Reliability ghosts are once again haunting Alfa Romeo

The engine of a Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio failed during the course of a comparison test in which the Italian saloon was up against its direct rivals.

We all know that the Achilles’ heel of Alfa Romeo is reliability. Very few cars unleash the passion of their drivers the way Italian brands do, but sadly the “ghost of breakdowns” has haunted the Turin marque for a long time, and now it has made an appearance during a comparison test between the Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio and two of its direct rivals: the BMW M3 Competition Pack and the Mercedes AMG C63 S. Let nobody be mistaken: Alfa Romeo is a brand we love, but in this case it is impossible not to fall into the stereotype, as the saying goes, “where there’s smoke, there’s fire.”

The truth is that the new reliability failure suffered by Alfa Romeo is rather embarrassing. The incident took place during the filming of a comparison test carried out by our colleagues at Pistonheads at the British Anglesey circuit. The test aimed to measure the track performance of the Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio, the BMW M3 Competition Pack and the Mercedes-AMG C63 S.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKakXkLp8U4

All the alarms went off when Dan Trent, driver of the Giulia, received an engine fault warning on the instrument panel of his car. Initially, this fault prevented the journalist from activating the car’s sportiest driving mode (Racing) and, as a consequence, he drove at a slower pace than his rivals. But the matter did not stop there: a few minutes later the Giulia went into “limp mode”, a mode that protects the vehicle’s mechanics against possible failures and that forced Trent to bring the car to a complete stop.

The Italian firm has not yet given its version of events, but logically this test leaves it in a very bad position. For the Giulia Quadrifoglio to compete commercially with its German rivals, the ones in the comparison, it is not enough to offer the great dynamic abilities it has; it also must shake off the negative image that cases like this one give it.

Technical specifications of this car

SedanAlfa Romeo Giulia6 versions · from 49,600 €