The
Alfa Romeo
Giulietta is a far better car than the 147. That may be no great
revelation - the 147 has been knocking around for a full decade now, and
has long been usurped by younger, lither rivals - so here's a bigger
one: the Giulietta might just be the best car that Alfa has built in its
100 years of existence.Sounds
nonsensical? Stick with us.While the Giulietta does all the proper,
Best UK Used Cars grown-up car stuff - build quality, refinement, economical engines -
better than just about any of its predecessors, it comes at the expense
of Alfa's essential... Alfaness. Character. Passion.
God-give-me-one-now-and-to-hell-with-the-residuals desirability. The
Giulietta is an easy car to admire and like,but not one that grabs you lustily by the man-parts.
It
must be conceded that we don't have the ideal conditions in which to
fall helplessly in love with the Giulietta on our early test drive. As
we arrive at Alfa's Balocco test facility, just off the Milan-Turin road
in northern Italy (Mi-To, reads the sign pointing to the motorway),
rain is falling with a weight and ferocity that suggests someone's done
something massive to upset Him/Her/Them Upstairs. A
Golf
remains a Golf no matter what the weather,
Best UK Used Cars but an Alfa somehow requires
big blue skies and shimmering warmth. Shallow, perhaps, but hey, it's
an
Alfa. Shallowness is somewhere near the top of the CV.
Through
the rain, our white test car looks every inch the big brother to the
Mito. Normally we'd steer clear of discussing aesthetics at any great
length, because (a) you have eyes and (b) someone keeps casting Kirsten
Dunst in films,
Best UK Used Cars so clearly taste must be subjective. But Alfa has always
relied on visual oomph to sell cars, so forgive us a few demi-objective
points. First, the Giulietta is massively colour-dependent.
Those
sharp creases down the bonnet simply become lost in darker shades,
making the front end look too tall and shapeless. Secondly, though
you'll have spotted the resemblance to the new Megane and Astra about
the rear-end profile, the Giulietta's is a far more subtle backside, the
cutaway swage lines taking a lot of the bulk out of what could look
like a fat arse. The jewellery is gorgeous, the LED rear lights tracing a
lazy, unwinding delta towards the central badge, the handle-free rear
door as elegant as ever.But, for our ha'pence worth, that big
upright grille lacks the intrinsic elegance of the Brera and 159's
slinky front end. OK, the Giulietta looks a lot more distinctive than
the Audi A3, its most obvious rival, but is it properly beautiful? For
us, not quite. Not yet
Best UK Used Cars
Same story in the cabin. Nice, but not
irresistible. There are flashes of loveliness in here. The row of
‘horseshoe' switches below the central control panel are soft-touch and
beautifully damped, the vents on the centre console slimline and classy,
and the leather looks like it would taste of finest Argentinian fillet
if you licked it. Just a few more flashes of originality would have
raised the Giuletta's interior to proper ‘need one now' levels, but too
much of it is over-familiar: the steering wheel switches are straight
off a Fiat Punto, the plasticky glove-box door seems to have been nicked
from a Doblo van. Of course,
Best UK Used Cars all premium manufacturers indulge in a
degree of parts snatching from their cheaper cousins, but it all depends
on where you hide 'em: the Giulietta's borrowed bits remain too
exposed.
Right. Enough navel-gazing. With the rain now reaching
such ferocity that it can't be long until the ground bursts open like a
split balloon, or simply floats off into the Mediterranean, a sodden
little lump of Italy bobbing towards North Africa, we sweep out of
Balocco and in search of sunshine, lakes and a decent road.We
find the latter... and the Giulietta's fizz. It might not be
genuflectingly beautiful, but it doesn't half drive well. The Giulietta
sits on an all-new modular platform that will underpin a whole bunch of
future Alfas and Fiats, and gets aluminium multi-link rear suspension.
Alfa admits the 147 sacrificed too much comfort in the pursuit of
sportiness, and says this set-up strikes a better balance.
And,
by jove, they've cracked it. With the ‘DNA' switch - the button that
allows you to adjust dampers, differential settings and throttle
response on the fly - set to sharpest ‘dynamic' mode (an action which
also causes a nice little G-meter to pop up on the satnav screen, making
us very happy indeed), it's sublime, deliciously supple and controlled.
