Which Alfa Romeo Giulia?
Photo courtesy Centerline International.
Why the 2.0 and not the top-of-the-line Quadrifoglio? Good question.
The base and Ti Giulias use a 2.0-liter four-cylinder that puts out 280 horses, 225 less than the twin-turbo V6 in the Quad. It has 306 lb.-ft. of torque, 137 lb.-ft. less. But the rear-wheel-drive 2.0 also weighs nearly 300 pounds less, is mechanically simpler and sells for around $15,000 less. Besides the engine, active aero parts and torque-vectoring rear differential, the 2.0 and Quad use the same well-balanced chassis.
The 2.0 models came in a few trims with a few different options. Over the course of a nearly decade-long run–and they’re still available new–Giulias have changed very little.
Which 2.0 do you want? Let’s start with the drivetrain. Rear-wheel drive saves you 100 pounds over the all-wheel-drive version. Joe argues the benefits of an AWD exceeds the extra weight. “All-wheel-drive Audis are notorious for being understeer monsters,” Joe says. “Alfa Romeo’s is more like BMW’s xDrive, where it’s a rear-wheel-drive-biased system.”
Look for an Alfa with a mechanical limited-slip differential, too. “The cars without the mechanical limited rear slip absolutely eat rear brakes when driven hard,” Joe says. “They’re constantly using the rear ABS to simulate a limited slip.”
One possible downside to the mechanical limited-slip differential: It typically gets packaged with adaptive dampers. There’s even an extra button for the active dampers on the DNA mode selector. “If you’re in Dynamic mode and activate the dampers, the dampers actually get softer,” Joe says. “They took their cue from Ferrari–Ferrari calls it their ‘bumpy road button.’”
Two ways to fix this. One, you could get a car without a limited slip and swap one in yourself, like Centerline did, but finding a limited slip is more difficult these days. “We used to be able to buy those in a crate from Mopar,” Joe says. “Now if you want to order a mechanical limited slip, they want a core back. A way around that is you could get a core from an Alfa-focused junkyard.”
The other way to avoid those adaptive dampers is to find an aftermarket solution. Fortunately, that exists, with Joe recommending a coil-over kit from KW that plugs in without causing any serious ECU faults and works with the factory active functions. He adds that KW also has manually adjustable coil-overs, too, for the Giulia.
Speaking of ECUs, after mid-year 2018, the Giulia got a Security Gateway (SGW). This makes the ECU read-only unless you take it to a dealership or use a plug-in aftermarket bypass. While many Alfa Romeo dealerships are friendly to the aftermarket, be sure to remove that before any service at one.
Joe also recommends non-sunroof cars but admits they’re incredibly rare. If headroom is a concern, don’t be too worried, though. This 6-foot-4 driver with a long torso has plenty of room for his noggin’ with a sunroof.
If you have an early Giulia with sport seats, those seats might not tilt. Fortunately, Centerline has a kit to make that happen.
The Reputation and the Quirks
Photo courtesy Centerline International.
Italian cars are fickle, right? Giulias have their issues, some say. Joe concedes that Giulias did have some problems when first launched, but they’ve been largely resolved since then.
Things to look for? Many high-pressure fuel pumps would lose pressure, especially on hot days. Some radiators leaked. Some oil pumps failed.
Speaking of oil, Joe says it’s absolutely critical on these cars. Change it regularly and use the oil made specifically for Alfas. “They’re sensitive to oil because of the Multiair drivetrain,” Joe says. “It’s not a traditional dual overhead cam engine. It uses this Multiair brick to actuate the valves, and it has really tiny oil passages in it. If they get neglected, they can have valvetrain issues.”
The biggest problem the media nailed Alfa Romeo on was the electrical system. The early Giulias shipped with Varta batteries producing inadequate voltage. Low voltage sends the electrical system into full tilt, generating all sorts of errors. Most cars by now have had their batteries replaced, remedying this issue. Still, the Giulias do not like low voltage. Joe recommends keeping the battery fresh and says you should never jump the car. No need for a fancy battery, though; Joe says a good AGM battery will get the job done. A lighter battery, Joe warns, might affect the Giulia’s 50/50 weight balance.
If the car won’t start due to a dead battery or serious electrical fault, there’s no way to put it into neutral from inside the car to facilitate a tow. Instead, you must crawl underneath and use a tool, such as one Centerline sells, that allows you to manually put the car into neutral.
As these cars get older, watch the turbo’s wastegate actuator rod. With enough wear, the rod will start to rattle and eventually throw an underboost error code. Centerline will soon be launching a new rod with bearings at the ends that will eliminate this problem for good.
Lastly, you cannot simply turn off traction control on the four-cylinder models. An easy solution is to use an aftermarket tune that can adjust when that traction control kicks in. “We’ve partnered with Eurocompulsion,” Joe says. “The traction control delete is inverse to the throttle opening. So, at low throttle opening, you have a high level of traction control. The higher the throttle opening, the more it relaxes the traction control.”
For those really bent on eliminating traction control, a more extreme delete is available. “What you can do is install a DNA mode switch from a Quadrifoglio, which has Race mode,” Joe says. “Then you need to do some fairly in-depth reprogramming to enable the switch. And since all Quadrifoglio models had adaptive dampers–which are tied into the various drive modes–there will be some errors with the Quadrifoglio DNA switch if the car doesn’t also have adaptive dampers. So, it’s not plug and play, but it can be done.”
