Motors

Geneva motor show: Alfa at last ready to put the Giulia on sale

A 2.2-litre diesel and 2-litre petrol will be available to order from April

The new Alfa Romeo Giulia: regular diesel and petrol versions of the Italian firms’s make-or-break saloon will be ready for orders from mid-April

Tue Mar 1 2016 - 15:30

Finally, we're there. We've been waiting and waiting and waiting for Alfa Romeo to bring its new, rear-drive Giulia saloon to the market. Years of hints and leaks have kept us on tenterhooks. Not once, but twice senior Alfa management sent the car back to the drawing board and then, when it had been shown in hottest 510hp Cloverleaf form late last year, it was hit with another delay - a return to the engineering department to make sure it could get through its crash tests. All in all, it's been a very Italian process.

Here at last though, is the standard Giulia saloon (as opposed to the range-topping Ferrari-engined V6 4WD version we’d been shown up till now). It comes with a choice of 150hp or 180hp 2.2-litre diesel or a 200hp 2.0-litre petrol turbo, and from April 15th, customers in the European, African and Middle East (EMEA) regions will be able to get their orders in.

You can have all three engines with a choice of six-speed manual or eight-speed automatic gearboxes, and suspension is by double-wishbones at the front and a multi-link setup at the back.

Impressively, it’s light - Alfa’s engineers have kept the weight of the 180hp diesel version down to 1,370kg which is pretty trim for a 3 Series-sized car. Much of that is down to using items such as a carbon-fibre propshaft and aluminium for the suspension subframes.

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There’s also a clever braking system, which ties the mechanical hydraulic braking setup in with the vehicle stability control, and which claims to be able to stop a Giulia in just 38-metres from 100kmh.

All models will get, as standard, forward collision alert and emergency active braking with pedestrian detection. Inside, there's a new 8.8" infotainment system with a BMW-style rotary controller. Optional Sport and Luxury Packs are available with full-grain leather seats with power adjustment and heating, wood trim, more chrome and Xenon 35W headlights with AFS (Adaptive Frontlight System). The Sport pack comes with sports steering wheel, aluminum inserts on the dashboard and door panels, and Xenon headlights.

Enough to get you out of your 3 Series?

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