I’m not a betting man, but if I had to wager a guess, I’d say that almost nobody in America has bought an Alfa Romeo by accident. The average person doesn’t wake up, drive to their local Honda dealer to look at a CR-V, get distracted, walk next door, and end up driving off in an Alfa Romeo Giulia. Maybe they should.
Sure, the Giulia is old, eight model years old to be precise. It’s also a bit expensive, prone to depreciation, has a relatively small dealer network, and you’ll have to hear those jokes from your painfully unfunny uncle every Thanksgiving. If we drove cars by spreadsheet with robotic calculation, buying a Giulia would be unthinkable. Thank goodness we don’t, and that we’re aggregate, emotional mounds of meat instead.
[Full disclosure: Alfa Romeo Canada let me borrow this Giulia for a week so long as I kept the shiny side up, returned it reasonably clean with a full tank of premium fuel, and reviewed it.]
The Basics
Engine: Two-liter turbocharged inline-four.
Transmission: Eight-speed torque converter automatic.
Drive: Standard rear-wheel-drive in America, optional (standard in Canada) full-time all-wheel-drive, available limited-slip rear differential.
Output: 280 horsepower, 306 lb.-ft. of torque.
Fuel Economy: 24 MPG city, 33 MPG highway, 27 MPG combined for rear-wheel-drive models, 23 MPG city, 31 MPG highway, 26 MPG combined (10.5 L/100km city, 7.7 L/100km highway, 9.2 L/100km combined) for all-wheel-drive models.
Base Price: $47,245 including freight ($64,590 Canadian).
Price As-Tested: $59,245 ($73,290 Canadian).
Why Does It Exist?
Roughly a decade ago, Alfa Romeo decided it was time to build another rear-wheel-drive sports sedan. After all, we’re talking about the company that practically invented the compact sports sedan before the BMW 2002 was a twinkle in Max Hoffman’s eye. The result involved bringing aboard the chassis engineer for the Ferrari 458 Speciale, assembling a dream team, and going to town. While the 191-MPH Giulia Quadrifoglio is the model that dropped jaws from Milan, Italy to Milan, Michigan, a lot of the goodness trickled down into the entry-level car. Something to fight the BMW 3 Series with.
How Does It Look?
When the Alfa Romeo Giulia debuted, it was one of the prettiest things on the planet with four doors. The better part of a decade later, and it’s still right up there. We’re talking about a sedan that’s simply well-proportioned and well-surfaced, even if the facelift headlights perhaps aren’t as pure as the original projectors. They do offer great throw though, so that’s a worthwhile tradeoff. There’s still a want-one factor to this car, something that makes you turn your head when one goes past on the street. Anything that can do that for eight-plus years on the trot is a special machine indeed.
It’s also worth talking about this color, named Verde Fangio after Formula 1 champion Juan Manuel Fangio. Proper pub quiz stuff, and although it carries an eye-watering price tag of $2,200 ($2,500 in Canada), it’s a spectacular high-metallic that’s just so rich. Given the Intensa trim’s standard gold accents, green’s just the move here, yeah?
What About The Interior?
If you want proof that newer isn’t always better, just slide inside an Alfa Romeo Giulia. It doesn’t have enough ambient lighting for a Twitch streamer’s bedroom or an infotainment screen stolen from a Burger King drive-thru. Instead, you’ll find real switchgear, nice leathers, soft yet supportive seats, and relatively little distraction. This Italian cockpit was once chided for feeling a bit cheap, but guess what? Not only has Alfa Romeo improved some of the materials, many competitors haven’t exactly improved material quality. Anyway, the other big highlight here is ergonomic positioning. You sit nice and low in the car, yet the dashboard is low too. The seats are wonderful, as is the rake and reach adjustment on the steering wheel, as is the pedal box. Oh, and check out those paddle shifters. Talk about exotic energy.
