Post by Mark on Feb 10, 2020 17:21:57 GMT
So, here I am nearing the end of my tenure with the Alfa Romeo Giulia Veloce which I’ve had from new.
I loved the car at first – especially the way it handled – and still does to be fair. It’s very agile and light on its feet with extremely sharp steering. I was also hugely impressed with the ride quality on run-flats coming from an E92 BMW, albeit on 18” staggered wheels rather than the BMW’s 19” staggered set-up. The engine is also pretty gutsy with 275bhp but always struggles to get to the redline – it seems a little asthmatic at the top end which I’ve heard from other owners & road tests. It is still a quick car though!
As far as the rest of the car is concerned, I just think it’s a pretty poor-quality product in comparison to every other car I’ve owned - and I don’t enjoy saying that (I also made the decision to get one after all). The list of issues that I can recall over the last 23 months:
Sometimes the gear-selector is totally unresponsive – ie, you pull up at home/wherever and select Park (which is a button) or Reverse & nothing happens – I then either have to pull both paddles which will select Neutral or shut the car down to reset whatever it is that causes the problem!
The bonnet failed to open after about 3 months and had to go in for that to be rectified.
The alarm goes off for no reason probably 3/4 times per week. This is a very common problem if you look at any Alfa Romeo forums – so, when I ordered my car I asked if the alarm could be ‘turned down’ (apparently this can/could be done) and I was told by the dealer not to worry as the factory was now doing this to all cars as a matter of course. Yeah, right – my neighbours still hear the alarm going off for absolutely no reason. Then they fitted a new, updated alarm module at the cars first service which was designed to solve the issue. It didn’t. The alarm still goes off 3/4 times per week.
The Infotainment sometimes pairs with my phone – sometimes it doesn’t. Currently won’t show SMS’s from an iPhone 8, but would with an iPhone 6s – it’s not an Apple thing either as I have the same problem with my partners Samsung. Our Volvo & previous BMW work/ed faultlessly with any phone paired with them.
Staying with the Infotainment – that shuts down intermittently and won’t return to normal unless you leave the car shut down for a period of time – not ideal when you’re relying on the navigation to get you where you need to be - and simply disconcerting when it happens.
(I have always ensured that my car is running the latest version of software & maps etc)
The drivers door sill kick-plate won’t stay stuck down and needs to be re-glued.
Underside of the boot-lid & rear door paint (Alfa Red) transfers to the rubber seals – this was addressed by the dealer at first service – their solution was to wipe the red paint off the seals – not fix the actual problem with the paint transfer. Needless to say, this problem has reoccurred…
The boot-lid is supposed to spring gently open when opening using the remote – the springs aren’t strong enough to make this happen unless the car is parked dead flat. When you are loading things into the boot, the lid has a an endearing habit of dropping back and clonking you on the top of the head.
The nearside door mirror rarely unfolds completely upon ignition so some fiddling has to be done as I need the mirror to get out of my tightly configured drive.
The rear-view mirror wobbles.
The fuel gauge and fuel range display bear no relation to how much fuel is actually in the tank. I have also had the fuel range display show - - - miles and then filled the car to find that there was over 2 gallons still in the tank.
There is a rattle from within the dashboard when the car is fired up. I’ve managed to trace this to the blower/fan and if I put the blower in Max setting for about 10 seconds and then return it to a normal speed, the rattle stops. I have to do this most mornings.
Rusting wheel weights on 3 out of 4 wheels.
Bubbling paint on both rear wheels.
All Trip A & Trip B data gets deleted occasionally for no reason.
The final straw was at Christmas – we’d been away for 11 nights and the Alfa was parked at the airport. We arrived back to the car from our flight at 1am for me to find the car wouldn’t start due to a flat battery. To sit for 11 nights for a 21 month old car with 17k miles shouldn’t be too much to ask, should it? It took days for the fault codes to erase themselves and I simply don’t trust the car anymore.
