Founded over a century ago in 1910, Italian automaker Alfa Romeo is among the most storied car brands in the world. Enzo Ferrari even won the Targa Florio behind the wheel of an Alfa Romeo, long before starting his own legendary company. Despite Alfa’s global prominence, its brand image in the United States has been anything but consistent. The Italian automaker left the US market in 1995 and, aside from a few limited edition sports cars here and there, didn’t fully return until 2015.
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It’s been nearly 10 years since the Alfa Romeo Giulia landed on our shores, giving American shoppers an Italian alternative to the BMW 3 Series. CarBuzz recently spent a week driving a 2024 Giulia Veloce to catch up with the pretty sedan that helped relaunch an entire brand in the US. Currently, in its eighth model year, the Giulia has only been minimally updated in a market that is dominated by crossovers and SUVs. A new model is on the horizon, likely borrowing underpinnings from the all-new Dodge Charger.
With such big changes coming, we wanted to do a retrospective on the Alfa Romeo brand and its return to the US. What worked, what hasn’t, and where will it go in the future?
2024 Alfa Romeo Giulia
- Base MSRP
- $43,340
- Engine
- 2.0L Turbo Inline-4 Gas
- Horsepower
- 280 hp
- Fuel Economy
- 24/33 MPG
4C & 8C: The Limited Edition Chapter
Before Alfa Romeo decided to fully jump back into the US market, it dipped a toe with two limited edition sports cars, the 8C and the 4C. The 8C arrived in 2008, sold through Maserati dealerships with a $240,000 price tag. It shared components with the Maserati GranTurismo, including a 4.7-liter Ferrari-sourced V8. Alfa only built 500 units total, with only 90 coming stateside. It was great to have the brand sold here in some capacity, but it was far too limited to be considered a true comeback.
Next came the 4C in 2014, named after its mid-mounted four-cylinder turbocharged engine. This car wasn’t exactly affordable with a $55,000 starting price, but it was far more attainable and available than the 8C, and it sold in higher numbers, 2,188 units from 2014 to 2021 in the US. Cars like the 4C and 8C won’t help Alfa Romeo suddenly overtake BMW or Mercedes-Benz in sales, but they are an important halo to help give the brand more positive recognition, especially among enthusiasts.
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The Giulia: A Four-Door Affordable Ferrari
The Giulia marked Alfa Romeo’s true return to the US market, aimed squarely at the BMW 3 Series. Power comes from a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine producing 280 horsepower and 306 lb-ft of torque, figures that are high for a base engine in this class, but lacking compared to mid-level options like the Audi S4, BMW M340i, or Mercedes-AMG C43. What it lacks in straight-line speed (0-60 mph in a reasonable 5.1 seconds with AWD), the Giulia makes up for in style and handling prowess. Very few modern sports sedans have such communicative steering, an Alfa Romeo trademark.
This is a stunning car from every angle. Alfa’s triangular grille is iconic, and our Veloce (which means fast in Italian) trim tester rides on 19-inch wheels that look like the Quadrifoglio ones. The Alfa Rosso exterior paint looks especially Italian chic, though it’s a little gaudy when paired with the $750 red leather interior (black is also available). Alfa Romeo hasn’t done much to keep the Giulia updated, aside from some light refreshes, so the beautiful design is starting to look dated next to its competitors.
Technology: Italian Kryptonite
Where the Giulia thrives in driving dynamics and pure beauty, it completely fumbles on technology. Nothing else with a “luxury” badge feels so far behind the times. The only infotainment option is a tiny 8.8-inch touchscreen, and in addition to being much smaller than the competition, it boots up slower than Windows ’97 and is laggy after it finally does.
Alfa Romeo added a matte finish to the screen, likely to eliminate sun glare, but it ended up having the opposite effect, making everything hard to read. Combine that with a low-resolution backup camera, and the Giulia feels old. CarPlay and Android Auto make the experience more tolerable, but it’s baffling that the Giulia and Stelvio never got the much-improved Uconnect 5 system that’s in the Tonale.
On a positive note, the Giulia now uses a digital cluster that can mimic classic Alfa Romeo gauges. In the future, we’d like to see Alfa Romeo add more gauge styles from its illustrious sports car history, even if they come as downloadable content. We also like the rotating knob, which can be used instead of the touchscreen, though it seems like Alfa Romeo is moving away from this controller.
If Alfa Romeo wants to stay in the US market for good this time, technology can not be an afterthought; it’s essential to the product.
Pivoting To SUVs: The Stelvio & Tonale
Relaunching an entire brand with a compact luxury sedan seemed like an OK idea back in 2016, but the US market has quickly pivoted towards SUVs, and so too did Alfa Romeo. The Stelvio launched as Alfa’s second model in the US, competing against the BMW X3. Most recently, the Alfa Romeo Tonale joined the lineup as an entry-level crossover with a plug-in hybrid powertrain, dipping a toe into the electrified waters.
Alfa Romeo has struggled to achieve high sales volume since returning to the US. The Giulia had its best sales year in 2018 when it moved 11,519 units. Alfa only sold 3,461 units in all of 2023 and started 2024 slowly with just 640 units in the first quarter.
