Alfa Romeo Giulia
Checking up on the local dealer
LOVE IT STYLING
With its voluptuous body and dark, shiny, alloy wheels, the Giulia never fails to draw the eye, especially when under a street light at night.
LOATHE IT TYRE SKIPPING Front tyres skid sideways in tight turns at very low speeds, like they are rolling over marbles. On a wet surface, it can be disconcerting.
WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To find out if Alfa has regained its mojo with this BMW M3-bashing super-saloon
An email from a reader on the subject of Alfa Romeo dealers prompted me to pay one a visit recently – not because there was anything wrong with our Giulia QV, I hasten to add, but simply out of curiosity.
Our reader said he wouldn’t consider owning an Alfa, largely on the grounds that, come servicing time, he wouldn’t want to be directed to a “Portakabin at the rear of a Fiat dealership”. Dealer performance plays a big part in how satisfied most people feel about owning any brand’s cars, of course, and I’m well aware that Alfa dealers have a poor reputation, but I have a hard time believing they’re all that bad. Our nearest Alfa dealership is HWM in Walton-on-thames, Surrey – a wellknown racing car constructor in the 1950s and also the world’s longestestablished Aston Martin dealer – and it’s far from shabby.
HWM’S focus, as far as Fiat Chrysler Automobiles is concerned, is clearly on the premium Alfa and Jeep brands; Fiat logos are conspicuous by their absence, although you’ll see a few Abarth 500s on the forecourt. Its service centre is a few miles away in Hersham; yes, it’s located in the corner of an industrial estate (common practice for bigger dealerships of any brand), but it doesn’t look much like a Portakabin.
The proof of the pudding, though, is obviously in the standard of aftersales care that owners can expect – something we have yet to put to the test, although I’m now looking for an excuse to do so. Do Alfa dealers deserve the reputation they’ve acquired, or is it outdated? Even if there’s still some truth to it, it hardly seems like a good enough reason to deny yourself the pleasure of owning such a richly rewarding car as the Giulia. I had a frustrating experience with a Land Rover dealer when we were running a Discovery Sport last year, but that wouldn’t put me off owning one.
The only excuse I can think of right now for getting our car looked at by a dealer is that the alarm is still a little on the sensitive side, despite what I said in a previous report about it having been sorted. In fact, it’s fine except for one thing: it’s prone to being set off – usually several times in a row – when I warm up my motorbike nearby. Between the car alarm and the booming sound of a big V-twin bike exhaust, I hate to think what my neighbours must be saying about me sometimes… Otherwise, the Giulia is behaving exactly as it should do and continues to provide a great deal of driving pleasure every single day, no matter how long or short the trip may be. I have every confidence that it will remain that way too. I admit that I had a moment of doubt about reliability when, as previously reported, the Giulia went into limphome mode on the M3 motorway (a fault traced to the turbos’ overboost valves). But now, with the Giulia feeling as robust and trustworthy as anything I’ve ever run, I’d have no qualms about taking it on a long-haul trip across the Continent. No doubt I’m going to regret saying that…