I live less than ten minutes from the Alfa dealer and you'd have to PAY me to take one. No freaking way would I ever buy a new Alfa to use as daily driver/real car.
I'd happily own an old Spider or GTV as a fun vintage car that I take out here and there.
Even all the old Top Gear crew of Hammond/May/Clarkson say that they're miserable to actually own and they're all huge Alfa fans.
Challenger TA by a mile.
Souped up Macan? Think of it as a sliiiightly lifted 440hp AWD hatchback :D
Chrysler = Alfa Romeo = FCA.
They are all the same thing.
I don’t get the abhorrence of one vs the other what so ever.
alfadriver said:Chrysler = Alfa Romeo = FCA.
They are all the same thing.
Corporate ownership is Apples to Avocados.
American family car with a pushrod V8 vs an Italian sport sedan with a chopped up Ferrari engine. Sure they probably share an infotainment system and a couple other things but lets not pretend that the Giulia was engineered by the same team from Detroit.
The Italians are only to be trusted with grapes, tomatoes and coffee.
I'm Italian, and I say Challenger over the Alfa. That has to stand for something. 
Car & Driver just released an update on their long-term Alfa Giulia. It's broke. Again. It took multiple trips to the dealership at 4000 miles because it kept throwing Check Engine Lights and going into Reduced Power Mode, and the Alfa dealer was baffled by it and could find no cause, so they threw a fuel pump at it and that seemed to fix it. Then it spent a full month at the dealership at 10,000 miles, waiting for a new differential after the original one started making bearing noise and Alfa corporate said that it was best just to replace the whole assembly.
In reply to NickD :
I was just coming here to post that. Timely link
And when your Giulia breaks, apparently Alfa puts you in an LX-car. Might as well skip the pain and heartache and just buy the LX car.
G_Body_Man said:You'd still have to be nuts to buy one over a used 09-13 Quattroporte GT S though
The Quattroporte is missing one crucial ingredient though, namely the warranty. Plus that one would be a car I can't take on a customer visit - I can just about get away with taking an Alfa.
NickD said:And when your Giulia breaks, apparently Alfa puts you in an LX-car. Might as well skip the pain and heartache and just buy the LX car.
That seems to depend on the dealer, but appears to be true for DodgeFiatAlfa dealers. Not sure if it's the same if you get it serviced at a Maserati/Alfa dealer.
Some late night research suggests that these cars seem to fall into two categories - either they work, or they tend to break quickly and often. Plus there seem to be a bunch of issues with dealers that tend to be better handled by dealers that usually deal with Maseratis and Ferraris.
I didn't see the following three come up in the thread,
Jaguar xe
Buick regal wagon?
Acura Tlxszttt too many letters?
Otherwise I think your heart needs you to get the Alfa and enjoy the car despite any poor reliability. The Dodge will perform well as well but it read like you are settling for it.
I was talking with the owner of an Aprilia motorcycle and he had familiar complaints. Fantastic bike. Not as reliable as the Japanese. Terrible parts availability when something breaks. Something about Italian vehicles?
Advan046 said:I didn't see the following three come up in the thread,
Jaguar xe
Buick regal wagon?
Acura Tlxszttt too many letters?
My wife likes cats but not Jaguars. The other two I basically don't like.
Otherwise I think your heart needs you to get the Alfa and enjoy the car despite any poor reliability. The Dodge will perform well as well but it read like you are settling for it.
I don't think I would be "settling" for a Challenger. I like those silly things - I've had a bunch as rentals including a couple of R/Ts, and my wife drove an SRT392 at Bondurant. They make me smile because they're so gloriously politically incorrect, and fun to drive.
The Alfa is a bit more subtle, plus it's a four door - I really don't like Dodge Chargers, so they are out. The heart kinda says Alfa while I can get one, because with the way things seem to be going I'm not sure how long they'll be around in the US.
Kreb said:I was talking with the owner of an Aprilia motorcycle and he had familiar complaints. Fantastic bike. Not as reliable as the Japanese. Terrible parts availability when something breaks. Something about Italian vehicles?
Yeah, Aprilia is kinda the Alfa to Ducati's Fiat if that makes sense when it comes to parts availability.
