#LAAS2015: Alfa Romeo Rolls Into LA Bringing With It A Wave Of SEXY — Are YOU Warming Up To The Giulia Yet?

And we have to wait until December of 2016 for a car introduced in June of 2015? It's projected to cost $70K and looks like a bad Chinese rip off of a 3 Series side, an Asian tail, and hideous nose. Dead in the water.

It needed to be on sale by now. It needs to offer a 3 Series alternative at value pricing. It would benefit from a 10 year / 100K mile warranty.

Dead dead dead

Well considering it is the M3 of the to-be-offered Giulias, I think it's safe to say you're a bit off mark.

Nope Agent00R I'm right ON the mark. Beyond the paid fanboys, the view of the Giulia is not so enthusiastic.

The deadly bland Jaguar XE has a better chance frankly.

This thing needs to be in dealers delivering astounding performance and value to buy into the market otherwise there is literally NOT ANY REASON to spend M, AMG, S/RS money on an unproven machine loosely derived from a Ghibli which is derived from a Chrysler 300.

In person at the show it looked like a disco queen among athletes.

Wrong MDarringer, it is a totally new platform and has nothing to do with the Chrysler 300. I actually saw one of these on the road here in Colorado last Friday near DIA airport. May have been up in the mountains doing some high altitude testing. Looked awesome from the short look I had. I hope it performs great and is the car to start changing people's opinion regarding Alpha build quality. Also I would consider it if I were looking for another M car, for sure on the list to test drive.

I will only agree that it needed to go on sale by this Spring. Otherwise, by the time December '16 rolls around, no one will care.

I agree that the styling from all but the front looks a lot like a 3-series - it is hard to miss. And I also agree that the longer the wait - the older it will look because it already looks like the last generation 3 series.

I doubt it will do as well as FCA has projected - although it will do OKAY. There simply is not enough knowledge of the reliability of the car to put it in play with the Germans or Cadillac. And for most Americans - Alfa is not a "known" name.

As there is plenty of competition for small sports sedans already - What really separates it to place it ahead of the competition? These cars are not bought by rich types who have numerous cars - they buy Porsche and up. So for most of its buyers it will be the only car - and if it has any reliabilty problems - it will get dead very quickly. AND what is the reason to take the chance? - It will need BOTH advantageous pricing - AND - a long warranty. I expect it will get neither and be an also ran.

@valhallakey By Fiat's own admission Giorgio is a derivative of the Ghibli platform (shortened and narrowed) and the Ghibli is largely Chrysler 300.

I don't think it resembles a 3 Series much at all. The only reason I think it has any resemblance is because people keep saying it. Sure, it has a Hofmeister kink resemblance. In passing glance, at a 3-quarter front/rear or straight profile view, there is a resemblance, but that's it. Front looks nothing like the 3. Rear looks absolutely nothing like the 3. OK, maybe if you took the shadow image of both cars' profiles there is a stronger resemblance, but that's true of many cars in same classes. And I'm usually the first one to say, "Wait, this car looks like that other car".

@MDarringer, everything I have read indicates it is an all new platform, here is one of those --> http://www.caranddriver.com/news/2017-alfa-romeo-giulia-photos-and-info-news

The latest issue of Car from the UK has some excellent info on this car. 100% new chassis, Ferarri derived engine... Very interesting piece. They also have a nice article on the M2 as well in this issue.

Looks good, sounds GREAT plus who doesn't love a sexy Italian? I think it will do quite well.

I like it but for yesterday. Dec 2016 is a long stretch

I put my name on a wait list recently. This way, I can judge for myself when it comes out.

Re timing, it's vastly overstated IMO. Take for example when Audi came out with the first V8 RS4 w/ 420bhp. Many people were projecting BMW to 'lose' the M3 (at the time) market because the rejuvenated M3 was more than a year away. Did that happen?

Of course, that's only one example and I'm not ignoring the concept of window of opportunity. Time will tell...

Looks Great, sounds great in videos I have seen. I think it will do well when released (much much sooner than December).

Unless you know something that Alfa Romeo dealers don't know, December 2016 is the "go" month.

@valhallakey Granted these days even the most modest of change constitutes "all new". The Qporte and Ghibli are 300-based designs with a revised front suspension. Giorgio is a further revision of the Ghibli so it's not literally a 300, but in no way was it a clean sheet design.

Also, FCA ITSELF has said that the on sale date for the USA is December 2016.

Check out the latest issue of Car from the UK. In the article it says that initially they did try to use existing platforms but abandoned that and were given the green light to develop a chassis from scratch. Also I don't think anyone can get the old Merc chassis into a car weighing 1500kg. No argument on the date...should have been sooner.

I agree with Darringer on the fact that the delay is not a good thing for Alfa. Further The high performance Giulia is not going to bring in the bucks like the 275HP 4 cylinder will or needs to. I'm wondering if there will be a single turbo 350HP 6 cylinder as well. I would say if this car brings in 20,000 US customers that would be a success for Alfa in my book. However to get to the volumes Marchionne is looking for you have to have that SUV/CUV vehicle. That's where the market is. Now as far as the look of the car I think it looks fabulous and I like it better than the M3.This car is more of an evolution of the 156 than the 159. As a sedan it is fairly simple and powerful looking.

as someone who took a shot with the first year maserati ghibli, i can tell you right now, i am staying far away from new italian cars until they get their stuff together. i was in the shop every 6 weeks with minor but annoying problems. Im on my 6th bmw ( 3 were m3's ) i drive bow's much harder than the maserati and don't have any problems with them. my maserati would be buried if i drove it like i do the bmw.
the ONLY way id take this alfa over the german competitors is if it had free service like bmw.