What do you all think about leasing an Alfa Romeo Stelvio vs Giulia Quadrifoglio as a daily driver in the Chicago suburbs? Test drove both this week and they are marvelous driving machines...the Giulia in particular is a scalpel compared to the RS3 / C63 / M3. The steering is a revelation while the engine sounds fabulous and pulls like a freight train. Suspension / chassis tuning is firm but spot on; Sparco carbon seats provide a superb seating position...interior is otherwise quite nice but lacking the tech / solidity of German competitors. Due to reliability issues / severe depreciation, would lease and return prior to warranty expiration; lots of discounting and “deals” available for these reasons-

 

The Giulia Quadrifoglio is my favorite sport sedan in the world. So much more fun to drive than the German and Japanese competitors. Great engine, noises, and steering rack.

I was really close to picking one up, but was hesitant due to reliability concerns. If you have a backup car for emergencies and dont mind the Spartan interior with last gen tech, I wouldn't be against leasing one.

Had a pretty bad experience at the Alfa dealer in Schaumburg when my friend and I went in to test one last year though so I'd recommend one of the others.

1) No one greeted us for a while even though it was dead empty.
2) Manager talked smack about Porsche when I mentioned I drove one.
3) Treated us like peasants even though I could write a check for any car they have and friend could buy the whole dealership.

Poor customer service left a sour taste in my mouth.

 

I loved the Stelvio quad when I drove it, but the lease rates were awful. Paying almost $40k to wind up with nothing after 3 years seems like a waste, although I'm sure the resale is just as bad. Soon as these are out of warranty their value is going to drop like a rock. I did see that Alfa introduced a CPO program, so if you can find one CPO'd with 6 year 80k mile warranty might be attractive compared to lease cost. I was told regular Alfas get a 100k warranty on CPO, but quads are only 80k

 

I have a 2018 Stelvio Quadrifoglio and am happy with it.
I literally see RR's, X5M/X6M, AMG GL's/G wagons, Turbo Macan/Cayenne's on every street corner around my neighborhood, so I wanted something more unique and rare...have only seen a few regular Stelvio's and just one QV near me. It is Italian, so will not be up to German build quality, but the interior is leather, alcantara, CF etc, so it is fairly nice and sporty. I considered a Levante (same dealership), but wanted a more sporty handling truck than luxury of a Maserati (have AM V12VS, and 458 for that)....Infotainment is definitely sub par, but again, the other cars listed above are in a different price rangeit has CarPlay and the Harmon Kardon audio ...you can get a new well specced QV for low-mid $70's I would guess...there are 130 new '18-'19 Quads for sale right now on cars.com and auto trader.com

Engine is great, tons of torque, it is my winter DD and with dedicated Pirelli Scorpion tires is is a beast in the snow. I think it is the nicest looking (Italian style!) on the market . Triple layer white Trofeo paint, red-black interior . Handles more like a hot hatch or sports sedan than a 4500 lb SUV. Brake-by-wire is in it's infancy, so they will need to perfect that in years to come. Excellent AWD system and true torque vectoring.
It is a regular torque converter auto box, but I use the paddle shifters in Race mode 95% of the time , so it shifts reasonably quickly ( have the GT3RS for that) and a sound that is amazing.

 

agree that poor dealership network and poor treatment left a sour taste in my mouth
tried twice to drive the GQ at two different dealerships and request declined by dealership
interestingly, I pull in with my r8 v10 plus , and my friend with a .2 gt3 and we wanted to drive the car and the manager said no unless you sign papers first..
we said no thank you
on the way out all the dealership employees were hovering over our cars taking selfies and admiring the cars
looked at my son, and said I will never give them a dime of my money and never looked back , and I don't care how good the car is
can you imagine taking the car there for a warranty issue ??

 

For a company with < 24K US sales in 2018 lagging far behind their target of 150K units, your dealership experiences are, well, unfortunate and don't bode well for the future of Alfa in the US- which is another reason not to buy a Giulia / Stelvio QF- perhaps unwarranted but concerned if purchasing a car that 6 yrs from now the US dealership network goes poof. I had much better experiences at the AR dealerships in Naperville and Evanston- they were surprisingly open to extended test drives and were willing to deal on in-stock '19's. Normally, I wouldn't be willing take a "risk" on the Alfa and would stick with my RS3 or move to a C63, etc but it's been a long time since a sedan has made such an impression as the Guilia Quadrifoglio...not since buying an E36 Estoril Blue M3 in '97 which was one of those I'm-not-going-home-without-it situations. With Michelin PA4's, the Giulia QF would make a great-driving if somewhat nerve-wracking stablemate to the GT3.