BoxheadTim said:The heart kinda says Alfa while I can get one, because with the way things seem to be going I'm not sure how long they'll be around in the US.
It's interesting to me that the fact the company may not be in this market much longer actually makes you want to buy from them. This isn't really a criticism. The heart wants what it wants and I know that limited availability can lead to impulse decisions, but this isn't the McRib that's "only available for a limited time, so better hurry". You're not talking about regrettably spending $4 on a crappy sandwich. You're talking about spending 10,000 times as much on a vehicle. It's an expensive tool that needs to work. If it's not going to work, it might as well be a pile of 10,000 McRibs sitting in your garage. When I think about spending tens of thousands of dollars on a product that will need service and parts support, and the choices fall between numerous companies that will be around for awhile and one that has a questionable outlook, I'm running away from the company that won't be around long.
One of the big reasons that you've given for wanting a new vehicle, is that your current fleet of older vehicles is becoming less reliable. And then you want to spend big coin on an Alfa? That seems contradictory. I don't have any experience with Alfas, so maybe I'm being too harsh, but when multiple media outlets have issues with brand new press vehicles that would give me pause.
I'm not advocating the Alfa, but note that the C&D car was a QF, not a normal Giulia.
Ram50Ron said:alfadriver said:Chrysler = Alfa Romeo = FCA.
They are all the same thing.
Corporate ownership is Apples to Avocados.
American family car with a pushrod V8 vs an Italian sport sedan with a chopped up Ferrari engine. Sure they probably share an infotainment system and a couple other things but lets not pretend that the Giulia was engineered by the same team from Detroit.
The Italians are only to be trusted with grapes, tomatoes and coffee.
Except that dodge was selling rebadged Alfa’s for many years, since the Dart was an Alfa.
Besides, it’s not as if Chrysler is anywhere near Honda or Toyota, so the firm is closer together than they are different.
Dave M said:I'm not advocating the Alfa, but note that the C&D car was a QF, not a normal Giulia.
It was also early in the model run.
Duke said:Dave M said:I'm not advocating the Alfa, but note that the C&D car was a QF, not a normal Giulia.
It was also early in the model run.
The C&D one is a 2018, which happens to be the exact model year I'd be looking at. My research so far does seem to indicate that the QVs seem to be more prone to problems than the Tis. Not saying that the latter are problem free, but they seem to be holding up better.
Challengers don't seem to be exactly problem free either, including rust on five year old cars (really?), but overall seem to be a little bit better.
In reply to BoxheadTim :
I didn't realize the C/D tester was that new. I admit I did not got read the linked article.
The C/D car wasn't new, it had been a press demo before it joined their fleet. FCA (specifically FIAT) doesn't have a great reputation for reliability...but for a good lease deal, I'd say go for a test drive and report back (sorry if I missed that earlier in the thread). If it's under Warranty, and they provide loaners, you'll essentially get MANY cars. Think of the excitement and anticipation every time you get assigned a loaner!
Lease deal is a good idea. What's still a bad idea is this is a DD car that you need to be very reliable and your dealer is 100 miles away.
You don't have a lot of free time, how will you feel about spending 3 hours taking it to the dealer? What if it's broken down? Will they send a flatbed out to you with a loaner car on it, then collect your broken Alfa? Then you still have to spend 3 hours going to get it once its fixed.
Dude, this is a bad idea. Pick a car that you have a local dealer in town, like no more than 10 miles from you.
Yeah, anything FCA would be a lease just in case. I can always buy it off-lease afterwards (and yes, I realize that this is the more expensive option).
Hoondavan said:The C/D car wasn't new, it had been a press demo before it joined their fleet. FCA (specifically FIAT) doesn't have a great reputation for reliability...but for a good lease deal, I'd say go for a test drive and report back (sorry if I missed that earlier in the thread). If it's under Warranty, and they provide loaners, you'll essentially get MANY cars. Think of the excitement and anticipation every time you get assigned a loaner!
I test driove a TI Sport early this year, that is partially what prompted this thread. I suspect that if I had driven a QV I’d be posting about how unreliable it is already...
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