Alfa Romeo Giulia Veloce Fast Fleet test – 7000 miles in the sharp Italian saloon

'You can’t call yourself a petrol-head unless you’ve owned an Alfa.’ Isn’t that the saying? If so, I’m a fully paid-up petrolhead: a 1967 Alfa Giulia Sprint GT with my name on the V5, if only for 18 months until it was sold to pay architect fees for the Gen 1 ‘Meaden Project’ house build.

Being an Alfista is an affliction you die with, not from, but that doesn’t mean palliative care isn’t welcome. Especially when it comes in the form of a rather gorgeous 23MY Giulia Veloce, which arrived at evo last summer. I wasn’t its original custodian – John Barker nabbed it first – but once I got my mitts on it in November, I didn’t let it go.

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It’s fair to say the four-cylinder Giulia is comprehensively overshadowed by its more buxom V6-engined sister. Not for nothing is that car described as a four-door Ferrari. We’ve been fortunate to run a couple of them over the years and were completely smitten by its looks, performance and practicality. Yet, as we’ve come to discover, in many ways the ‘lesser’ Giulia matches the Quadrifoglio, or even betters it in certain respects.

Styling-wise it doesn’t have quite the same muscled physique, but it’s still comfortably amongst the very best-looking four-door saloons money can buy. On-paper, £48k seems like a lot of money for a four-cylinder saloon, but the Veloce looks a million dollars. The wheels help – who doesn’t love a classic teledial design? – but the overall shape and proportions are spot-on, its perfect nose being the antidote for BMW’s increasingly porcine snouts.

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The interior is just as stylish, with plump and heavily bolstered front seats providing comfort, support and style in spades. Soft-touch and heavily textured plastics are of high quality, and sculpted so that the interplay of light and shadow always creates visual interest. Even the LCD dials have some character, thanks largely to the prominent hooded binnacle, which is very ’70s/’80s Alfa. There was a persistent squeak from the dash on our car, but JB cured it by stuffing a folded-up receipt into the binnacle.

With no manual option the Veloce can only be had with an eight-speed auto ’box. That’s a shame, but a sign of the times. Thankfully the transmission is smooth and responsive without being overly keen. It just seems to meld itself around your mood, to the point where I rarely found myself using the paddles.

There are three dynamic modes accessed courtesy of a neat and simple rotary ‘DNA’ controller. Normal was fine but I tended to find myself running in Dynamic, because it pepped things up just enough to bring the Giulia to life without feeling contrived. It just felt right.

The 276bhp engine had plenty of smooth, freely accessed oomph, but didn’t have quite as much sparkle as I’d have liked. Four-cylinder Alfas always used to be zesty and keen to rev, and while this turbo four has generous torque and a silky delivery, you rarely feel inclined to rev it to 6k.

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Chassis-wise it had an impressively supple ride and a beautiful balance, with just-so steering response that was a pleasure whether you were on a long drive (it was fabulous on a trip to Switzerland) or scratching down your favourite back roads. You definitely notice the lack of weight in the nose compared to the V6, especially when you’re making rapid direction changes. It really does feel keen and agile, and at 1429kg it’s a light car for its size.

Sadly, for reasons best known to Alfa Romeo, the ESP system cannot be even partially disabled. It works well enough and never feels truly intrusive, but it restricts you to leaning on the front end rather than teasing the tail into play. When there’s a limited-slip diff in the rear axle and the car’s as well-sorted as the Giulia, you can’t help feeling like you’re being denied the chance to enjoy it to the full.

That’s the only true demerit, though the brake-by-wire stoppers could also do with a slightly firmer pedal and a bit more bite once you’re really leaning on them. As they stand, they feel ever-so-slightly lacking in outright capacity, a hunch backed up by modest-looking calipers and discs.

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More prosaic plus-points include a near-500-mile fuel range, large boot and fully folding rear seats that allow you to fill the car to the gunwales. The infotainment system was easy to use and nicely integrated, while the modern driver ‘aids’ were mercifully unobtrusive and/or easily disabled. 

The Giulia’s service light illuminated shortly before RE23 KKU was due to go back, so we never had a chance to test the Alfa dealer network. A quick Google suggests they are thin on the ground: my nearest is 26 miles away in Bedford; the next nearest 40 miles away in Nuneaton.

In case you haven’t gathered, there is much to love about the Giulia. Time was, living with an Alfa required you to make generous allowances for quirks and foibles, but this Giulia needs no excuses. Gorgeous to look at, great to drive and effortless to live with, it makes Germany’s Big Three seem very dull indeed.

This story was first featured in evo issue 320.