 

I've got a 2018 Giulia Quad with about 10K miles on it. I've had some reliability issues but my dealer experience has been excellent, better than my Porsche service experience for sure. I think the dealer service can make or break your experience with an Alfa. The car is really fabulous and is a tremendous performance value IMO. As mentioned above, the brake-by-wire technology is new and you need to test drive the car to see if you're OK with it. For me, it's fine when the car's at speed but it's funky at low speeds - I'd prefer old school hydraulics or better pedal feedback at low speed on the BxW.

 

The Giulia would have been my daily had they released them with the 6sp here

 

Would you mind elaborating on the reliability issues? I'm considering a Giulia QV myself.

 

I got a 2017 Quad it was my first brand new car ever. It has every option except the CF buckets (wanted heated seats and steering wheel). This was to replace my E60 M5 (V10 9k redline) that was off warranty and needed some work.

Pro's
1. You never see them, and people will always ask what it is. Every gas stop is an event.
2. BEST steering and brakes of any 4 door sedan. It't next level. The Carbon Ceramic brakes are insane, and it turns in so sharp you will have a hard time staying in your lane until you get used to it.
3. Power band is the whole range. It likes to rev (doesn't feel boosted) and has short gears. It also sounds AWESOME in the last of the RPM range.
4. It's easy to drive, good MPG (out of having fun) ECO mode keeps things sane, has lots of room, and feels special. Like you own a baby Ferrari.
5. Trans is really good! The paddle shifters are Ferrari, and I loved them. It does feel like a dual clutch. It even changes the shifting speed and harshness if you are going straight or in a corner.
5. Reliability, mine never had a hiccup

Con's
1. Everything is controlled by computer, it can feel al little video game like.
2. The interior quality is sub par for a $90k car.
3. Everyone wants to race you.
4. No launch control, it can be a dog from a dig. Like it will sometimes hesitate. (I think they have a software update for this)
5. Dealer experience SUCKS! They are low rent, have no idea what an upscale dealer should be like.
6. My car was $98k out the door, then I traded it in on the GT3, they gave me $45k. Buy a used one for $55k with 4-8kmi on it.

The car was much better than any other 4door out there. It was heavy, but it handled the weight well. On a curvy road it was great.


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Other than the grill, reminded me a lot of the Macan.

 

I have a 2018 QV for almost 2years now and it has been the most exciting car I've ever owned including four Ferraris (including a Challenge Stradale), and numerous Porsches, BMW Mcars, and AMGs.

It has also been perfectly dependable. Period. Service? I had an oil change done in 90 minutes and my 12k service done in 2 hours. It had almost 14 k on the clock now, and if I had to pick one to keep between it, my 2015 911 GTS and my 2012 911 6 spd GTS I'd pick the QV. It's faster, more fun, and most important MORE TOSSABLE. Oh....and much more dependable.

My 2015 GTS had delaminating headlights and a failed PDK at 9800 miles....they had it for five weeks.

This Alfa dependability bullsh*t is just that. Bullsh*t. The issues you hear about most apply to first year and ARE SIMPLE software issues easily solved. And a throttle body issue also solved. The ZF trans they use is rock solid and Ferrari certainly knows how to build an engine. Go the the Alfa forums and look for failed trans stories...or IMS stories...or bore scoring...EXPENSIVE, MAJOR, and REPEATING problems you see on Rennlist but not on giuliaforums.com

I love my Porsches but I tell it like it is. The truth about a car without cutting it any slack, and not being so emotionally involved or embarrassed to say my $153k car breaks.

And QV's are almost ALL daily drivers whereas most 911's are garage queens. I think that the reporting done by websites like Jalopnik is an embarrassment. They don't mention GT4 transmissions. Or M2 rear ends failing. They love a good "Ooooh an Alfa broke" story. Like calling a broken windshiield and hitting a racoon a "Failure". Jerkoffs.

A QV test drive just doesn't tell you how truly spectacular it is. I love it more NOW. That's the real proof. The chassis reads my mind. It's as quiet and comfortable as a Mercedes when I was that, and with the twist of the DNA **** (LOVE that ****!) it's in psychopath mode.

Downside? Interior is OK, but not an AMG . The stereo speakers suck, but that was an easy fix with an amp and sub.

 

One more thing: Back in the day I had a 996 Porsche and a Laguna Seca Blue E46 M3. Those two cars scratched every itch for me, though the M3 was what I drove most. I loved that car more than anything. Now having a 2012 GTS 6spd and the Alfa QV I feel like I'm lucky enough to have that feeling again. It's so much fun.