If Shakespeare’s Juliet was on her balcony
in Verona, staring down into the courtyard below, this is the sight she would
see.
A dashing, robust young Italian called, Alfa Romeo.
The Giulietta (English translation: Juliet)
is showing a fresh face on the market, with the addition of the Veloce
derivative, fitted with Alfa Romeo’s superb 1750 turbocharged four cylinder.
The other models in the Giulietta range
feature FIAT’s 1.4L MultiAir engines, but it’s the 1750, which bristles with
Italian brio, verve and sparkle - the minute you turn the ignition key.
Mind you, both the Giulietta, and the Mito
are in their twilight period on the market, as they will soon be replaced by
new cars, which will sit under the brand new, and highly-acclaimed Giulia
sedan.
FCA boss Sergio Marchionne has dictated
that Alfa Romeo will once again become a ‘Premium Brand’, and that means FCA
will lavish budget and resources ensuring that its sporting passenger cars, and
sports cars, are just that. Sporting!
I should mention as well, that ‘Premium
Brand’ is also code for – “We can charge more for the experience.”
Alfa Romeo has been a somewhat lost marque,
ambling aimlessly about the quiet halls of Alfa Romeo in Arese, near Milano,
for a couple of decades. FIAT knew it needed to do more to exploit the famous
brand, but was so broke, it could barely afford paper cups for the water
coolers.
So now we have the Giulia, which has been
welcomed with rave reviews from the automotive press; next will come the
station wagon version (which should do well in Europe), but all commentators on the Italian car business will be looking for the Stelvio SUV to put
Alfa Romeo on the map globally.
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| Stelvio SUV assembly at Cassino |
Don’t you think it’s sad that great marques
like Alfa Romeo, Maserati and Jaguar have to debase their heritage by producing
SUVs with a sporting flavor?
Oh well. Whatever! Got to keep the money rolling
in.
Back to the Giulietta Veloce. Veloce is a
badge which has adorned quite a number of Italian cars over the last 70 years,
and probably most of them were Alfa Romeos.
In 1956 there was a beautiful
little coupe styled by Bertone; and then Bertone did it again in 1965. These
were simply beautiful cars to look at and drive.
Perhaps not great to own, as
they were some of the cars which created Alfa Romeo’s terrible reputation for
rust and unreliability.
As far as I’m concerned if you were an Alfa
Romeo owner back then, you only had yourself to blame. Just drive the car for
the week after a service and tune up; and don’t drive it in the winter when
there’s salt on the roads to melt the ice! The rest of the time, do what I do.
Go into the garage, and stare at this beautiful example of Italian automotive art and
breathe deeply.
Ah. Back to the present, and the Alfa Romeo
Giulietta Veloce.
First of all, I cannot in all conscience
congratulate the Chief Designer from Alfa Romeo Centro Stile, Lorenzo
Ramaciotti. I think that when you look at the Giulietta and the MiTo from the
front, they both look like a pair of sad and mournful basset hounds. The front
styling of both these cars in my opinion is not beautiful, it’s downright
plain! But, I remind you, that’s only my personal opinion.
As for driving Giulietta? Give me more!
Once you fire up the 1750, this is a car that demands to be driven.
Also, the
twin clutch transmission, which is a hybrid developed by Borg Warner and
Magneti Marelli, is a great example of development and
calibration.
The box, which is manufactured by FIAT at
Verone, near Milano, is by Borg-Warner; and the software is by Marelli. This
DCT works perfectly, and suffers no low speed stutters. The changes are smooth
as silk. And, when you’re revving the 1750, the engine noise; and the exhaust
note, sounds very sporty.
Every minute in this car reminds me why I
LOVE everything Italian – art, culture, language, music, food, wine, people and CARS!
The Giulietta turns in nicely, although the steering
is a bit woolly at TDC, but, when you point the car in anger at a corner, you
know exactly where it’s going. When you accelerate out, you think to yourself,
“Thank God I’m driving the Veloce.”
I find the interior quite disappointing
from a design point of view.
It seems to be a bit of this, and a bit of that.
Some fake carbon fibre on the dash and doors, a few switches littered about the
place, and the info on the LCD between the speedo and the tacho requires even
young, 20/20 drivers to wear reading glasses – the type size, and the way it’s
crammed into such a tiny space just makes it all too hard to see at a glance.
But, you will say, “You’re driving this car
for the pleasure, never mind if you can’t see the info. Think of the emotion.”
You’re right. However, there’s more.
Despite the relative efficiency of the newly-developed FIAT C-Evo platform, the
Giulietta is compromised in terms of interior space.
There’s barely enough room
for a 95 percentile adult to be really comfortable in the back seat, but front seat passengers can
set up the front seats very nicely.
I should point out that the platform itself
is VERY old. It served the FIAT Stilo, Bravo and Lancia Delta, so it’s well
past its effective use-by date.
But, that comes back to FIAT’s ability to
afford new models.
The parent company survives on debt, so we should be
grateful it found the necessary Euros to update the old FIAT Stilo platform to
the C-Evo status.
However, let’s not stray too far from
reviewing the Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce.
It’s a fun car to drive. The 1750 engine
delivers fantastic performance and revs out cleanly, with crisp changes from
the DCT. I do feel sorry for all my mates in the USA who get very little (and I
mean, very little) opportunity to drive an Alfa Romeo the way they’re meant to
be driven. The Giulietta restores your faith in the Italians to produce a fun,
sporty and thoroughly entertaining car – regardless of size.
I think back to 1976 and driving an Alfasud Giardinetta wagon across Northern Italy, and down to Ventimiglia on the
Cote d’Azur, and thinking: “Nobody should be allowed to have this much fun behind
the wheel.”
Well, the Giulietta might just be that car too.
Buy one now, before they disappear in a year or so.
If you want a thoroughly
Italian, compact hatchback, with a lot of get-up-and-go, then get a Giulietta –
you won’t be sorry.
Mind you, as you drive out of the
courtyard, Juliet might get a bit misty-eyed.