Now don’t get me wrong - I am well aware that most of the above are very superficial issues (niggles?) and most could also be called first-world problems, but I do struggle to find them acceptable on a £40K+ car. Also, my car is not a Monday morning/Friday afternoon build vehicle as there are lots & lots of consistent, more serious issues that affect many owners out there and my car never showed any of those. Thankfully.
In comparison, I did 80k miles over 6 years in my E92 BMW that preceded the Giulia with the only fault being blocked washer jets due to a clogged filter in the fluid reservoir.
Cabin space is pretty limited in the rear but this never really bothered me and I still managed to get 2 650B mountain bikes into the car along with all the required paraphernalia for biking weekend away. The driver’s seat has an annoying feature where it powers back to its furthest point when you switch off the engine & open the driver’s door – this can crush the feet of anyone sitting behind you who doesn’t get out of the car at the same time as you…!
Now, at just over 19k miles, the car has averaged around 26mpg – this is hard to pin down as the trip computer keeps resetting itself as previously mentioned. It has required 2 services at 9k mile intervals totalling £820 & required 1 rear Goodyear F1 RFT at £180 as it had a screw in it and couldn’t be repaired. The original remaining rear tyre is at approximately 3mm & the fronts are at just over 4mm. At it’s 2nd service a couple of weeks ago, I was advised that I would soon require new rear brake discs as they were starting to pit – I would be very annoyed about this if I was keeping the car. The Alfa Romeo dealer network is relatively tiny and I have to travel over an hour from home to my nearest dealer for any work to be carried out so not very convenient.
The standard Xenon lights are pretty weak and I would advise anybody buying a Veloce to seek out the higher-powered Xenon’s.
The car does draw quite a bit of positive attention at petrol stations etc and they are still a relatively rare sight on the road.
One thing I have learnt is that Alf Romeo owners are a hardy & fiercely loyal bunch. They will not hear a bad word spoken about the brand or any model. It’s like a cult!
In conclusion, I don’t think I’ll miss the car and I definitely wouldn’t have another Alfa Romeo which is a shame.
I can’t think of anything else right now, but if there is anything you’d like to know, feel free to ask.
Mark
I loved the car at first – especially the way it handled – and still does to be fair. It’s very agile and light on its feet with extremely sharp steering. I was also hugely impressed with the ride quality on run-flats coming from an E92 BMW, albeit on 18” staggered wheels rather than the BMW’s 19” staggered set-up. The engine is also pretty gutsy with 275bhp but always struggles to get to the redline – it seems a little asthmatic at the top end which I’ve heard from other owners & road tests. It is still a quick car though!
As far as the rest of the car is concerned, I just think it’s a pretty poor-quality product in comparison to every other car I’ve owned - and I don’t enjoy saying that (I also made the decision to get one after all). The list of issues that I can recall over the last 23 months:
Sometimes the gear-selector is totally unresponsive – ie, you pull up at home/wherever and select Park (which is a button) or Reverse & nothing happens – I then either have to pull both paddles which will select Neutral or shut the car down to reset whatever it is that causes the problem!
The bonnet failed to open after about 3 months and had to go in for that to be rectified.
The alarm goes off for no reason probably 3/4 times per week. This is a very common problem if you look at any Alfa Romeo forums – so, when I ordered my car I asked if the alarm could be ‘turned down’ (apparently this can/could be done) and I was told by the dealer not to worry as the factory was now doing this to all cars as a matter of course. Yeah, right – my neighbours still hear the alarm going off for absolutely no reason. Then they fitted a new, updated alarm module at the cars first service which was designed to solve the issue. It didn’t. The alarm still goes off 3/4 times per week.
The Infotainment sometimes pairs with my phone – sometimes it doesn’t. Currently won’t show SMS’s from an iPhone 8, but would with an iPhone 6s – it’s not an Apple thing either as I have the same problem with my partners Samsung. Our Volvo & previous BMW work/ed faultlessly with any phone paired with them.