Then again, strange little quirks are also exotic, and the Alfa has a few. Right off the bat, its B-pillar is quite far forward. Fine if you’re five-foot-ten and reasonably limber, but I suspect it could get annoying if you’re tall. At the same time, the trunk is a bit shallow, the rotary controller takes a little getting used to due to input lag, and only the front shade of the available twin-panel moonroof is motorized. You know, the one you can actually reach from the driver’s seat. Oh, and the turn signal stalk’s a bit mental. It’s one of those electronic self-centering units, except to manually cancel your indicator, it must be moved slightly in the opposite direction of the blinker, not in the same direction. Press too firm, and the other blinker’s on. And you know what? I don’t care.
How Does It Drive?
Under the hood of the Giulia, you’ll find a two-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine largely shared with the Jeep Wrangler. The Alfa got it first, but this should be a sign of the powertrain character here. The official redline starts south of 6,000 RPM, a broad plateau of peak torque arrives at 2,000 RPM, and that’s about all you need to know. It doesn’t encourage you to really wind it out, but it’s certainly effective. Combined with an eight-speed automatic, it’s stout enough to propel this sedan to 60 MPH in well under six seconds, and giant metal column-mounted paddle shifters add huge drama, especially once you flip the drive mode into dynamic to get rid of any gearbox sogginess.
Besides, you don’t buy a base Giulia for the engine, you buy it for the way it handles. Sure, the steering doesn’t offer huge feedback, but it’s lightning-quick, accurate, well-weighted, and serves up a dollop of real road texture. You know, the thing that tells you that your car’s fine and it’s just the tarmac that sucks. Speaking of bad tarmac, there’s a slight whole-grain coarseness to the Giulia’s damping in its sportiest setting, but click that little damper button on the drive mode selector and an icon marked “SOFT” appears in the gauges. At this point, you have a modern sports sedan that’s nearly perfect. Agile, immediate, intuitive, a ballet dancer that breathes with the road. Forget aloof, the Giulia feels alive, talking to you through body motions while maintaining a balance as neutral as Switzerland.
Mind you, there are two things worth keeping in mind. The first is that you can’t turn off stability control, which means if you’re stuck in the snow, good luck. The second is that the brake pedal’s still a little weird. It’s a brake-by-wire system with what feels like a sharp bleed in pressure as you come to a stop, so you’ll have to fight muscle memory and not ease up on the binders. Still, learn to live with those quirks, and the Alfa Romeo Giulia feels alive. More alive than anything else in its segment. It feels like it has a pulse and a soul, that it hasn’t been J.D. Power’d to death, and it just makes you want to go for a drive. When we’re talking sports sedans, that should be the be-all and end-all, the bottom line, the singular thing these cars need to be brilliant at more than anything else. Well, mission accomplished.
Does It Have The Electronic Crap I Want?
The flipside to the Giulia’s age? Some of its tech just isn’t very 2025. The native infotainment system has a clear menu structure but is hilariously slow, like it’s imbibed a fifth of limoncello after a hard day’s work. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto only work over wired connections, the traffic sign recognition system frequently got speed limits wrong, and the Harman/Kardon system is pretty mid. There’s little distortion, sure, but it’s lacking dynamic range compared to the premium audio systems available in the BMW 3 Series and Mercedes-Benz C-Class, not to mention the Genesis G70 and Lexus IS.
Unless you’re the sort of person who wants a Jumbotron in your dashboard, however, none of the aged tech here is a huge issue because it all just fades into the background. The screen is small and low, there are real buttons and knobs for just about everything, and even the digital gauge cluster lets you focus on just driving the car.
Three Things To Know About The 2025 Alfa Romeo Giulia
- Giant metal column-mounted paddle shifters are just as cool to use as you think.
- You can’t disable stability control. Sorry, autocrossers.
- No wireless CarPlay or Android Auto here, only wired.
Does The 2025 Alfa Romeo Giulia Fulfil Its Purpose?
Yes, all these years later, the Alfa Romeo Giulia is still the sports sedan enthusiast’s sports sedan. Even with an engine that offers all the character of a Xerox machine, it’s so full of charm and feedback and suspension mastery that you simply won’t want to stop driving it. That being said, if prices had stayed more or less where they were in 2017, there’s a chance the Giulia would be more successful. Right now, a new one costs as much as a BMW 330i, and this loaded Intensa trim is within $5,000 of a Cadillac CT4-V Blackwing. Ouch.
