Hot Alfa saloon gets a welcome cabin refresh but the driving experience remains the main attraction
Four years have passed since a revitalised Alfa Romeo first unleashed its fantastic Giulia Quadrifoglio on the motoring masses. How excited we were: here was Alfa’s first rear-wheel-drive model in a quarter of a century. Not only did it turn out to be a bona fide driver’s car, but it was also quite simply the best car Alfa had launched in a generation.Despite all of this, things weren’t exactly rosy in Turin over the following years. Sales struggled in Europe and the US; the Stelvio SUV with which it shared its newly developed Giorgio platform didn’t perform as well as expected; and Alfa’s plans to field seven models by 2023 were significantly pared back. Considering the billions of pounds parent company Fiat Chrysler Automobiles had poured into the brand under charismatic former CEO Sergio Marchionne, that must have been concerning. Perhaps the forthcoming PSA Group merger will turn things around for the better.In the meantime, however, Alfa has treated the Giulia Quadrifoglio to a minor mid-life refresh. So there’s a new touchscreen infotainment system, and a full suite of advanced driver assistance systems has been introduced, too. The material quality of the cabin has also been lifted ever so slightly. An Akrapovic exhaust and exposed carbon roof are now both available as options – although our test car had neither.
Source: Autocar
