Has anyone tried the Alfa Romeo Giulia?

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Mon 13 Mar 2023 14:02
Has anyone tried the Alfa Romeo Giulia? - SmithyBilly

I've been hearing a lot of talk about the 2023 Alfa Romeo Giulia, and I gotta say, I'm on the fence about it. On the one hand, it's got that classic Alfa Romeo style that I really like. And from what I've heard, it's got some serious power under the hood,

But on the other hand, I'm not sure if it's really worth the hype. I mean, is it practical for everyday use? Will it break down all the time and cost me a fortune in repairs? And most importantly, is it really worth the price tag?

I'm wondering if anyone here has had any firsthand experience with the 2023 Giulia. Should I take the plunge and invest in this beautiful beast, or should I steer clear and stick with something more reliable? Let me know what you think.

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Mon 13 Mar 2023 17:44
Has anyone tried the Alfa Romeo Giulia? - Brit_in_Germany

Not sure it helps but I had a 2017 Giulia Veloce for four years from new. The only issue I had was one of the headlight washers needing changing. A lovely little car.

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Mon 13 Mar 2023 18:08
Has anyone tried the Alfa Romeo Giulia? - Xileno

I always fancied a 164 years ago but what put me off was the scarcity of dealers. If you have a good dealer nearby then I would be very tempted. I can understand the attraction of them.

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Mon 13 Mar 2023 18:52
Has anyone tried the Alfa Romeo Giulia? - Engineer Andy

Some lovely looking cars, especially in the 2000s A local rep leased a Brera (nice looking), but I always liked the styling of the 159, Guilietta, Spider and even the MiTo. Shame the engineering and build quality wasn't there on a good number of their range. Some exceptions, apparently. I probably err too much on the safe side to ever contemplate one though.

There's a (supposedly very well regarded) Alfa specialist (no new sales) in my town, and it's nice to see such pretty cars sitting outside waiting for a service, repair etc.

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Mon 13 Mar 2023 19:54
Has anyone tried the Alfa Romeo Giulia? - badbusdriver

Aesthetically it wasn't their finest hour, but one of the garages worked in (in Wigan) had a 155 V6 in stock. This was an early one, before the facelift that added the box arches giving it some visual muscle. Really enjoyed starting it up and taking it round to the lot of a morning, then the reverse at the end of the day. Such a fine sound, nice looking engine too!.

Also quite liked the 145 we had for a while at the VW dealer I worked at here in Peterhead. It was a 1.8 in a bonny metallic blue and was a bit more characterful that the then current, 4th gen Golf. Obviously not as musical as the V6 in the 155, but had an engaging rasp to it.

Just remembered that both had very poor steering lock! (not sure why that stuck in my mind)

Edited by badbusdriver on 13/03/2023 at 19:55

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Mon 13 Mar 2023 20:11
Has anyone tried the Alfa Romeo Giulia? - Adampr

If you're planning on getting it on finance (so you'll not be stuck with it if it's a lemon) I'd be tempted to give it a go as long as there's a dealer nearby.

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Mon 20 Mar 2023 13:36
Has anyone tried the Alfa Romeo Giulia? - SmithyBilly

It's always fascinating to hear about the unique characteristics and quirks of different models, such as the V6 engine of the 155 and the characterful rasp of the 1.8 engine in the 145.

The metallic blue colour of the 145 sounds like it would have been stunning, and it's interesting that the poor steering lock is a detail that has stuck in your mind. It's clear that you have a genuine appreciation for the aesthetics and driving experience of these cars,

Sometimes I think it's valuable to hear personal experiences with cars, as it adds a personal element to what can sometimes be a purely technical discussion. But all in all I would say I am still on the fence lol

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Mon 13 Mar 2023 20:50
Has anyone tried the Alfa Romeo Giulia? - mcb100
A friend is on his second Giulia and hasn’t reported any major issues.
There only seems to be one engine available now, and no electrified option, which makes me wonder whether it’s on its way out.
Doubtless to be replaced by a Stellantis platform share.
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Mon 13 Mar 2023 23:31
Has anyone tried the Alfa Romeo Giulia? - pd

The Giulia was introduced in 2016 I think so inevitably only has 2 years or so to run.

