Alfa Romeo Giulia

Shame they botched it. I drive by the alfa dealer every day heading home from work and have been drooling over the giulias in the lot.

 

I often brake and accelerate at the same time, especially if on a race track and trying to balance the car or heal and toeing ... or I'm in mud and trying to get grip, I will use the brake to control wheelspin.

So yeah Alfa's fault as you should be able to do anything and the car's computer should not have a fit. This is like people who program/code computers expecting all data to be perfect and all users to never make a mistake ... IMO should never be allowed to work in the field of programming again.
Pete

 

Yes, absolutely alfa's fault. They were a bit too "lax" on this one. This car needed to be 100% bullet proof and it isnt. Believe me, I despise jalopnik but if enough magazines start picking up that the giulias have this issue people who don't know they brand or even the cause will have the opportunity to find it.

This car HAD to be 100% dead nuts reliable. It isn't. Even for a stupid little issue like this.

 

Buy A Lexus if you are looking for a 100% reliable car. Do not buy a German car.

That said, there's a reason why you never buy a car in the first year of its production.....even Porsche **** the bed with the 996 engines.

Give Alfa time, they will get it sorted.

 

We are enthusiasts here and love Alfa, so we are more likely to give it time and one/two/five passes regarding these issues. But we are probably 1% of the total market that Alfa needs.

Sure German cars have issues but they also have a much better reputation and to the regular joe looking for a 4 sedan in the $45k range, he will rather spend it with them or with Lexus than with Alfa (even if he likes the Alfa) because Alfa has a poor reputation (here moreso than in Europe) and all the other issues discussed here (fewer dealerships, untrained crew at Fiat dealers etc..).

With that said, i would buy a QV over an M3 but not everyone is a petrolhead.

 

I had a bmw e90-it was good but far from perfect. Wanted to hold onto to it until the Giulia came out but alas couldn't; leased a Lexus IS and like it so far. They don't use run flats which was a pet peeve of mine. Car rode like **** here in The northeast in the winter.

Alfa needs time-when the Lexus comes off lease the Alta's teething problems should be resolved....I hope!

 

the guy that had the loaner alfa for over a month now has a new AMG merc... never saw the alfa make it back

 

If they are still selling Alfas in America ...

IMO, and I come from an IT background, there is too much computer **** being put on modern cars that are simply not required. Yes we can, but really should we.

Example, the Hino truck I drive has a computer controlled automatic transmission that apparently adapts to how I drive ... do we need this? and what advantage does it give? Its a flippin truck, it should just never stop going. Same thing on my daughter's VW Golf, why? How much fuel economy improvements does it make ... bugger all I reckon.

The only good use of computers was the ECU, to control ignition and fuel injection. That is all that is required. Modern engineers need to stop masturbating over technology and remember that unlike home PC's, stopping and restarting a car is a real pain in the arse and not something users/drivers are happy to get used to doing.

It is so disappointing to see how humanbeings are miss using computing power. Engineering should be solving the "need" question, not trying to stick computers everywhere just because they can.
Pete

 

I'm also a firm believer in "Keep It Simple, Stupid".

But computer cars are the modern reality.

It began with the CAN bus, replacing heavy and expensive copper cable bundles with serial data communications.

Some of this is just a solid state version of the trusty relay.
Running headlamp current through the dash and stalk would require heavy and costly components, and cause excess voltage drop.
So way back in ye olde days, you were running a control voltage that flipped a relay.
Well over a decade ago, cars moved to computerized lights, where a signal from the dash computer told the headlamp assembly computer what lights to turn on -- even before the advent of LED lights.

This has been a disappointment to basic aftermarket modders.
In the old days, you could fiddle with the wire bundles and cause the fog lights to come on as you like, rather than as mandated by the government.
Now you have more flexibility to set how you like --- if you can reprogram the software.

Drive by wire throttles replaced the separate mechanical linkage and attached sensor cluster with a single integrated system ...
... really just a further development of engine management.

And with ABS and "autobrake" systems being layered on the braking system, brake by wire was the next step.
Wired! How Continental helps the Alfa Romeo Giulia put in a show-stopping braking performance - Continental Tyres: Vision Zero
Yes, you're not directly operating the brakes. But vacuum assist braking dates back to 1927.

All these things add up to lower weight and more flexibility.

But when you have that many possible adjustments, it'll take a while to find the sweet spot on setup.


And it can't be much worse than classic Alfa hydraulics, that had common hydraulic seal failures in both brake and clutch cylinders.
(I suspect this is from the metal used in the cylinders, that would develop corrosion far too readily, trashing the seals.)


There's a place in the average enthusiast's garage for an Olde School basic motorcar.
But the Giulia was built for the high end of the daily driver market, not as a weekend warrior.

 

Psk DGS, great posts! I think you spelled out the whole story with those two posts. I pray this fall and MY2018 will have most issues sorted.

 

Buying a Lexus is exactly what the laymen are going to do. Which are the same people alfa needed to pull away from their current brand.

The success of this car doesn't rest on the shoulder s of enthusiats.

 

Media do love to hit Alfa hard.

The brake and accelerate issue is, I believed is fixed with latest updates. Most of these issues with the press were with early cars. As for Jalopypik, all they seem to do is report the previous reports by other reporters
I do wonder if they get backhanders from the likes of BMW etc get for slagging off this superb car.
I think the Germans perhaps are a little worried.
My DD is German and I do like it alot but it is not really any different than my two previous Alfas regarding reliability.

 

Don't forget that a lot of this comes due to governmental regulations.

 

Being new software, of course there were some bugs to fix.

I've heard, on a Giulia owners forum, that it's difficult to get a really smooth low speed stop from a new-off-the-showroom car, but that it improves when the brakes run in. The software is set for the long term case. (In engineering, we call this "edge effects". )

The media really should be testing cars that are past their break-in period, not the ones fresh from the machining in the showrooms.
Or they should at least be cognizant of the differences.

Rodent Track used to run long term reviews on cars, where they'd see how it fared over six to twelve months of use.
But "webporters" don't really have the budget for that.

 

Probably lemon'ed it... we have a 2015 BMW, bought new, that I am close to "asking" them to take back...

 

This is bad

Alfa Romeo Is Failing the People It Should Impress

 

It's unbelievable that one faulty test car can create that much negative press. This article is all over the auto related press here in Europe also. We all love to read negativity about what we believe and hope is the truth and this kind of "Jalopnik news" is not helping rest of the fault free Giulias. This is fast food for the click-bait press and sadly not newsworthy...

If I read something similar in two years time and it relates to a large percentage of the Giulias - then this news would hold water. I hope I won't ;-)

 

It's Alfa Romeo, all the journalists were waiting to write this story ...

Pete

 

So True...

 

Fwiw, ive instructed in several hpde events in m3 and m4. Most had same issues with limp mode. Amg and lexus had no such troubles.

 

What do you mean one faulty test car? The press isnt driving the same car. At least i would hope not.

 

In another thread, I noticed that the MR2 was followed by Toyota dropping all sports cars, and the EVO was followed by Mitsubishi dropping cars completely (selling to Nissan).

Now the media (including Rodent Track, based in Michigan) is piling on the Giulia.

Remember all those kids, in college, who dumped on the nerd who "blew the curve" on tests?

Excuse me while I get my tinfoil hat.

 

It's not. The R&T article you posted makes that very clear. It's clearly not good news for Alfa as there have been many different types of breakdowns. I realize this is a new platform and these things have teething issues, but they should be working better...

http://jalopnik.com/here-are-all-the-problems-that-fca-has-attempted-to-fix-1797069082