2020 Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio review: Impassioned performance meets improved tech

Let’s be sincere. You really don’t invest in any Alfa Romeo — enable on your own this large-overall performance 2020 Giulia Quadrifoglio — for its protection tech, its infotainment smarts, or even its interior furnishings. No, you invest in it simply because it appears to be like this, and simply because it appears like this. You invest in it for its heritage. You invest in it to not see by yourself coming and heading. Perhaps most importantly, you invest in an Alfa Romeo simply because of how it helps make you sense, irrespective of whether you’re clipping an apex on a racetrack, your beloved canyon highway or that 1 switchback on your commute. Alfas are not about practicalities, they are about enthusiasm. You invest in 1 simply because you won’t be able to bear not to — shortcomings and dependability problem marks be damned.

The moment you settle for this reality, the Italian automaker’s primary occupation is all about taking away justifications for passing by their showroom in favor of the safer, additional predictable alternatives made available by the likes of Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz. For 2020, Alfa Romeo has expended appreciable effort and hard work sanding down some of the rough edges on its tech and cabin experiences in hopes of changing dithering dreamers and wanna-be iconoclasts into prospective buyers. Has the business done more than enough with this Giulia Quadrifoglio? Let’s dive in and discover out.

Amazing specs

Under its stunning, unchanged-for-2020 pores and skin, the Giulia’s powertrain proceeds to be the exact same as when it initial hit US dealers in late 2016. If you’re looking at this, prospects are you already know the pertinents of vary-topping Quadrifoglio design. Just in situation you’ve forgotten, know that this rear-wheel-generate sedan capabilities a Ferrari-derived, two.9-liter, twin-turbo V6, delivering not only 505 horsepower and 443 pound-feet of torque, but also a -to-60-mph time of 3.eight seconds (a time that neatly coincides with estimates for its chief rivals, the Audi RS5 Sportback and Mercedes-AMG C63 S). Prime speed? Happy you requested: 191 mph.

What people (admittedly superlative) figures are unsuccessful to telegraph is how alive and fizzy this Alfa feels. From the second you plant your back pockets into its deeply sculpted bucket seats, poke the steering wheel starter button and hear the six-pot motor bark to daily life, the Quadrifoglio bristles with strength and prospective, someway managing to sense on-the-balls-of-its feet at parking-good deal and freeway speeds alike.

A keen steer

It begins with the steering. Even at metropolis-avenue velocities, it’s the two insanely fast (two.two turns lock-to-lock) and adequately communicative from correct off heart to the endstops. Let me to underline the former. I merely won’t be able to recall the last time I drove something with four doorways exactly where so very little steering enter translated into so a lot directional alter. As a direct outcome, the Quad feels instantly and sublimely on the assault when you’re hammering on a curvy stretch. In exchange, the flat-bottomed 3-spoke wheel requires additional interest, even on flat stretches of freeway and in day to day urban driving. You’ll make additional modest corrections than you may well be employed to, and there’s heightened susceptibility to tramlining on uneven roads. 

It is well worth it. 

In an era of specific-but-dead-emotion electrically power-assisted racks — and even riding on my early-spring tester’s 245/35-series 19-inch Pirelli Sottozero winter tires — the Giulia stands out for its alertness and suggestions. Way out. That claimed, if you’re the sort of driver who prizes isolation, refinement and automation more than engagement, you in all probability shouldn’t be looking at the sportier variations of any compact luxury sedan, and you unquestionably shouldn’t be looking at this Alfa. 

Keep the (ceramic) brakes

That exact same perception of vigilance and immediacy is obvious in the brakes, as well. On display beneath my tester’s stunning five-spoke darkish-complete alloys ($five hundred), you’ll discover a established of generously sized carbon-ceramic stoppers (fifteen.4-inch discs fore, 14.two-inch aft). With six-piston calipers up front and four out back, these brakes are, frankly, overkill for the avenue. I have pushed a Quadrifoglio with the normal iron discs, and the brakes are nevertheless wonderful. 

These Brembo CCM models price tag a wallet-wilting $eight,000, and except you’re a regular observe-day attendee, you’re better off investing that dollars in other places. (Heck, even if you’re a habitual circuit rat, you’d almost definitely better served placing that dosh toward a large-overall performance driving university and some observe-spec rubber and pads.) As it is, these brakes offer an abundance of stopping power, although their immediateness requires some getting employed to (the uninitiated will dismiss them as grabby). Did I mention these exact same brakes employed to price tag $5,000? Porca vacca!

Holy shift

1 issue well worth noting: It may well be just my memory enjoying tricks on me, but it feels like the calibration of the Alfa’s ZF 8HP50 eight-speed automatic has improved given that the last time I drove a Quadrifoglio a number of years back. As before, irrespective of what method the DNA Pro generate-method selector is in, you’ll discover a fast-shifting transmission with calibration that facilitates perfectly-timed gearchanges and spirited driving. Even although the 2020 design nevertheless has a sensitive throttle, my tester’s cogswapper feels happier tooling all around town than the last Quad I drove — that car’s transmission occasionally clunked at sluggish speeds, as if to passive-aggressively enable me know it was disappointed on a brief leash.