There's a lot of silliness about Alfa reliability, they're really no difference to anything else.

The main things which let down the previous models were the shared GM bits and the list of typical issues was often similar to that of an Astra or Insignia.

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Mon 20 Mar 2023 14:07
Has anyone tried the Alfa Romeo Giulia? - sammy1

Only a small thing with Alfas, the designers build a beautiful looking car only for the front to be unbalanced visually by the offset front number plate.

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Mon 20 Mar 2023 15:57
Has anyone tried the Alfa Romeo Giulia? - veloceman
I’m on my 3rd Giulia. 1st Super 2017 was one of the first and quite a few niggles.
Most problems you come across are due to battery. Numerous warning lights without apparent
reason, all cured with new battery. Also car needs using otherwise battery doesn’t charge enough to heat the rear window in winter.
2nd Veloce was fine apart from rust forming in the seam between the c pillar and roof gutter.
Dealer sorted it but moved it in after that.
Had a 320i M sport for a short time but to me the Alfa is far superior.
Now got a ‘22MY Veloce which is much inproved over my previous 2.
Had for 5 mths and 4k miles and has been faultless. Driving down to Monaco Grand Prix in May so that will add another 3k in 2 wks.
Down side is high tax bracket which more and more cars are slipping into and mpg is poor at 31. This does rise to almost 40 on a motorway run.
Later cars are slightly softer which gets rid of the tyre skip due to Ackerman suspension set up.
I did well, got a new one with glass sunroof and 4yr service pack for £37,995.
Fantastic performance and very comfortable cruiser.
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Mon 20 Mar 2023 21:28
Has anyone tried the Alfa Romeo Giulia? - alan1302

Only a small thing with Alfas, the designers build a beautiful looking car only for the front to be unbalanced visually by the offset front number plate.

Agree, I've always found it a bit of a weird thing.

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Mon 20 Mar 2023 21:48
Has anyone tried the Alfa Romeo Giulia? - Adampr

I quite like it. I think an Alfa with an offset number plate looks better than pretty much anything else.with the plate in the middle.

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Sun 2 Apr 2023 19:07
Has anyone tried the Alfa Romeo Giulia? - Random

Me too. Reminds me of the 101 series cars.

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Mon 20 Mar 2023 21:23
Has anyone tried the Alfa Romeo Giulia? - Hoping
I had one for 2 years, brought it with 27k miles sold it at 41k to a dealer because I was sick of it going wrong! Left me stranded in London due to a sensor with my 2 kids also in the car. The car dash lit up like Blackpool one evening broken wiring loom and the air conditioning getting blocked and shorting out the power steering that was a £1,200 repair bill and the ac wasn’t working because they have to remove half the dashboard to obtain access to the drain, this is an issue across Stellantis. Loved the car and how it drove but stopped trusting it after that. Sold it at the height of used car prices to an Alfa dealer for not much less than what I paid. Brought a Toyota Corolla!
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Sun 2 Apr 2023 14:54
Has anyone tried the Alfa Romeo Giulia? - Jezh

You’ll get fed up of people asking if it’s reliable. I own my first an Alfa a Stelvio Quad. Some very small things under warranty like the auto wiper sensor sticker creased but 2.5 years it’s a blast. Dealers can be bad but that’s par for course neighbour having a far worse experience with Audi. Car is built with genuine engineering integrity. Some of the early ones had sensor issues. To drive it’s very special. Not really many compromises.

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Mon 3 Apr 2023 10:54
Has anyone tried the Alfa Romeo Giulia? - Steveieb

Speaking to an ex Alfa salesman he told me it’s one of the hardest jobs convincing people about their reliability.

He took a different way of explaining things.

He told customers that they aren’t the most reliable cars but that’s why the dealership employs the best technicians in town to fettle them back into perfect working condition.

In the end he left and went back to an easy job selling BMWs

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Mon 3 Apr 2023 12:41
Has anyone tried the Alfa Romeo Giulia? - badbusdriver

I wonder how many people ask the salesman about the reliability of a RangeRover before buying?