Really, the closest competition is a used Giulia because pre-facelift cars aren’t massively different from new ones and are second-hand bargains. Really cheap early examples can be had for less than $10,000, and you can get into a recent, low-mileage example for around $30,000. That’s a lot of car for the money, and considering Alfa Romeo is an enthusiast brand in North America, it’s not surprising that new sales volumes are low. Still, someone has to buy new Giulias, and if you want a warranty, this is one of the best-driving four-cylinder sports sedans out there.
What’s The Punctum Of The 2025 Alfa Romeo Giulia?
After all these years, the Alfa Romeo Giulia will still capture your heart.
Top graphic image: Thomas Hundal
Not sure where you’re getting a $10k Giulia, I just looked and the cheapest I found near me are about $13k from crummy BHPH type dealers. Absolute cheapest was $11k and they don’t show any carfax type history on it.
Still want one tho.
Step one is to exclude all dealers from your search. Their overhead makes them a total waste of time unless you’re shopping cars new and expensive enough to be in warranty.
I’ve had my 2018 over 3 years & 30k miles now and love it more the longer I’ve had it, but “an engine that offers all the character of a Xerox machine” hits the nail on the head and is my biggest complaint; its power is fine, but it lacks soul and doesn’t sound very good (stock exhaust still). Tech is old but the integrated screen is so much better than a dash-top iPad, and the interior (mine is a Ti Lusso) is a nice place to be. The handling dynamics make it all worthwhile tho, and the fixed aluminum paddles are as fun as reported, just avoid the sunroofs… Viva Italia!
My first true love was Julia. We travelled together in Europe for 6 months at 19. Lots of exotic unobtainium cars were seen along with amazing sights and experiences. Returned here. Started university together in Steven’s Point. Came back from class one day and she was gone. She was as beautiful as the Guilia and probably the reason I would never own one. One day she will just disappear
alfa 5-hole wheels are played out and tired and must go
we are truly at the last call dodge charger-ification of this car at this point
let it die with dignity
Wired Carplay/Android Auto is such a non-issue given you can buy a dongle that converts your wired system to wireless for like $30 off Amazon. It’s probably more reliable than a lot of the built-in wireless systems too.
I love this car, though as per the conclusions in the review, I wouldn’t bother going new, let someone else take the depreciation bath.
My neighbor had one for a couple years, but he mostly drove a random assortment on non-Alfa loaner cars until it was lemon lawed.
Best car in its class. Lexus IS300, Mercedes C-Class and current BMW 3 Series? Boring, plus the current C-Class has a cheap crappy interior. Tesla Model 3? Same again, also far less reliable.
Sounds like the perfect lease vehicle, assuming a nice low monthly.
Except for all those nitpicky details which I actually find a big deal.
A lot of that shit would turn me off as soon as I sat in it, that is, IF I could get in. Not so limber anymore.
My next car is my last car, so, keep trying, every mfr!
In a similar boat. I want the next mode of transportation to last the wife and I until jet packs are a standard consumable, is that so hard? Until then, damn if I want to give up sharp handling, and sharp looks inside and out, with decent acceleration (more is always better).
The Maverick hybrid works well for us, rides nice and doesn’t have terrible handling, but it’s not the same. Our other vehicle, a Ford Focus hybrid that replaced my Saab 9-3 convertible, while practical, is just ordinary.
Been looking at a low mileage 2015 BMW 435i convertible that’s just gorgeous. No idea what ridiculously expensive part/system might fail, but I can’t seem to look away. Why won’t the real auto beauties hold up? Do I need to sacrifice a chicken? I’l do, I promise. Also I tell the truth ‘cept when I lie.
You only have to overlook the failure-prone and eye-watering-expensive-to-repair unimportant bit that is the engine. Other that that, no worries 🙂
If you could only speak that logic to my wife. When she asked me where I had been, it should have been Home Depot, but no. Without thinking I blurted out browsing at a dealer lot. Anything interesting? Well yeah…
She looked it up online and now she HAS to see it, carrying a checkbook. Wish me well.