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Despite being an SUV, the body style beloved by so many Americans, the Stelvio hasn’t dramatically outperformed its sedan counterpart. Its best sales year also came in 2018 (12,043 units) and hovered between 7,700 to 10,000 units before plummeting to 5,340 in 2023. Just 917 people took home a Stelvio in Q1 2024.
Even introducing an SUV to the lineup wasn’t enough to dramatically improve Alfa’s sales, and adding a second one hasn’t done it either. The Tonale didn’t go on sale until Spring 2023 but still managed to sell just 2,096 units total. Through the first three months of 2024, the Tonale trails behind the older Stelvio with only 728 units sold. This might be because the Tonale is only around $2,000 less than the Stelvio, and it may not help that the mechanically identical Dodge Hornet starts for around $12,000 less without the plug-in hybrid powertrain. Not to mention the fact that the Hornet is a great car. Even in PHEV R/T guise, the Dodge undercuts the Alfa by two grand. Perhaps that explains why the Hornet outsold the Tonale by more than 10-fold so far in 2024 (7,419 units in Q1).
Death Of Quadrifoglio: What’s Next For Four-Leaf Performance?
The current Alfa Romeo Giulia does not have much time remaining on this Earth, but the performance Quadrifoglio model will be the first to go. Alfa Romeo announced that the 2.9-liter twin-turbo V6 that powers the Giulia Quadrifoglio and the Stelvio Quadrifoglio will end production in June 2024. The 505-hp engine brought Ferrari sound and performance to a semi-affordable price point, and we will miss it dearly once it’s gone.
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Does Alfa Romeo have a future in an electrified world?
Alfa promises that Quadrifoglio models will live on in the electrified era, but the internal combustion chapter of the four-leaf clover is about to end. We have no doubt that the next chapter will be even quicker with the rumored Giulia successor set to arrive with 1,000 hp. Speed wasn’t the only thing that made Alfa’s QV models feel special though; Alfa Romeo will need to figure out a way to make its performance EVs stand out from the competition.
Learning From South Korea: The Ioniq 5 N Sets The Path
It might seem counterintuitive for a brand that is so well-known for its gasoline-powered performance cars, but Alfa Romeo’s long history might make it an ideal brand to transition to an electric performance future, so long as it can learn from Hyundai. There have been plenty of quick EVs up to this point, but the 2024 Hyundai Ioniq 5 N is the game changer. The Ioniq 5 N is different from any other EV that’s come before it. Its ability to simulate gears with its N e-shift feature makes it feel more like a gas engine vehicle on the track. It even mimics the sound of a turbocharged Elantra N with a virtual rev limiter.
Imagine how well Alfa Romeo could copy the Ioniq 5 N’s setup. Hyundai may have been the first to discover how to make an EV truly appealing for sports car enthusiasts, but Alfa Romeo has a chance to perfect it. Hyundai’s back catalog is but a fraction of Alfa’s, meaning it had fewer options to pull from when choosing a sound profile for the Ioniq 5 N.
Electric Vehicles Won’t Kill Car Culture, They’ll Make It Even Better
The writing is on the wall. It’s hard to argue that electric cars aren’t a major boon for the automotive enthusiasts community.
Imagine an electric Alfa Romeo performance car that can simulate the engine notes of some of the brand’s most iconic vehicles. You could have the Giulia Quadrifoglio’s twin-turbo V6, the legendary Busso V6, or even the Maserati-sourced V8 from the 8C. Downloading these performance packages could change not only how the car sounds, but also how it performs, limiting initial response from the electric motors to make them feel more like a naturally aspirated internal combustion engine.
New product cycles begin years before the public even sees the car, so taking lessons from Hyundai and incorporating them into a new EV isn’t likely to happen in the immediate future. But if Alfa Romeo is listening, this is an amazing idea that could help the brand stand apart from electric competitors.
What’s Next For Alfa Romeo?
Alfa Romeo has not confirmed many of its future product plans, but various rumors can help us understand the company’s future. Alfa has launched a new mid-engine supercar called the 33 Stradale, which will also spawn an all-electric variant. Its successor will be named later this year. The brand also revealed a smaller crossover called the Milano, which was later renamed the Junior due to complaints from the Italian government. A crossover of that size likely wouldn’t sell well in the US, which is why Alfa Romeo won’t bring it stateside.
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As far as we know, Alfa Romeo’s future in the US rests on two cars: the Giulia and Stelvio successors. Alfa’s bosses have announced that the new Giulia will ride on the same STLA Large platform as the all-new Dodge Charger, which means it will have access to the same powertrains. We can look forward to a 1,000-hp all-electric Quadrifoglio, and ICE enthusiasts can always opt for models powered by the Hurricane twin-turbocharged inline-six. Alfa fans are used to V6s, but an inline-six is better than no cylinders at all.
So long as these cars retain what we love about Alfa Romeo (gorgeous styling, excellent driving dynamics, and copious amounts of Italian flair), we are excited to see what the brand has in store.
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