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Mon 3 Apr 2023 13:02
Has anyone tried the Alfa Romeo Giulia? - SLO76
I’ve not tried any recent Alfa but it’s a brand I’ve always had an irrational fondness for. As a salesman and buyer I knew to steer clear as they were almost always more trouble than they were worth. My personal favourite, and the least troublesome we found (of the few we did see) was the Alfa 156. These were designed to take Alfa into the mainstream small executive market and to hit the BMW 3 series. Quality took a big step up over the old 75/155 predecessors, in fact we rarely had any bother with them up until 70,000 miles plus.

The 4cyl Twin Spark engines were to me the sweet spot, they were lusty, rev happy and sounded good, while the much more expensive V6’s added too much weight and power which compromised the handling and ride. The noisy and troublesome 4cyl diesels just didn’t suit the car at all, but the 5cyl had bags of go and a fair bit of character. Sadly the later 159 resorted to running Vauxhall based petrol engines which were prone to timing chain issues and lacked the character of Alfas own motors, plus it was overweight. The accountants had truly taken over.

As for the newer cars, I don’t trust modern DPF equipped diesels (for good reason) and I don’t trust
over-complex automated manual gearboxes, so that pretty much rules out 99% of modern Alfa models.

Edited by SLO76 on 03/04/2023 at 13:07

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Tue 4 Apr 2023 11:51
Has anyone tried the Alfa Romeo Giulia? - Brit_in_Germany

Have Alfa moved away from the ZF automatic box then?

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Tue 4 Apr 2023 15:14
Has anyone tried the Alfa Romeo Giulia? - veloceman
Giulia and Stelvio both come with ZF 8sp auto gearbox
Tonale comes with either 6 or 7 speed dual clutch.
The old Selespeed gearbox could give serious problems but the twin clutch in the Giulietta was very reliable with even Honest John singing its praises.
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Wed 5 Apr 2023 17:26
Has anyone tried the Alfa Romeo Giulia? - Ex Alfa mail

There's a wonderful man in Aylesbury who is the Selespeed expert (A for Alfa). Obviously also does Cambiocorsa, MTA, F1, and all the other variations on the same automated manual system. It'll never be as good as a good dual clutch, but a well fettled one is still worth having (especially as they seem to be priced very aggressively).

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Thu 13 Apr 2023 13:30
Has anyone tried the Alfa Romeo Giulia? - TheOldSloth
...... "As for the newer cars, I don’t trust modern DPF equipped diesels (for good reason) and I don’t trust over-complex automated manual gearboxes, so that pretty much rules out 99% of modern Alfa models"

Modern DPF dielses are perfectly fine unless you drive lots of short journys. There is nothing else to worry about them, apart from the fact oil burners are effectivly dead in the water due to high fuel costs and the government (mistakenly) doing everything it can to outlaw them.

Having run Skoda DSG vehicles since 2011 I can assure you that the gearboxes are absolutely fine and its simply short-sighted to think otherwise.

As for "Modern Alfas" - they use the ZF box which is also used by Aston Martin, BMW, Alfa Romeo, Jeep, Toyota......

Edited by TheOldSloth on 13/04/2023 at 13:33

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Thu 13 Apr 2023 12:28
Has anyone tried the Alfa Romeo Giulia? - TheOldSloth

I've just ordered a Giulia Competizione to replace my Skoda Octavia VRS 245 of five years/75k. I spent four months researching and driving alternatives - everything from Cupra Formentor FZ3 to BMW M240, via Golf Clubsport MK8 and the Alfa was the only car with proper soul and driving enjoyment. The BMW has the most horrendously vague steering and my wife said the ride quality was making her queasy!. The Cupra had awful infotainment and cheap seats which, in the demo with less than 2k, already had issues. Also it didn't feel like 300hp. The Golf - where do I start - manual cloth seats, awful infotainment and no physical buttons made doing simple things like adjust the temperature or driving mode, a dangerous exercise on the road. The Alfa has wonderful steering, super ride (adaptive dampers are a must have), wonderful cockpit and drop-dead looks. The only thing putting me off buying one was the lack of LED lighting, however that been resolved in the MY23 facelift.

Buy it. Ignore the naysayers. Drive a proper car that other people will gawp at and wave to you in. There is one requisite - it must be red :-).

Edited by TheOldSloth on 13/04/2023 at 13:26

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