The Alfa Romeo Giulia is Italy's sole compact sport sedan in the North American marketplace, a four-door conceived to compete with the well-known German and Japanese models that have dominated this segment for so long.
For its third year on the market, the Giulia gets a handful of updates to its standard and optional features lists.
On the standard side, the Ti Sport trim gets new 19-inch wheels, while the speedy Quadrifoglio gets updated red brake calipers and a 40/20/40 split folding rear seat with a headrest for the middle seat.
Changes to the options list include new wheel designs and colours, a premium alarm system and heated rear seats. A Nero Edizione package brings dark exterior trim elements to all trims, and Ti Sport and Quadrifoglio can be optioned with carbon fibre packages.
As before, the Giulia is offered with two engines. The top-end Quadrifoglio uses a twin-turbo 2.9L V6 that makes 505 hp and 443 lb-ft of torque. It's the most powerful engine Alfa has ever put in one of its production cars, and it lends this little sedan performance to help it keep up with the BMW M3 and Mercedes-Benz C 63s of this world. The Quadrifoglio also gets carbon fibre for its roof, hood and rear spoiler, plus an adaptive suspension, drive mode selector with race mode, active front splitter, navigation, full-speed forward collision warning and carbon fibre interior trim.
All other Giulia trims -- base, Sport, Ti, Ti Sport and Ti Lusso -- use a 2.0L turbo four-cylinder that makes 280 hp and 306 lb-ft of torque and is the most powerful base engine in its class. Standard kit across the four-cylinder range includes leather seating, passive keyless entry, remote engine start, bi-xenon headlights, LED taillights, drive mode selector and rear parking sensors.
Both engines share an eight-speed automatic transmission. In four-cylinder cars, the Ti designation indicates AWD, while the Quadrifoglio is strictly RWD.
Alfa says the Giulia Quadrifoglio's 7:32 Nurburgring lap time is the fastest ever by a production four-door sedan, which is a big accomplishment given this car's competition. Still, this car continues to fight an uphill battle for attention against the M3 and C 63 we mentioned earlier, never mind the Audi S4 and Lexus IS F. However, Alfa faces one less competitor with the disappearance of the Cadillac ATS and its potent V variant.
Alfa's fuel consumption estimates for the Giulia are 10.5/7.7 L/100 km (city/highway) with the four-cylinder and 13.8/9.6 with the Quadrifoglio's potent V6.
This vehicle has not yet been reviewed