And reliability?
“We had that project Giulia and sold it to a good ex-employee,” Joe says. “He’s driven it to three Alfa conventions, from here in Colorado to the Upper Peninsula in Michigan to California to North Carolina. If you maintain them, they are good.”
Want to Gain Some Performance? Do This First.
Photography courtesy Centerline International.
As with most used car purchases, Joe recommends flushing and refilling all fluids. If you’re doing any sort of motorsport activity, be sure to use performance-oriented brake fluid and brake pads.
It’s worth noting that the Giulia is 100% brake by wire. That makes some brake upgrades not as noticeable. “We have a stainless-steel brake line kit that replaces all the flex lines,” Joe says, “but it doesn’t yield the benefit of a harder-feeling brake pedal.”
The Giulia and Stelvio share the same brake rotors and calipers, improving parts availability–to an extent. As far as track-oriented pads, Joe says they are easy to find for the front. The rear, not so much. Eurocompulsion sells track-oriented rear pads from EBC.
In addition to pads and fluid, Joe strongly recommends upgrading the wheel bolts to wheel studs, which makes taking off wheels much easier and safer.
[Wheel studs: What you need to know before making the switch]
On Centerline’s project rear-wheel-drive car, they went with a staggered wheel-and-tire setup to help mitigate the traction control. Joe went with wider 19x9-inch wheels in the back and 19x8s up front. They slapped on some 225/40R19 rubber up front and 255/35R19 in the rear. To get the wheels flush, they went with 5mm wheel spacers at all four corners and installed rear fender extensions from a Quadrifoglio. “Together the staggered wheel-and-tire package and limited-slip differential yielded immediate improvements in straight-line traction and cornering grip, greatly reducing annoying traction and stability control interference,” Joe says.
For those who prefer a square setup, Joe recommends a 19x9 setup with 255s all around.
Want to go even wider? Joe says it’s possible. Go with a 19x8.5 up front with 245 rubber and a 19x10 in the rear with 285 rubber. He says the car “will swallow it, no problem, as this was the factory Quadrifoglio model wheel and tire sizes.”
When it comes to camber, it’s difficult to get enough camber from the front, and you’ll get actually too much camber in the rear when lowering the suspension. Joe recommends using modified lower suspension arms for both front and rear, for different reasons.
Lowering springs do exist, but Joe recommends coil-overs for serious autocross and track use. In general, Alfas benefit from a bit softer ride than you’d encounter with a German car. “It’s the difference between the roads in Italy and the roads in Germany,” Joe says. “Alfas always have been a little softer, a little more body roll, but they grip well that way.”
How About the Power?
Photo courtesy Centerline International.
The Giulia is a torquey car, with torque kicking in at 2000 rpm and increasing linearly, Joe says. It doesn’t have a high redline, but performance improvements that take advantage of torque will benefit the car, he adds. His three top power mods? Intake, exhaust and ECU tune, which should cost you around $2000, he says.
Looking to go to an aftermarket cone-type intake air filter? Be careful. “Alfa made it difficult for tuners in that they have an intake air velocity sensor,” Joe says. “By going to an aftermarket type of filter, it can cause the check-engine light to come on.” He adds that Eurocompulsion does have a couple of filter kits that don’t suffer from this issue, as they include a new, machined housing for the sensor.
Joe says many Alfisti complain that the Giulia is too quiet, so it benefits from an aftermarket exhaust–but not just from a sound aspect. “We’ve got a 3-inch cat-back from Magnaflow,” Joe says. “We updated our original exhaust design to use a Helmholtz resonator in the center section in 2021–this gives the same full-throttle sound but also eliminates drone in the 1800-rpm range, with no effect on performance. You’ll definitely feel the throttle response difference right away with any basic exhaust. Most European manufacturers go with a 2-3/4-inch style of exhaust, but we’ve seen better results from a full 3 inches.”
Lastly, Joe recommends an ECU tune from Eurocompulsion called the Euro+Drive system. “It easily installs by flashing the tune from a handheld device through the car’s OBDII port, and can be removed at any time,” he says. “It increases power and torque while retaining the full functionality of the factory DNA drive mode settings.
“Our specific tune was a dual-mode tune, with Eurocompulsion’s Phase I tuning installed in the N setting and their Phase II tune installed in the D setting, with the A setting retaining factory programming optimized for fuel economy,” adds Joe. “Our tune also included some optional features, such as stop-start system deactivation, Dynamic traction control and a rev-limiter increase to 6400 rpm. Overall, the tune really made the car come alive, pulling much harder in all gears and allowing the car to rotate properly through corners due to the more relaxed traction control settings. In a very real sense, the tune was what pulled all of the other modifications together and made them work as a cohesive package.”
Is This the Right Car for You?
Photo courtesy Centerline International.
Joe believes the Alfa Romeo Giulia 2.0 platform offers a ton of potential if someone wants to take advantage of it, but it will require some trailblazing.
“The paths to take for a BMW 3 Series or Audi A4 are well known,” Joe says. “If you want something different, the Alfa is a viable alternative. You’re not going to spend more because of how Alfas have depreciated. Some of the mods may be more, but the car will be cheaper. It’s such a good chassis that you don’t have to tune the understeer out of it. You don’t have to do a lot of things to have fun with it.”
