Romeo and Giulia

Back at the beginning of this year, we wrote about a car that seemed determined to go head to head with one of the most respected names in the high performance saloon car category. The two protagonists were the Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio and the BMW M3.

The jury it seems is still out on which of these two hot heads wins the day in terms of out and out performance, but one area where the Alfa does win the tussle is looks. Well anyone with the right proportion of petrol and hot blood in their veins will doubtless agree. Trouble was, until now you had to have a large bulge in your wallet to enjoy the good looking Italian with prices starting around the £60k mark. Ouch!

But now Alfa have come hunting further down the food chain with the rest of the 3 series firmly in their sights, and Audi too. Not only that, it also appears to be having a good pop at the Jaguar XE.

The contender? Enter the Alfa Romeo Giulia.

We saw the Alfa in the flesh for the first time at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, and it certainly caught the eye big time. Don’t know about you, but it seems to us that many manufacturers are going out of their way to make cars look ever more aggressive. Grills the size of a whale shark’s gob and more fins and bits around their snouts than an LMP1 racer.

Alfa however have gone for a more restrained approach which makes it more distinctive. Of course they have the immortal Alfa grill shape at the pointy end, a historic design legacy that other manufacturers would bite their arm off for. The design then swoops its curvy course across the bonnet and along the flanks of what is a very stylish car. In fact, it looks less like an Alfa and more like a mini Maserati Quattroporte. So that’s two Italian stallions for the price of one. Can’t be all bad can it?

Under the bonnet NGK provide the spark for the petrol engined 2 litre four cylinder, and with a o-60 of 6.6 it’s no slouch.

Back inside, elegance and style are once again the name of the game, well it is Italian after all! By all accounts the quality is not quite up to the very high standards of its German rivals, but the ambience comes as a welcome relief from the more functional cockpits of BMW and Audi.

So is Romeo about to steal the hearts of the masses? Well if any car can really take share from the major players we think that will be no bad thing. It will certainly add some welcome variety to our roads and for those who’d like a break from simply being a number, Giulia is a very attractive option which we feel sure will only grow on you.

P.S. If you were thinking it’s time for a job swap, maybe this might sway you. The good old Carabinieri of Italian Job fame have swooped in and snaffled several of the top line Quadrifoglio models for their boys. Beats an Astra any day…