer

• $1,029.24 for new Michelion Pilot Sport 4 tires

• $230.59 for those tires to be installed

• $326.63 for an Oil Change (which admittedly is absurdly expensive)

That's actually it. Nothing else.

Literally $0 spent on unexpected repairs. Only maintenance items. It has never failed to start. It has never thrown a MIL. It has never entered a limp home mode. I've never gotten the "Service electronic throttle control" message.

As I'm aggressively knocking on wood, the expectation of Alfa reliability have not matched my ownership. Undoubtedly, part of this is because of how little I drive. But I pretty much expected to be on a flatbed every other month, so things are looking promising.

Issues & Gripes so far In terms of things I don't like about the car, or things I've found odd, the biggest is that I don't get the TPMS system. In January 2022 I replaced all four tires because I was getting persistent low pressure warnings, which is certainly not out of the usual in the winter, but the tread depth was also low so I figured so why go ahead and replace them. Immediately after having them, my TPMS light would not go off despite having pressures set according to the door jamb. I called the shop back and asked what was up and they said to drive farther and it'll go off. Well I drove over 100 miles and it still wasn't going off. The infotainment shows pressures at each corner and it was clearly fine, at something like 34 PSI versus the other corners at 33 which were not throwing a warning. So I overinflated to 40PSI and the warning finally went away, so I deflated back to the standard pressure it never came back on. Very strange. In the words of Jeremy Clarkson -- "How Alfa is that?!"

Next thing that comes to mind is the navigation. Now you see, I'm old. Yeah I'm only in my 30s but I'm old at heart, and so I prefer to use the built in Nav to anything on my phone. My reasoning on that is why would I need to use my phone and data when Nav is right there built into the car? Anyway, on the map I always want North to be at the top of the map because that makes the most spatial sense to me. But for some reason Alfa decided that when you zoom in to a certain level the map must be presented from behind your car, and it rotates as you turn. I find this maddening. If the map rotates I lose track of where I am and what direction I'm heading. I want north up, always. Alfa says no.

Auto Stop/Start. I hate this system. I know this something necessary to meet emissions requirements and not Alfa-specific but I hate it. And the system must be redisabled every time you start the car (I know there are mods for this). I don't want the engine to be stopping at every light, putting that much extra strain on the battery and starter. This is an Alfa; no way it can handle that long term.

Seat movement. When you turn the car off, the drivers seat automatically moves backward to give you more leg room to get out. Which is great in theory but my two-year old's car seat is behind me. I don't want to crush his little legs. I can easily get out from my normal driving position, but as far as I can tell there is no setting to disable this behavior.

Conclusion

I love this car. As the world rapidly transitions toward electric, I can see this (or a Quad?) being a car that I want to own for the rest of my life. I just can't see the engagement and passion with electric as you get with ICE. Electric cars are perfect for the majority of drivers who see a car as an appliance. Alfa retains the soul of what makes driving a joy; why you want to drive and not be driven.

I hope Year 2 is as easy as Year 1.

Trec printr-un midlife crisis si vreau sa ma reinventez... Inteleg ca-i o decizie financiara proasta dar aici discutam masini.

Sunt posesori pe termen lung modelului in cauza pe aici? Ceva experiente proprii referitor la fiabilitate + costuri de intretinere / smiles per gallon?

Looking to get my first sporty higher performance car and based on my internet research so far, the two that are at the top of my list are the Alfa Romeo Giulia and the BMW M340i. I know the Alfa Romeo Giulia is probably closer to the 330i and that the M340i is faster than the Giulia by a decent margin. I am not too concerned with outright speed/power and more just looking for the funnest car to drive. I live in an urban area so it would mostly just be driven around town for standard purposes so wondering what the funnest vehicle would be for that. The M340i looks like a great vehicle but I don't think I would be able to use the additional power around town without going to jail. I've read tons of great things about the Giulia and it sounds like exactly what I am looking for, but based on what I can see from car listings in my area, the Giulia wouldn't be too much cheaper than a M340i (both used). Money isn't too much of an issue either (within reason).

If anyone has any insight on this it would be appreciated.