Romeo to fall in love with

NEW ALFA GIULIA’S A THRILLER

many thousands of people buy those cars and sadly not many choose Italian Alfa Romeos.

It’s the inside where most of the work has been done. The Giulia was criticised when it was launched for having too much poor-quality plastic, and fixtures and fittings that weren’t up to German standards.

Never bothered me too much because I just liked the style of the Giulia’s cabin and its Italianate design.

Anyway, Alfa Romeo has listened and improved the cabin materials in many places. The gear lever, for example, feels less flimsy and has a nice Italian flag at the bottom of it.

The infotainment now supports Apple CarPlay and has a much better interface and crisper graphics. Perhaps other manufacturers make slicker rotary controllers but this one works perfectly well.

Having made quite a few duff saloons over the last few decades Alfa Romeo really rolled its sleeves up for the Giulia. They made it rear-wheel drive and gave it a weight distribution of 50/50. Plenty of aluminium was slung at the suspension and there’s even a carbon fibre propshaft. These efforts are why the Giulia weighs in at a reasonable 1,492kg. The ride is comfortable, the steering fast and accurate, and the engine and its performance more than adequate. It’s a great package that reminds you just how good sports saloons are to drive.

What was intended as an averagelength drive in the newly improved Giulia turned into a whole day out among the lanes of Surrey and Sussex.

Yes, Alfa’s saloon still has its faults but they’re easy to ignore when you’re actually driving the car or standing back and admiring it. I’ve only ever owned one Alfa and that was a 156 saloon. It never let me down and was good to drive. Nothing like as good as this one though. I can see a nice third-hand Giulia one day becoming my second ever Alfa Romeo.