1 issue that did not have to have switching with the gearbox: people significant, column-mounted, aluminum paddle shifters. Sure, some folks will originally be aggravated they is not going to discover the standard quantity of hand clearance involving the steering-wheel rim and the transform-signal stalk, but except you’ve got catchers’ mitts for arms, you’ll get employed to it. The payoff is splendidly tactile and responsive paddle shifters that you’ll want to use again and again, if only to hear the motor lunging toward its 6,five hundred-rpm redline even though doddering off to Starbucks.

The suspension is splendidly tuned, as perfectly. Agency, sure, but considerably from sponsored-by-the-American-Dental-Affiliation firm. Cornering is flat, and involving the aforementioned aggressive transform-in up front and the torque-vectoring minimal-slip differential out back, this 3,800-pound sedan feels unerringly balanced and nimble, as if its wheelbase is a foot shorter than its 111 inches. 

Gas efficiency

Despite no important powertrain improvements, according to EPA, the Giulia Quadrifoglio has mysteriously managed to eke out better freeway gasoline overall economy for 2020. Formal estimates simply call for 17 miles for each gallon metropolis, twenty five freeway (up one vs. 2019) and 17 blended. Even though these figures is not going to acquire you any citations from the Sierra Club, they’re essentially the exact same as rivals.

So that is the 2020 Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio’s driving experience: At at the time spectacularly visceral, speedy and amazing, all in a way that even people attained Germans really don’t really manage. Of class, you already realized all that, or at least, you in all probability could’ve intuited a lot of that just by mulling Alfa’s name and looking at these photographs. 

2020 updates

So… what about people advancements to the ease and protection tech, and to cabin furnishings?

In a nutshell, regardless of an superb driving place and primarily perfectly done critical driver touchpoints (seats, steering wheel, pedals and the aforementioned paddle shifters), pre-2020-design-12 months Giulia cabins were underwhelming. They arrived across as hollow-emotion melanges of subpar plastics, insubstantial switchgear and sub-par infotainment that would’ve been disappointing to discover in a backyard-range Mazda or Volkswagen, never ever mind in a sport sedan aiming to demand upwards of $75,000. 

I’m happy to report that items are comprehensively better this 12 months. 

On the infotainment front, there’s a new eight.eight-inch display from Magneti Marelli, and it capabilities a additional intuitive, configurable layout together with better graphics and new capabilities. There is certainly also Apple CarPlay and Android Car integration, furthermore a WiFi hotspot and offered wireless charging. The program is touchscreen-centered, but there’s also a revised command knob with improved building and handwriting recognition, together with voice-command capabilities. More capabilities consist of overall performance web pages and a new Alfa Connect app for your cellular phone with auto heath check, remote commence, and so on). The new components even will allow for more than-the-air firmware updates.

In the long run, even though a large advancement more than 2019 models, this new architecture continues to be inferior to FCA’s have Uconnect, enable on your own current variations of Audi’s MMI or Benz’s MBUX. That’s correct in something from boot-up time to aspect richness, intuitiveness or common slickness of look.

The exact same can be claimed for the updated elements and switchgear. There is certainly a restyled leather-wrapped gear selector, new rotary knobs with better-emotion actions, furthermore a thoughtfully redesigned heart console with improved storage and better cupholders. Again, even though these improvements characterize not-insubstantial victories for ergonomics and sense, they nevertheless really don’t measure up to the elements employed on competing offerings.

Pricing and ADAS

For 2020, the complete Giulia vary, from the base design ($39,400 furthermore $one,295 place) on up to this loaded-up Quadrifoglio ($seventy four,445 base $90,840 as analyzed such as its oddly pricier $one,595 place price), benefits from normal forward-collision warning with automatic emergency braking. In addition, my car comes outfitted with a new Lively Driver Help Deal, a $two,000 Degree II tech bundle that capabilities adaptive cruise command with lane centering, furthermore targeted traffic indication recognition, lane-maintain guide and energetic blind-location guide.

Evidently, overall performance and enthusiasm isn’t going to come cheaply, but the Quadrifoglio’s pricing is really correct on the dollars for the segment, and this car’s breathtaking appears to be and relative rarity usually means you’re additional most likely to get nods of acceptance at your neighborhood Autos & Coffee attract than people who roll up in RS, AMG and M rivals.

Continue to 1 for the iconoclasts

In the close, the 2020 Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio proceeds to supply singularly superlative, participating overall performance even though benefiting from a bevy of sizeable advancements to its weakest factors. Even though I suspect these updates finally is not going to be more than enough to entice a entire new crop of prospective buyers into Alfa showrooms, people who were on the fence formerly will most likely have a a lot much easier time justifying heading out for Italian.