Tetering on the abyss alert - Giulia TI - talk me down (or better, enable me)

In reply to BoxheadCougarTim :

I’m not familiar with CalTrans, but that seems pretty weird. I lived in Canada for a bunch of years and people tended to avoid SUVs and trucks in the winter. The vast majority of families had “winter beaters,” which were generally FWD economy cars with good snow tires. One of my winter beaters was an E28 5-series with studded snows. Got me around just fine, even ski trips in the Laurentian mountains.

If you don’t need AWD in Canada, I’m not sure why they’d require it in California. But California is gonna California, I guess. 

Quadrifoglio or bust!

In reply to LanEvo :

You don't need AWD per se, it's just that the combo AWD + snows is the easy button in the mountains. Plus the chance is higher that Caltrans will wave you through when they're holding "regular" traffic - happened to me a couple of times last winter. Mind you, in at least one case I shouldn't have continued the trip even though I made it in the end. But at least that trip and a couple of others over the last 2-3 years were marginal even with AWD.

The whole "block the Interstate and check if people have chains, snow tires and potentially AWD before letting them through" occasionally rubs me the wrong way, but I've been stuck on Donner Pass with a whole bunch of Bay Area holiday travelers that have no concept of driving in the rain, let alone in the snow. That was "interesting" to say the least, and I get why they put up the controls.

That's the main difference to Canada - if you can't drive in the snow in Canada, you either learn very quickly or Darwin will sort you out. But in the Bay Area, most drivers seem to consider light drizzle a major impediment to traffic...

markwemple said:

Quadrifoglio or bust!

Given my vehicular history, there is a good chance that it would turn into "Quadrofoglio and bust". And of course that one is RWD only anyway.

We have a loaded CX-5.  It's a nice car but pretty anemic and at elevation I'm sure it would feel slow.  They need to drop in the 2.5 turbo but they're stuck on the diesel that's going to sell 17 examples in the states.

Golf R?? It's a great all around car and they seem quite robust.  I'd be in one of I hadn't decided to stretch to the F80 M3 for a bigger car for baby totin'.  

Dropped by the Alfa dealer on my trip back from IKEA. Despite me showing up in my beater truck they were happy to show me around a couple of Giulias and let me drive a TI Sport package.

Let’s just say it didn’t do much to derail this plan. Ergonomically it’s much better than I expected and I liked the way it drives. Reminded me a bit of my Evo with saner ergonomics. 

I guess I better stay away from a Quadrofoglio because I suspect that would trigger and immediate “shut up and take my money now” reaction.

How is real world reliability looking?  I considered leasing the Quadrifolio but didn't even drive one because I figured I'd be tempted and end up in the service department constantly.  How far is the dealer from you?  

I know there've been some issues with the early Quadrofoglios, especially when trying to track them. As to the rest, it's hard to figure out what is forum noise and what are real issues for now.

Dealer is about ~100 miles away, which is pretty close for me for any type of niche car.

First-year models from ANY manufacturer tend to be problematic whether you are Ford or Porsche. Aside from the internet rumor machine the Giulia TI seems to be getting a pretty positive reception, and this car is a big deal for Alfa so they have the incentive to get things right. Once the 2018's start showing up as CPO these (and the Kia Stinger) are on my shortlist as my next daily.

Yeah, I suspect I'd end up with a 2018 if I pull the trigger. Most of the stock at dealers on the West Coast seem to be loaded to the gills with options I don't want - the one I tried out yesterday was very close but the color combination was "Alfa does ze Germans" (silver with black interior, and boy is that interior dark).

At least this dealer seems to be happy to order one exactly how I'd want it with fairly minimal options, but warned me it'll be about 5 months until delivery.

All that said, they have some tempting deals on 4Cs, so I'm currently trying to push thoughts of a E36 M3ty used AWD car and a 4C instead of an AWD Giulia into the dark corner of my mind that they belong to.

This growing up lark is hard.

It's an Alfa and its you.  So, that means lots of issues that'll park the car. 

Seriously tho, all the magazines had issues with the Quadrafoglio and it wasn't just on the track.  The Motor Trend editor had his shut off on the freeway.  Road and Track couldn't get theirs to drive without bucking and CEL's. 

Plus its an Alfa, which isn't known as the paragon to reliability to begin with.  Then you say the dealer is 100miles from you?  No freaking way.  I wouldn't touch one if it was given to me.

docwyte said:

Seriously tho, all the magazines had issues with the Quadrafoglio and it wasn't just on the track.  The Motor Trend editor had his shut off on the freeway.  Road and Track couldn't get theirs to drive without bucking and CEL's. 

Plus its an Alfa, which isn't known as the paragon to reliability to begin with.  Then you say the dealer is 100miles from you?  No freaking way.  I wouldn't touch one if it was given to me.

Agree with above. I am in a (kinda) similar situation OP...currently daily drive a 2016 BMW 428 xDrive GranCoupe, and looking to replace it at lease end in about 2 months. I went on a LOT of test drives over the last few weeks, including both the Guilia QV and Ti. While I definitely found both cars impressive in terms of performance, overall interior fit and finish (there are definitely some small issues) and entertainment value, my relatively extensive research online leads me to believe that the car just won't be reasonably reliable, especially in its first model CYCLE (any MY before a mid-cycle refresh).