Even the N54 engine is pretty solid. It’s just everything bolted to it that sux. Again, left stock, it works. My late father-in-law told me decades ago that “there are so many horsepower hours designed into an engine. You can take them out in big chunks for a little while or smaller pieces for a long while”.
If it has the B58 engine, go for it. My 2012 E93 BMW convertible (hardtop) has been quite reliable. Tires and wheels are on-going expenses here in California, land of the potholes. If you don’t drive like AJ Foyt going for the championship, not much has broken in 108k miles. Still has lots of pad life left on the pads installed at 25k miles by the dealer.
I didn’t get that deep into the engine when looking at it on the lot, but it’s a 3L I6 DOHC 24V TwinPower Turbo, which I think could be a N55, which I know nothing about.
Unfortunately the wife’s old Fusion plug-in hybrid threw up multiple codes yesterday, so we’re off to the shop today, if it’ll make it. She was barely out of the driveway when the parking brake threw an alert. She stopped and then the parking brake engaged (she did not set it), and wouldn’t release. Studied up on it, put it in brake maintenance mode then out of it, which cleared it long enough to get it back to the house.
So I know we’ll be going to the lot today, cause she wants out of the Fusion. I’ll get a good look at the engine then.
Haven’t had a convertible for about 5 years, after decades of having one. Miss it pretty bad, so this is hard lol…
Oh, and we’re on the central Cali coast, and we know potholes so so well.
If you live in Michigan at least, leases on these are indeed pretty cheap. They push them on the Chrysler employee lease deals, thus we see a lot of them around here.
I don’t think this car is aging as well as you claim. It was super pretty when new, but a decade on and it’s looking a bit “tired jelly-bean”
Given the looks was the main draw to this car, there isn’t much incentive left for me.
I don’t know… I look out in my driveway because I like to look at mine. My son power parks it at work so he can look at it out the window while he assembles submarine sandwiches. My wife, not a car person, will occasionally look out the window and go “look at the pretty car”.
Opinions are just opinions, but I’m close friends designers in the industry for the big three and most will comment to me about how well the car has aged over eight years.
Wonder if this’ll get the new Hurricane 2.0 turbo. 320hp and an extra MPG or two might move the needle on this thing.
They’re going to have to do something with it—they can’t just keep producing the same thing for another ten years. This would be a HUGE reason for me to actually consider the Giulia again
That engine and a third pedal would put one of these in my garage.
Edit: In the second model year
I’m considering a 3-pedal Quadrifolio when I move to Europe since I can actually get one there. For now, I’m pretty happy with the 8-speed 2.0L.
Funny enough, this car’s biggest competition is from it’s Stellantis siblings at Maserati. I immediately think of the Ghibli when looking at the Giulia, although the Alfa looks better. Both are 4 door sporty sedans, both RWD or AWD autos, “Italian” by way of Chrysler, massive depreciation, questionable reliability reputation. For 15k, I’d probably go with the song of the Pentararri V6 over a base Alfa.
Or, the ‘as tested’ 60k gets you into lightly used M3/M4 territory (or more directly CPO M340/S5). Who would get the Alfa?
Weirdly, I think the Giulia might be a bit better built than the Ghibli. I sort of shopped both on the used market this year before deciding to go a different way entirely, the Alfa seems to hold up pretty well under normal mileage and proper maintenance, but the Maserati seems to age like a ’90s Hyundai
If you’re shopping lightly used bimmers, I think you’re shopping lightly used Alfas as well.
Two wildly different cars. I get what you mean, but the Ghibli, which I did cross shop btw, rides on a variation of the LX platform. It’s larger and heaver, has all the charm of an expensive V6 Charger with a bit more exotica, and has interior trim that disassembles itself. The handling and stability are nowhere near the same between the two cars.
How it does compare to the Maserati brand is that it shares the Giorgio platform with the Gran Turismo and the Grecale. If anything, the Grecale and the Stelvio are the only two that directly compete with each other as they’re on the same Giorgio platform and are built on the same assembly line but touch on different price points.