Staying with the Infotainment – that shuts down intermittently and won’t return to normal unless you leave the car shut down for a period of time – not ideal when you’re relying on the navigation to get you where you need to be - and simply disconcerting when it happens.
(I have always ensured that my car is running the latest version of software & maps etc)
The drivers door sill kick-plate won’t stay stuck down and needs to be re-glued.
Underside of the boot-lid & rear door paint (Alfa Red) transfers to the rubber seals – this was addressed by the dealer at first service – their solution was to wipe the red paint off the seals – not fix the actual problem with the paint transfer. Needless to say, this problem has reoccurred…
The boot-lid is supposed to spring gently open when opening using the remote – the springs aren’t strong enough to make this happen unless the car is parked dead flat. When you are loading things into the boot, the lid has a an endearing habit of dropping back and clonking you on the top of the head.
The nearside door mirror rarely unfolds completely upon ignition so some fiddling has to be done as I need the mirror to get out of my tightly configured drive.
The rear-view mirror wobbles.
The fuel gauge and fuel range display bear no relation to how much fuel is actually in the tank. I have also had the fuel range display show - - - miles and then filled the car to find that there was over 2 gallons still in the tank.
There is a rattle from within the dashboard when the car is fired up. I’ve managed to trace this to the blower/fan and if I put the blower in Max setting for about 10 seconds and then return it to a normal speed, the rattle stops. I have to do this most mornings.
Rusting wheel weights on 3 out of 4 wheels.
Bubbling paint on both rear wheels.
All Trip A & Trip B data gets deleted occasionally for no reason.
The final straw was at Christmas – we’d been away for 11 nights and the Alfa was parked at the airport. We arrived back to the car from our flight at 1am for me to find the car wouldn’t start due to a flat battery. To sit for 11 nights for a 21 month old car with 17k miles shouldn’t be too much to ask, should it? It took days for the fault codes to erase themselves and I simply don’t trust the car anymore.
Now don’t get me wrong - I am well aware that most of the above are very superficial issues (niggles?) and most could also be called first-world problems, but I do struggle to find them acceptable on a £40K+ car. Also, my car is not a Monday morning/Friday afternoon build vehicle as there are lots & lots of consistent, more serious issues that affect many owners out there and my car never showed any of those. Thankfully.
In comparison, I did 80k miles over 6 years in my E92 BMW that preceded the Giulia with the only fault being blocked washer jets due to a clogged filter in the fluid reservoir.
Cabin space is pretty limited in the rear but this never really bothered me and I still managed to get 2 650B mountain bikes into the car along with all the required paraphernalia for biking weekend away. The driver’s seat has an annoying feature where it powers back to its furthest point when you switch off the engine & open the driver’s door – this can crush the feet of anyone sitting behind you who doesn’t get out of the car at the same time as you…!
Now, at just over 19k miles, the car has averaged around 26mpg – this is hard to pin down as the trip computer keeps resetting itself as previously mentioned. It has required 2 services at 9k mile intervals totalling £820 & required 1 rear Goodyear F1 RFT at £180 as it had a screw in it and couldn’t be repaired. The original remaining rear tyre is at approximately 3mm & the fronts are at just over 4mm. At it’s 2nd service a couple of weeks ago, I was advised that I would soon require new rear brake discs as they were starting to pit – I would be very annoyed about this if I was keeping the car. The Alfa Romeo dealer network is relatively tiny and I have to travel over an hour from home to my nearest dealer for any work to be carried out so not very convenient.
The standard Xenon lights are pretty weak and I would advise anybody buying a Veloce to seek out the higher-powered Xenon’s.
The car does draw quite a bit of positive attention at petrol stations etc and they are still a relatively rare sight on the road.
One thing I have learnt is that Alf Romeo owners are a hardy & fiercely loyal bunch. They will not hear a bad word spoken about the brand or any model. It’s like a cult!
In conclusion, I don’t think I’ll miss the car and I definitely wouldn’t have another Alfa Romeo which is a shame.
I can’t think of anything else right now, but if there is anything you’d like to know, feel free to ask.
Mark