My Alfa dealer is only about 7 minutes from my house, but I am a physician and will not consider any car that I do not ABSOLUTELY trust to get me to work every single day. Since you've mentioned that the dealer is 100 miles away from you, and you are going to doing some difficult winter drives...I can't say I'd go for the car in your position.

I have yet to drive the Stinger, but plan to do so shortly. To be completely honest though...a BMW 3 or 4 series with xDrive seems like a really good choice for you. Good lease incentives come out all the time (or, you could steal one off Swapalease like I did), and the car is just a solid overall performer. I say this rather begrudgingly, I'll admit, as I am not a huge BMW fan. I would urge you to consider the benchmark in the class...

In reply to BoxheadCougarTim : sorry off the subject but I was parked half way up Donner pass with spinning tires and a heavy load Snow by this time was 6-8 inches deep.. 

i live in Minnesota, nuff said?  

Thank god a HP came clanking by a few hours later and hauled me off to get chains  

So this topic came back to the front of my mind again after the shop my most trusted mechanic worked at closed rather abruptly. This leaves me in a lurch again with my bangernomics - well, over here probably 'hooptienomics' - approach to motoring, so I think it's time to consider to dropping a few old cars (and the ND, which doesn't agree with my foot) and get something with a warranty, an automatic transmission and all grown up, like.

Getting spousal approval was important as one of the two cars suddenly left in limbo is my wife's backup car and with both my E34 having sprung another oil leak that the shop was supposed to fix under warranty before they suddenly closed, and her back up car out of commission, whatever we get needs to be able to serve as her backup car as well.

In the end it boiled down to a choice between a Dodge Challenger (most likely TA) and a Giulia. A Kia Stinger GT and a Golf R (or GTI at a stretch) were considered, but didn't pass the spousal test. A used Tesla Model S was considered very briefly but TBH they're not that practical for around here and the areas on the East Coast we're looking at. The Giulia won by a tiny margin for practicality (4 door vs 2 door) although it depends on me being able to find a decent deal on one.

So right now I have spousal approval for a Giulia up to a QV and the hunt for a decent deal is on. There are some dealers that are heavily discounting 2018s - I'm seeing 6-7k on a TI Sport, 8-12k on QV without haggling as long as one is prepared to take what's on the lot.

In reply to BoxheadTim :

My heart says Guilia, but my brain says that the Challenger will still be worth something long after the Alfa has turned into a Maserati BiTurbo.

I can’t imagine Alfa ownership as my primary vehicle unless the dealership was between home and work, and the commute was short. Add in a potential cross-country move and I’d be shopping the Dodge lineup, or really almost anything else. 

We had a Giulia Ti show up at an autocross the other weekend, driven by a husband and wife couple. I went to do tech inspection on it and asked them to pop the hood, the husband reached inside, hit the hood release and it stayed latched. He ended up fiddling with it for 5-10 minutes trying to get the hood to pop up so he could hit the secondary latch. I jokingly said "It wouldn't be an Alfa without a quirk here and there" and got a "...Yeahhh...." that sounded like I might have hit a bit too close to home.

This doesn't sound right when I say it, but I think the Chrysler is the more reliable option.

And they definitely have a broader dealer network if an issue does arise.

If you like to live dangerously, $20k buys a nice used Maserati Quattroporte. You can spend less money (up front) than you would on a Giulia, and have a more prestigious badge.

I'll say it again, you're NUTS if you buy a Guilia.  You're going to buy a car that's basically a new release, from a company that has a incredible reputation for UNreliability, with a dealer network that's sparse, let alone private shops AND you live 100 miles away from the dealer.

Which part of that tells you to buy an Alfa?  You need to buy something that's the paragon of reliability, with a good dealer network and a dealer that's maybe 10 miles away from you. 

Buy it! Buy it! Buy it!

Seriously though what didn't she like about the Stinger? And have you looked at a Genesis G70 or G80? They're supposed to be pretty legitimate luxury sport sedans for less than BMW, 320i and 335i respectively, money while packing more power and options.

Look for a used Panamera 4.

I say go for it.

docwyte said:

I'll say it again, you're NUTS if you buy a Guilia.  You're going to buy a car that's basically a new release, from a company that has a incredible reputation for UNreliability, with a dealer network that's sparse, let alone private shops AND you live 100 miles away from the dealer.

Which part of that tells you to buy an Alfa?  You need to buy something that's the paragon of reliability, with a good dealer network and a dealer that's maybe 10 miles away from you. 

You forgot the part where they depreciate like mad

docwyte said:

I'll say it again, you're NUTS if you buy a Guilia.  You're going to buy a car that's basically a new release, from a company that has a incredible reputation for UNreliability, with a dealer network that's sparse.

Even now, a year or two into the model run?

I'm asking for a, uhhh, friend who will be probably shopping for a new car in the next 2 years and really likes the Giulia.

I'd buy one. Now that it's more or less a 3 year old platform most of the common grips seem to have been addressed.

You'd still have to be nuts to buy one over a used 09-13 Quattroporte GT S though