While i did consider a used Ghibli or Quattroporte, I decided against it for a multitude of reasons, but the final decision was that I just couldn’t buy a car that compared to the Giulia and the Giorgio chassis for such a small investment. It’s the one of the best kept used car deal secrets for enthusiasts.
My daughter-in-law’s mentor had a Ghibli and a BMW I-8 at the same time. When he wanted something different, he kept the BMW as it was more reliable.
Am I reading that it has both better mileage and offering more power from AWD than a Subaru WRX?
Is that not justification alone?
Subaru’s abysmal fuel economy doesn’t lay the bar on the ground, but in a deep ditch
Needs a manual to grab a weirdo like me, but if Alfa wouldn’t put one in a 4C they won’t put one in anything. Maybe they’re still working hard in the back room on their weak second gear synchro issue from the ’70s.
FYI while the 4C never got a manual, the Giulia in the rest of the world does indeed come with one, even the QV. I tried my hardest to convince a dealer to bring me one here to no avail.
Not up to the dealer if the manual was never emissions and impact certified.
So an enthusiast brand won’t spend the money to appeal to enthusiasts. Great job, Alfa.
As a lifelong Alfa fan, that’s been my refrain since they came back to the US. Not a single manual car in their lineup here since they came back in 2015.
Somehow the strategy of appealing exclusively to Camry buyers and SUV-driving soccer moms didn’t really pan out, who knew..?!
The real problem wasn’t Alfa as much as it’s the cost of certification. The US makes it expensive to do so and if the brand doesn’t think they’ll see a return on that investment then they won’t bother.
best [rental] car ever
I wonder what the actual reliability metrics look like versus a BMW 3 series or an Audi A4 or A5 or a Mercedes C Class? I’m certain they’re not like a Camry or an Accord but what happens when you compare them to the category they’re supposed to be competing in?
Having owned it’s not-identical twin, the Stelvio, for 3 years and 60k miles, I can assure you it’s way more reliable than either the 3 series or A4. Only 1 minor issue with an EVAP valve throwing a code, but dealer replaced it and no problems after. Had a 2006 C class (was a 1 year old dealer car when we bought it), and had zero issues with that over 4 years, so the Alfa is probably at least as reliable as the MB
I should probably also have said that I had one for two years (leased but still) and had no issues with it. I feel like the reputation they have is unfair, but I’ve never seen actual numbers.
🙂
Having worked for VW/Audi in the past for 10 years, I can tell you that the Giulia is way more reliable.
Fix It Again, Tony.
Another Laughable Fatuous Acronym.
I own a Fiat too. We’ve had a 5-speed 500 for 10 years and it’s been flawless.
This is why I have long aspired to be an automotive journalist. I’d really like to drive this for a week and then give it back to someone else who is responsible for the repair, maintenance, and payments.
I’ve had mine for seven years and it’s been rock solid. The last thing I’d ever want to do is hand back the keys.
This! Unless it’s for another Giulia.
It seems like a car that can give you a great experience as a driver, but it’s as an owner where they lose me. Like many people, I’m kept away by reliability concerns, maintenance concerns, things I’ve heard about dealers, and the worry that Alfas move in such a low volume that they’ll pull out of the US and screw me somehow.
No wireless CarPlay or Android Auto here, only wired.
Motorola makes an official wireless adapter for Android Auto. Works pretty well, but being forced to charge to use Android Auto was actually pretty helpful. I have the adapter (works great) and moved my USB to a port in the car that charges faster. I still mostly charge when I drive, so I’m plugged in anyway. Being able to let a passenger use it without losing Android Auto is great. Paying with my phone out the window isn’t a choice between living with a 6′ cable or unplugging every time. Less wear and tear on the car’s USB port is also nice.
” the Alfa Romeo Giulia will still capture your heart.”
I’d only want a vehicle like this if it had a manual. With the slushbox, I might as well get a RWD Tesla Model 3/Ioniq 5/kia EV6 and have something that is way more efficient, has a lower TCO, needs less maintenance, is quieter and is just as fun.
Oh I won’t get the “excitement” of engine sounds with those EVs? Big whoop given that turbo 4 cyl isn’t gonna ‘sing’ like the old Alfa Busso V6 or anything like that.
