Alfa Romeo Giulia captures car of the year title
Motor Trend’s top vehiCle is An ItAliAn sedAn thAt isn’t even sold in ReginA
Motor Trend magazine’s car of the year — the Alfa Romeo Giulia — is not for sale in Regina because Regina does not have an Alfa Romeo dealership; the closest one is Alfa Romeo of Saskatoon, which opened last fall. It’s part of the Wyant Group, which operates 17 dealerships in Western Canada.
“When a brand like Alfa
Romeo, new to the market, wins Motor Trend’s car of the year award, I think it’s going to have a real impact on the credibility of the brand,” says Vaughn Wyant, president and CEO of the Wyant Group.
“I think we’ll see a real uptick in consumer traffic and interest, because they’ll say, ‘If it won car of the year, it’s now on my shopping list,’ ”
I test drove an Alfa Romeo Giulia Ti AWD at the Canadian Car of the Year testing near Clarington, Ont., last fall.
The base price of my test vehicle was $52,995 — and with options, it came in at $63,685. Goodies included leather trim seats, leather-wrapped steering wheel, front and rear sport fascia, bright aluminum pedals, blind spot monitoring, rear crosspath detection, lane departure warning, adaptive cruise control, and a Harmon Kardon premium audio system.
A clever and logical design feature is having the start button on the left side of the steering wheel, instead of on the dashboard.
The seats are extremely comfortable and provide lots of support on the sides. The handling is great, and taking turns at high speeds is easy. The acceleration is outstanding — and I was driving the 2.0 litre, 280 hp four-cylinder turbo version. One step up is the Quadrifoglio, with a 2.9 litre,
505 hp V6 twin-turbo. I can only imagine that more power from the bigger engine would move acceleration from outstanding to unbelievable. Some road testers have done 0-100 km/h in under four seconds with a Quadrifoglio.
In the 21 scoring categories, I scored the Alfa at the top, or very near the top, in the areas of handing, comfort and performance.
I can see why it earned top honours from Motor Trend.
The magazine praised the Giulia, especially the sheer fun of driving it provides, saying, “For those who feel that the journey is as important as the destination, your chariot awaits.”
Motor Trend also says “Alfa retained its legacy of what an Italian car’s exterior and interior should look like. It is unmistakable and sensual, imbuing a cosmopolitan glamour to the driver.”
As a small premium sedan, the main competition to the Giulia are from Acura, Audi, BMW, Infinity, Jaguar, Lexus and Mercedes. Motor Trend says the high-performance Quadrifoglio “eviscerated its rival BMW M3, Cadillac ATS -V and Mercedes C63S” in tests during the past year.
Car of the year honours may help to get the Giulia noticed even more.
As well as such elements as styling, drivability and price, Wyant thinks people who want something new and different will be attracted to the Giulia because of what he calls “brand fatigue.”
“For example, if you’re into your seventh BMW, you may think it’s time for a change. So there will be some motivation for brand change,” he says.
Exterior styling can be a matter of opinion, but I really like the Giulia because it’s distinctive. The triangular grill sets it apart from other small sedans. If the name badges were pried off, you could still tell it’s an Alfa Romeo — and that can’t be said for a lot of cars. The Giulia styling pays homage to the automaker’s proud history.
The Motor Trend Car of the Year award is the oldest award of its kind, going back to 1949.
It’s also one of the most influential and significant car awards handed out.
Winners during the past few decades have included mainstream cars including the Ford Fusion, Toyota Camry and Volkswagen Golf, as well as more exotic cars, such as the Cadillac CTS, Chevrolet Corvette and Tesla Model S.
The Alfa Romeo Giulia is the first car from Italy to win this prestigious award.
“There are all kinds of car awards, but the Motor Trend Car of the Year award is the one that gets written up by all the news agencies around the world, and that’s the one that people pay attention to,” Wyant says.
Alfa Romeo has been absent from the North American market since the mid-1990s — which means a lot of potential buyers don’t even know what an Alfa Romeo is.
“Here’s a brand that, for all practical purposes, is new to North America,” Wyant says. “Alfa Romeo was around decades ago in a tiny way. But Alfa Romeo is an iconic Italian brand with a very rich racing history. A lot of people may have heard the name, but don’t really know about the brand because it’s been so long.”
Founded in 1910, Alfa Romeos soon became popular on race tracks, and captured the inaugural Grand Prix world championship in 1925 — and there were four more world championship titles in the years to come. One of the early drivers on the Alfa team was Enzo Ferrari — who went on to build his own cars. Henry Ford once said: “When I see an Alfa Romeo go by, I tip my hat.”
The firm produced a variety of convertibles and sports sedans for consumers. Alfas often were leaders in technological innovations, including the double overhead cam engine and electric fuel injection. For a time in the 1950s to the ’70s, Alfas had a market niche later taken over by BMW — small, well-handling, high-performance cars.
But Alfa was facing financial problems in the 1980s, and was bought out by another Italian automaker, Fiat.
Then Fiat bought a share in Chrysler, and that deal later saw Alfa re-enter the North American market.
Capturing the Motor Trend
Car of the Year is already an important part of Alfa Romeo’s advertising and web presence, and will no doubt help sales of Alfa Romeos in North America.
Another advantage of owning an Alfa Romeo Giulia is you won’t be seeing them every day — especially in Regina.