1973 Alfa Romeo Gtv 2000 on 2040-cars

Auto blog

2017 Alfa Romeo Giulia Ti

It is the cover car of the moment for enthusiast publications across the country. And the introduction of the 2017 Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio deserves the notice. With it Fiat Chrysler Automobiles marks the real return of Alfa Romeo sales and service to the North American market. Alfa's two-seater – the 4C – preceded it, but the target market for those coupes and roadsters could be fitted into a commuter jet. The new Giulia is aimed at the midsize sport sedan audience currently occupied by the BMW 3 Series, Mercedes-Benz C-Class, and Audi A4. The sales potential is huge and historically underserved by Italian brands. While the Giulia Quadrifoglio, with its 505 horsepower and track-ready suspension gets the ink, we think it's the more pedestrian Giulia sedan that's deserving your attention. And by pedestrian we don't mean prosaic; the Giulia is an exciting sedan built atop a competent platform and propelled by a responsive turbocharged drivetrain. With a base price in real-wheel-drive form (all-wheel drive is optional) of under $40,000, the Giulia is accessible in a way the $72,000 Quadrifoglio is not. On Alfa's Build Your Own site we studied the options, selecting an upgrade with Alfa's Giulia Ti. It constitutes a $2,000-bump over the Giulia's $38,000 base, and gives you 18-inch alloy wheels (vs. the 17-inchers on the standard Giulia). The Ti also provides dark gray oak interior accents and the availability of both Sport and Lusso (luxury) appearance packages. Other adds included the Vesuvio Gray exterior ($600), additional leather interior trim ($995), the Ti Performance package ($1,200) and the Ti 18-inch Sport Package ($1,750). The Sport package adds more aggressive alloy wheels, paddle shifters, and aluminum pedals, while Performance supplied the active suspension and limited slip differential. The end result is a net price of $45,535 including applied offers. We think we'd lease it. In talking with an Alfa dealer in suburban Washington, an advertised lease special on a $44,000-Giulia resulted in 39 payments at just over $500 per month, with roughly $7,500 out of pocket and a residual value of $21,239. At the end of that 39 months you have the option of returning the car to FCA or buying it for the residual. We think the Giulia, with an MSRP of between $40,000 and $50,000, is a screaming deal. And to buy your own 'used' car at the end of three years for $21,000? That's a crazy good deal. Related Video:

The mood at this year’s Paris Motor Show: Quiet

The Paris Motor Show, held every other year in the early fall, typically kicks off the annual cavalcade of automotive conclaves, one that traverses the globe between autumn and spring, introducing projective, conceptual and production-ready vehicle models to the international automotive press, automotive aficionados and a public hungry for news of our increasingly futuristic mobility enterprise. But this year, at the press preview days for the show, the grounds of the Porte de Versailles convention center felt a bit more sparsely populated than usual. This was not simply a subjective sensation, or one influenced by the center's atypically dispersed assemblage of seven discrete buildings, which tends to spread out the cars and the crowds. There were not only fewer new vehicles being premiered in Paris this year, there were fewer manufacturers there to display them. Major mainstream European OEM stalwarts such as Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Nissan and Volkswagen chose to sit out Paris this year, as did boutique manufacturers like Bentley, Aston Martin and Lamborghini. This is not simply based in some antipathy on the part of the German, British and Italian manufacturers toward the French market — though for a variety of historical and societal reasons that market may be more dominated by vehicles produced domestically than others. Rather, it is part of a larger trend in the industry. Last year, Mercedes-Benz announced that it would not be participating in the flagship North American International Auto Show in 2019 — and that it might not return. Other brands including Jaguar/Land Rover, Audi, Porsche, Mazda and nearly every exotic carmaker have also departed the Detroit show. Some of these brands will still appear in the city in which the show is taking place, and host an event offsite, to capitalize on the presence of a large number of reporters in attendance. And even brands that do have a presence at the show have shifted their vehicle introductions to the days before the official press opening in an attempt to stand out from the crowd. In many ways, this makes sense. With an expanding number of automakers, with diversification and niche-ification of models and with wholesale shifts that necessitate the introduction of EV or autonomous sub-brands, there is a growing sense that, with everyone shouting at the same time, no one can be heard.

2023 Alfa Romeo Giulia and Stelvio tweaked outside and in

Another Stellantis brand has hopped on the streamlining craze, this time Alfa Romeo. The Italians from Turin dropped info on what's coming to the 2023 Giulia sedan and Stelvio crossover for international markets, the best bits likely destined for our market as well. After introducing new brand hallmarks on the Tonale, the Giulia and Stelvio adopt the revised Trilobo grille and three-section full-LED headlights. You'll need look closely to see the grille differences, but there's a touch more depth and sculpting around the edges. The headlight changes are easier to spot, the "3+3" inspiration coming from the SZ and Brera, which predate the Tonale. The headlights also come with automatic high beams. Other shores that can have fancy lights get the Adaptive Matrix high beams that automatically adjust beam contours so as not to blind oncoming traffic. Yes, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration cleared the mechanics of such lights for use in the U.S. in February of this year, but U.S. laws stipulate a lower maximum brightness than allowed in other markets. We'll see if the matrix system makes it here. The taillights don't appear to have changed, their covers have. The Giulia gets transparent glass taillight covers, the Stelvio gets smoked glass. There could be some illumination tricks front and back, too. We're used to seeing sequential turn signals in back, spy shots have shown a sequential turn signal pattern in the headlights, and Alfa says there's a "'Welcome and Goodbye' device that turns on every time the driver closes or opens the car."  Every trim features a 12.3-inch digital instrument panel that comes with three themes. The Heritage theme recalls the analogue gauges on vintage Alfas, with some upside down numbers on the analogue-looking speedo, a minimalist tachometer and a digital facsimile of the old school odometer with rolling numbers. Evolved "represents the future of Alfa Romeo design," placing most information in the center, the circular areas at the edges containing sweeping needles for the speedo and tach, but no numbers in the 'dials.' Relaxed puts nearly everything in the center, putting vitals like fuel level and oil temperature at the sides. Trim levels will be reorganized into two primary levels and two options levels. The basic tiers are Super, the entry-level, and Ti.