And you can pick up new RWD EVs for the same or less money.
The only thing this Alfa is offering that is truly interesting to me over a modern RWD BEV are some more interesting colour choices.
You know what might make the Giulia more interesting?
If they took the new Hurricane Inline 6, took away the turbos, added a manual transmission and dropped it into this thing. Then Alfa might have something more compelling as it will have an engine that ‘sings’. Even with a slushbox, a non-turbo inline 6 would be a more interesting proposition from a driving experience perspective.
And to gain sales, they need to do something different.
If you’re considering a Model 3, then you would never consider a car like a Giulia. These are two cars that would never typically be cross-shopped. My daughter had a Model Y and traded it in two years later because it was trash. The interior was cheap. Parts were randomly falling off of the car both inside and out.
As for the manual transmission? Blerg… I have multiple cars that are stick and auto. While generally against and auto because of slow shifts, the ZF 8-speed is the auto that cured that for me. It’s the best on the market and shifts between gears as quickly or slowly as I want/need it to. The only transmission an enthusiasts needs is one that shifts quickly enough between gears. It shouldn’t matter if it’s an auto, manual, DCT, or whatever. The only transmission that should give an enthusiast a soft-on is CVT.
The CVT is a hard pass for me. I bought a VW GTI w/DSG for my wife because I refused to have a CVT. Further confirming my stellar judgement, my daughter-in-law’s Subuie Ascent CVT went toes up at 106K miles to the tune of $15k. The dealer and SOA decided that since they had the reprogrammed software done just 15K miles before, it was covered under goodwill warranty. Being a little slow on the uptake, they immediately trained the repaired car for a Forester hybrid… mit CVT. (But it’s a different typenCVT).
I really wish the Giulia had an M340i/S5 spicy but not all out variant to be honest. The base engine is just not really becoming of a car that’s such an emotional play and while the QF is obviously a legend I’d worry about reliability, the horrible gas mileage, and the RWD only aspect of it to the point that I’m not sure if I could ever fully enjoy one.
That and I live in a place that requires front license plates and Aflas are completely incompatible with front plates. Anyway…hey Stellantis, can we get a heavily depreciating sedan with the Nettuno V6? That engine is a fucking marvel but I will never have MC20 money and don’t think I could ever be seen in a Maserati crossover *Dennis Reynolds voice* because of the implication.
They have a front license plate mount that screws into the tow hook mount. Also, I get it with the turbo 4. I wasn’t sure until I drove one and then quickly decided to buy right afterwards. It’s more than sufficient, but an in-between option would have been great too.
“ the Alfa Romeo Giulia will still capture your heart.”
I’d only want a vehicle like this if it had a manual. With the slushbox, I might as well get a RWD Tesla Model 3.
Very good looking car, that green and gold pop nicely. The ass end seems to sit too high for some reason, there’s a lot of fender gap. Maybe it’s just the pictures?
they are gorgeous to look at and the quadrifoglio sounds amazing at song, but for the money and perceived maintenance nightmares that may or may not show up i just wouldnt be able to pull the trigger.
Man this looks great in this green over gold. If it had a manual and a better engine it might be enough to forget that it will be broken sooner than later.
It’s probably for the better, I can’t afford to own one anyway.
I think this car looks nice, the interior is great, mainly because it is “old” and has buttons and an integrated infotainment.
I think when they debuted with these and that suv thing 5,10? years ago, everyone else was really excited about them. By all reviews, they drove great, looked good and were fun cars.
But they kept breaking. So the review was well done, but I do wonder about long term. How is the reliability over there these days? Have they seemed to gotten it under control?
I’ve owned a 2018 Stelvio (the SUV) Ti Sport (with the same engine this Giulia has) for over four years now. It’s been very reliable. You can also get the Mopar Max Care warranty on them, so I have full warranty coverage until November 2026 and 125K miles. I’m lucky though to live in an area with many dealers so I can take advantage of the warranty if needed.
The ones breaking were the Quadrifoglio versions. The 2.0 in the other models are very reliable.
Thank you!
And most of those issues were due battery issues. Alfa has a bit of history shipping cars with too small and bad batteries.