As far as it's possible to tell on drenched roads, it clings on nicely,
but can be easily coaxed into cheeky, controlled wet-roundabout slides.
There's
an almost organic quality to the Giulietta's steering that makes your
A3 feel lifeless, your 1-Series feel over-brittle. On a good road, it's
everything an Alfa should be. Fun.Unfortunately, such dynamic
loveliness does draw attention to the Giulietta's surprisingly soulless
engine. We're driving the 167bhp version of Alfa's 1.4-litre four-pot
petrol engine, which features Fiat's clever new ‘MultiAir'
variable-valve tech. Until the 235bhp Cloverleaf edition turns up later
in the summer, this is the most powerful Giulietta available. There's a
detuned version of the same engine available, too, packing 118bhp -
essentially the same engine we've driven, and admired, in the new Fiat
Punto - and a pair of diesels.
Objectively, grown-uppedly, the
top-spec petrol is excellent. It'll do 0-62mph in under eight seconds,
which is frankly quicker than a good-sized hatch with a 1.4-litre engine
has any right to be. Equipped with stop-start, it'll manage 49mpg and
just 134g/km of CO2: impressive figures. Yes, things are a bit dead
below 2,000rpm, but it hardly feels like a tiny petrol engine with a fat
turbo attached: power delivery is smooth and progressive, the boost
barely noticeable.
So what's the problem? In noise and character,
it's soulless: a modern Euro-spec turbo four-pot, all gentle turbo
whirr overlaid with a dull drone at high revs. It doesn't fizz round the
rev gauge with intent. In the A3 or Golf, we would regard this as a
fine engine. But in an Alfa - a brand that should sweat, bleed and
occasionally urinate petrol - it doesn't quite fit. It wouldn't take
much to inject a bit of soul, a hint of exhaust crackle would do it, but
for now you'd be better off with the bigger diesel.
And that's
the problem. By mature road-testy criteria, the Giulietta is a fine car.
Rear passenger space - always a gripe in the 147 - is now on a par with
the five-door Golf, and the boot is of a decent size with a nice flat
loadspace. At speed, it's very nearly as quiet and refined as the A3.
Great, brilliant, but it leaves us just a bit cold. Would you sell your
family pets to the local kebab vendor to pay for one? Meh.
You
could argue, quite fairly, that we're trying to both have and eat our
Battenburg here. We spend years moaning about the unreliability and
flimsiness of Alfas, and then as soon as they build a solid, refined
car, we moan that it's characterless. The Giulietta is now a genuine
Golf and A3 rival, and, though prices are yet to be confirmed - Alfa has
announced only that the Giulietta will start at around £17,000 - it
should be competitive. But if you want something that's like a Golf,
Best UK Used Cars we'd guess you'll still buy a Golf. Alfas have always catered to the
more petrolheaded market, but this one doesn't. Not quite.
Alternatively
you could argue, again quite fairly, that our eyes have got it all
wrong: that the Giulietta is the most desirable car you've ever seen.
Maurice certainly would. Maurice is possibly the most excited elderly
man in Europe. At the end of our test drive,
Best UK Used Cars we park up the Giulietta in
a sodden town square on the banks of Lake Maggiore, its waters frothing
and foaming as if Godzilla is soon to rise in apocalyptic rage. Maurice
comes literally skipping from his little grocery store, clapping and
clasping a Giulietta brochure as he splashes through the rain.
"Bella,
bella, bellissimo," he chants hypnotically, stroking the car and
beaming like he's just downed a morphine smoothie. In a conversation
that could generously be described as bilingual, and more accurately as
‘pointing and repeatedly shouting', we establish that he has achievement
the purchasement of a Giulietta that commences its arrival upon the
second Saturday of the May-month. Bought a Giulietta - 1.4-litre, 118bhp
petrol in white - without having driven it or even seen it in the
metal, just a couple of photos on the internet. Yowch. That's
commitment.
For us, right now, the
Alfa Romeo
Giulietta just hasn't reached that level of desirability. The
Cloverleaf - which will arrive in the summer, packing meatier visuals
and, with any luck, a more engaging powertrain - should help matters.
Until then, we're impressed, but not in love.
Best UK Used Cars