If this is Alfa Romeo’s nd future, count us in
After nine months in the barking Quadrifoglio we’re izzing about Alfa’s return to form.
I KNOW WHAT you’re itching to know: did the Giulia Quadrifoglio break down during its nine months and 13,697 miles with CAR?
Well, three months in, on came an engine warning light, signalling ‘injection system failure’ or ‘catalytic converter damage’. Potentially. It followed a stint with CAR’s Group MD, who’s as hard on cars as he is on dubious expense claims, and the electronics had locked out the two punchiest drive modes (Dynamic and Race) as an engine-protecting precaution. But once I’d brimmed the Alfa with super unleaded, the red light mysteriously disappeared and the car never missed another beat.
And you’re desperate to know how awful the dealer was… Well, we tried two. The first, Donalds in Peterborough, goofed by accepting a booking despite its technicians not having been trained to do the first service on a Quadrifoglio. So Glyn Hopkin in St Albans undertook it, speedily changing the oil and fluids for £345 – cheaper than the first service on my Discovery Sport. I was asked on three occasions for feedback on my experience, which indicates how focused Alfa is on trying to rebuild its reputation.
These tales of the unexpected extend to how the Giulia Quadrifoglio drives: no car enthusiast could have dreamed it would be so wondrously, deliriously good. The biturbo V6 sounds magnificent and takes off like a Falcon Heavy, and the throttle response and steering are comically quick: after some days in the Jaguar XF, I jumped back into the Alfa and almost steered into a traffic island, having forgotten how immediately it responds just off dead-centre. The aggressive geometry does have a tiresome downside, though: near full lock the steering bucks and kicks like a rodeo horse.
But my favourite aspect is the Quadrifoglio’s breadth of character. The ride is pretty supple and negotiates potholes elegantly, and in Advanced Eco mode, it cruises at 2000rpm with the charismatic exhaust muzzled and accelerator defused, and the hole in the fuel tank better patched. I still only averaged 23.1mpg, some 33 per cent off the official economy figure, despite trying to use Eco mode for A1 commuting. But there was plenty of delving into the thirstier Dynamic mode to unlock the hooligan alter ego.
It’s not perfect. Four new Pirelli P Zero Corsas cost an almighty £1980. The carbon ceramic brakes were unnerving at low speeds (save your £5500), and I still don’t know how to enter a postcode into the rubbish infotainment system (bizarrely, voice input of towns was robust). And the editor once ran out of petrol because the range outlook went from 32 miles to ‘– –’ in an instant. But there’s a brand under reconstruction here and the Giulia Quadrifoglio is a fabulous first step on the road to redemption.