The name "Giulia" means "youth" in Italian, but the legendary vehicles from Alfa Romeo that carry it are anything but: The moniker dates to the early 1960s and was born by some of the loveliest, peppiest little rides this side of Turin.
It, therefore, made perfect sense that when Alfa commenced its return to the US market a few years back, it returned to the Giulia's heritage for a sedan to take on the best from BMW, Mercedes, and Audi.
In 2017, the high-performance version of the Giulia, the Quadrifoglio , was a Business Insider Car of the Year finalist. But it was also nearly $80,000 (worth every lira, if you ask me).
It isn't the only Giulia in town, of course. I recently sampled a 2018 Giulia Ti Lusso, stickering at $52,090 (base is about $41,000). It did not come with the Giulia Quad's 2.9-liter, 505-horsepower twin-turbo V6 engine, effectively a Ferrari V8 with two cylinders lopped off. Instead, it was powered by a 2.0-liter, 280-horsepower inline four, with but a single turbocharger.
In my experience, it can be tricky to move down to reviewing a less ambitious trim level of a car intended to fire the enthusiast's senses after hitting the road in the brawnier spec. In the case of the Giulia, however, I went into the process with a thematic expectation: The Quadrifoglio was power, but I assumed the four-banger would be finesse.
Ding-ding-ding-ding-ding! I was correct! So much so that driving the four-cylinder Giulia after the Quadrifoglio amounted to piloting a completely different car. Good different, ultimately. But different, all the same.
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See Also:
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- Hyundai just introduced an all-new family SUV to do battle with Honda, Toyota, and Ford
- Audi just revealed a new electric concept car and its stunning design rivals Tesla's Model S
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