Never really fancied an Alfa, but I do fancy something a bit different that'll stand out from the crowd in these Antipodean parts. The Giulietta looks quite tasty, and the importer has knocked a chunk of change off the price of brand new 1.4 turbo petrols - manuals or autos.
Bit more commodious than the A1 I am eyeing up, and only three quarters of the price. More powerful too... Tell me that it's insane to compare an Alfa with an Audi..?!?!
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Well HJ likes it:
www.honestjohn.co.uk/carbycar/alfa-romeo/giulietta-2010/
although he likes the A1 more:
www.honestjohn.co.uk/carbycar/audi/a1-2010/
When we were looking at potential company cars earlier in the year we also liked the look of the A1, but ruled it out because it appeared to have less boot room than the Colt it would have been replacing.
Last edited by: Focusless on Thu 18 Sep 14 at 10:37
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Brand new? I'd imagine depreciation over the period you intend to keep either vs. warranty and running costs would have a lot to do with deciding it.
Personally, I think sitting into an Alfa each morning would make me smile. An Audi wouldn't do it for me. But then again, when I read the car test that said Subarus were "for the committed contrarian" I knew they were for me :-)
Edit: based on our previous Fiats chez Gromit, I'd not reckon on keeping the Alfa beyond 8 years, or else plan generoulsy for repairs to see it out to the scrappy. 9 seems to be the magic number for Fiat group cars and bigger bills.
Last edited by: Gromit on Thu 18 Sep 14 at 11:17
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A relative has got a 3 year old Giulietta but with the 140hp diesel engine. He thinks it's brilliant, even though he's had an Alfa before.
:)
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I quite fancy a Guilietta, but the boot would be too small for my needs at present. Maybe when The Boy has finished university...
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I had the 2.0 litre 140 bhp one as a company car for a year or so. It was quite good fun
to drive but I was a bit underwhelmed by it. I preferred it to the Audi A3s we had on the
fleet and it was good for twenty thousand miles but then I left the job.
It comes with a wine rack in the glove box.....no German car would have that.
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Had a couple as hire cars, but they were diesel.
Thought it was OK for a day or so, but not sure I would want to live with it. Hard to explain, but it felt a bit cheap and tinny although I couldn't put my finger on exactly why - maybe it was because I was still driving my Volvo then.
Don't recall the ergonomics being that good either.
If price is the biggest factor then maybe, but if it was my hard earned then I think I would put it elsewhere
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Last time I sat in a Giulietta there was nowhere for my left foot when off the clutch. You should check to see if that's an issue for you (it won't be if you're going for an automatic!).
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I'd have to reverse it onto the drive so I didn't have to look at that pug ugly gob every morning.
You buy an Alfa partly because its pretty, that one is like going to bed with a slapper you met down the pub - scared to open the curtains in the morning.
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Alfas have been cheap and tinny for ages. They're still eager and up for it. Never mind tinny, or get some heavy metal instead.
As for the thing's looks, I don't know what Zero's on about with his dodgy old slappers and jumping screaming through the curtains and glass window on the 14th floor of his budget hostelry to escape a fate worse than death. Anyone sane would take the slapper every time. Looks a perfectly nice modern midsizish jalopy to me, even a bit more winsome than most.
Funny thing though, taste. It does vary a lot.
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Don't mid Zed - he thinks the Kizashi looks like a 'chew yer arm off' slapper as well.
I'd give it a 7/10 personally.
www.autoexpress.co.uk/suzuki/kizashi/12488/suzuki-kizashi-pictures#main-content-area
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...Kizashi...
Bless you
I think I saw one like yours on my last US trip (never noticed one here) and I'm with Z on its looks.
The Giulietta, like all Alfas, suffers from the silly offset front number plate. May look great with a tiny Italian one (or none at all as in many US states) but a full size one looks daft.
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I would definitely buy one if it came with a lifetime guarantee.
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>> like all Alfas, suffers from the silly offset front number plate. May look great with a tiny Italian one (or none at all as in many US states) but a full size one looks daft.
The whole car looks a bit flash if you ask me. Suitably de-blinged and shabby looking, with the biggest petrol twin-cam engine expensively ported and tweaked, it would be a very respectable semi-invisible express.
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>> it would be a very respectable semi-invisible express.
Its predecessor, the rear-transaxle Alfa 75, felt very sound and solid the only time I ever went in one, and there wasn't much wrong with its immediate fwd ancestor the 156. People said the V6 versions weren't as good owing to chassis weaknesses, although they tempted many.
The earlier little Giuliettas and GTVs were rugged road slingshots treated correctly. And I really liked the wedge-shaped transaxle Giulietta as used by the Carabinieri in some exciting Eyetie telly I once saw.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Sun 21 Sep 14 at 17:09
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>> some exciting Eyetie telly I once saw.
'La Scorta' I now remember, about the special Carabinieri bodyguards entrusted with protecting a leftish Sicilian politician from the Mafia, something like that. Very stylish driving here and there.
Leaving a café in Rome after a few glasses of that white they have in the wine machines in Rome, Herself and I once blundered innocently into the middle of a group of rangy characters who didn't move out of the way, and who suddenly turned out all to be staring down at us with withering scorn. Then we noticed that they were all holding well-worn automatic firearms of various sorts in a casual, familiar sort of way, and that they all looked as if they had slept briefly in their clothes for several nights and lived on coffee, brandy and cigarettes. Their expressions didn't change as we faffed our apologies and scuttled away.
You don't need a heater
to live la Dolce Vita
(but the Carabinieri
make a point of seeming scary).
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And I really liked the wedge-shaped transaxle Giulietta...
Yes, AC, me too. Before my (driving) time but a lovely-looking machine, I always thought. Not classically perfect, perhaps, but perky and distinctive from any angle - a bit like the Honda-Rover 200 saloon but better executed. Can't remember when I last saw one; I don't think it collected even a niche following like the Sud Sprint (a black one of which seems to live near me) so I suppose they were mostly left to rust away.
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I had a 2.0 diesel 170 version, it went well enough.
The A pillars were exceptional thick obscuring the view at some junctions. Otherwise a pleasant enough car.
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Looks like my idea is a non-starter. Typical sales technique. Made a phone enquiry, but they have "sold out" of the special price cars I was interested in. A different offer on their website for 0% finance also no longer exists. But can they point me to a demo car costing GBP1500 MORE than the special offer priced ones...? Thanks but no thanks. Back to the A1 methinks.
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Alfa Romeo Giulietta - Any good? Special offer pricing... - Focusless
