Alfa Romeo Giulietta QV 2014: First Drive

Alfa Romeo is an iconic brand. And the good news for the many of us who remain Alfa fans is that it’s now an iconic brand in renewal.

Tipped to be a jewel in Fiat Chrysler's crown, it remains a diamond in the rough.

No-one knows this better than CEO Sergio Marchionne. Repeatedly, the pullovered Italo-Canadian uber-exec has sung the praises of the brand — in particular, it’s potential.

Ahead of Alfa is a plan Marchionne says will see eight new models rolled out in less than five years and global sales boosted from around 75,000 to upwards of 400,000 units per year by 2018.

If it works it’ll be the greatest comeback since that Lazarus fella.

The mid-engined carbonfibre-tubbed 4C sports car is a placeholder for the brand. It promises the performance the brand wants to inject into all of its next-generation cars. But it’s a strict two-seater and has more brio than Bulgari. I’ve driven it and can vouch for its pace, but it’d hardly the most cultured or polished performer.

The 4C should have been on sale in Australia already but it’s now scheduled to come here next year. After that the brand promises a veritable avalanche of new models into almost every premium segment. Even SUVs!

For the time being though, this is the next new Alfa — the updated Giulietta QV.

Quadrifoglio Verde is part of Alfa folklore that goes back to some of the very first racing Alfas (even though the four-leaf clovers were then white!).

The first Alfa to be so adorned was Ugo Sivocci's RL, in which he won the 14th edition of the Targa Florio in 1923. Later the same year, the Sicilian racer died testing an Alfa and since then, so the story goes, all of the company’s racing cars have worn the symbol.

More recently (since the 1960s) the label and emotive badge have been reserved for performance variants of Alfa’s sportiest models. Effectively, what GTI is to Volkswagen or RS is to Ford, QV is to Alfa

The updated Giulietta is in effect a mid-life makeover for the car. It’s destined to be replaced with (we think) with a rear or all-wheel drive re-platformed car in 2017 or thereabouts. In other words, the hatch which was first seen Down Under in January 2011 has a while to run.

The mid-life upgrade features some tweaks to the headlight and front profile but the main changes appearance-wise is a bodykit that is clearly inspired by the 4C.

On our red tester driven across mainly wet roads in the Piedmonte region near Fiat Chrysler’s Turin home base, this included a matt-black front splitter, side skirts and rear valance, carbon-fibre mirror scalps and rear hatch spoiler.

This is the spec that Alfa Romeo Australia will use to celebrate the arrival of the new QV Down Under just in time for Christmas (2014). Only 50 of the ‘Launch Edition’ Giulietta QVs will be offered locally, featuring the above mentioned details and a set of ‘five hole’ 18-inch alloy wheels finished in 'glossy Anthracite'.

Pricing is yet to be announced but count on a modest uplift, say insiders. The current QV is listed at $39,150 plus on-roads.

The bodykit ensures what was already a beautiful hatch now looks like it means business.

The latest Giulietta update also gets changes inside. The parent company’s Uconnect touchscreen-based infotainment system arrives featuring properly integrated sat-nav — so say goodbye to the Tom Tom based portable system that is featured in our long-term Giulietta QV test car.

At last there’s also streaming audio and media functionality (also via AUX, SD card and USB). Another plus is the ease of which you can pair and use your smartphone… About time — the last set-up was archaic.

Re-styled and reprofiled Alcantara-clad front seats (with smart Alfa badge detailing) lift the cabin and work well in the twisties. These were another pleasing aspect of the makeover.

But the changes to the QV all Alfisti and most readers are interested in are under the bonnet.

Thanks to the 4C, the QV gets a new all-alloy turbocharged direct-injection1.8 and, for the first time in the hottest Giulietta, a twin-clutch auto. Indeed, Alfa’s TCT transmission is the sole transmission now offered with the QV.

The engine is now rated at 177kW at 5750rpm and 340Nm at 2000rpm compared to the 173kW/340Nm for the outgoing QV. The bare figures don’t tell the full story of the transplant, however.

With new tuned intake and exhaust systems, the refreshed QV sounds like a different animal. It growls down low and gets even more vocal in the upper reaches of the tacho.

In the very first flush it’s a return to the tuneful fours for which the brand was once known, then after a couple of hours I wondered if the tunes were a little too much of a good thing? It took a return to the car another day to convince me that Alfa’s got at least this part of recipe right.

Final verdict: it sounds a treat!

The engine seems freer revving than the unit it replaces. As I noted in my update of our current QV, it’s a laggy engine that at times shows characteristics linked to its lower capacity and higher boost (compared to Volkswagen's or RenaultSport’s 2.0-litre hot hatch turbos).

The reward comes when you adjust to its requirements and rev it a little harder for a little longer. Indeed, used as intended, the engine is a ripper, adding a useful fillip of performance (Alfa claims 0-100km/h acceleration in six seconds).

Alas, just when things are heading in the right direction, you strike the TCT, which is less convincing. It might have steering wheel paddles and launch control, but an Audi S tronic or Volkswagen DSG it’s not — changes can be slow and, even in manual mode, the tranny never really seems to be sharp enough.

Unlike the best dual-clutches, the TCT gearbox never leaves everything to the driver.

Case in point: it will shift up of its own accord even in ‘manual’ mode. In most cases this is fine but in others, for example, when you want to hold off shifting between two corners at high engine revs, it’s just plain annoying.

Irritatingly, the auto mode is also at times inconsistent. For example, at light throttle openings sometimes it will hold second gear longer than ideal. I found myself short-shifting via the paddles, especially in traffic.

The large step between the second and third gear ratios may play a part in the gearshift calibration. It’s a big gap that in hilly, tight going sometimes sees you left with a poor choice: revving hard in second or lugging the relatively laggy 1.8-litre four in third. Hardly ideal.

The new engine is lighter and this improves the Giulietta’s steering and general handling but, along with the gearbox, there are things that stop this car from being a genuine rival for the GTI.

Indeed, there are two significant items that would manifestly change how the Giulietta QV feels when you’re in the mood for a mountain road: a limited-slip differential and better rear suspension.

The rear suspension travel seems too short and crash-through, on even moderately sized bumps, regularly unsettle the car — even at seven-tenths. The rub is that thanks to the lighter engine the front-end copes well with the very same bumps.

The problem instead at the pointy end is the lack of traction. More than ever, thanks to the extra verve of the 4C-sourced engine, the QV is in desperate need of proper LSD. Or, indeed, I’d almost settle (a la VW) for an electronic approximation.

Even when the QV’s heavy-handed traction control isn’t interfering (the only tunability of this is via Alfa’s DNA system), the lack of a diff lets the inside wheel spin in and out of even dry corners with little provocation. On tight, wet roads even moderate throttle openings see the front tyres break into wheel-spin.

Above all, this seriously degrades the drive experience. My guess is that the addition of even a U-turn friendly ‘light’ LSD (as used for example in the RenaultSport Meganes) would transform the QV.

I don’t want you to get the idea the new QV is a nail — it’s not. It’s better than the car it replaces and overall it is still a car that’s great fun to drive. It’s just that it could be so much better.

The natural thing to tell you to do here is forget about the Alfa and buy the default hot hatch, Volkswagen’s Golf GTI. The Teuton brings with it better packaging, more space and more out of the box performance.

But a big part of the QV’s attraction is that it’s not a Golf GTI. If you can’t see that, then the QV’s definitely not for you…

The world is waiting to see whether Alfa’s rejuvenation will come to pass. No doubt there’s a long road ahead but, at the very least, the new QV is proof that the brand is at last heading in the right direction.

Also consider: Ford Focus ST,  Renault Megane RS,  Volkswagen Golf GTI