One Big Blunder? Technical Service Bulletins Pile Up On New Giulia

The Alfa Romeo Giulia is heralding the Italian brand’s comeback to America by embracing its heritage: providing an amazing driving experience while managing to have failures on a regular basis. Owners are reporting a multitude of issues online, and it seems like every car that gets sent to a journalist has some type of failure that requires a trip back to Michigan.

Despite excellent driving dynamics, the car has gotten a ton of negative press lately, from Jalopnik (whose editors’ Giulia Q2 had to be towed away after just two days) to this gem from hardcore member of the Alfisti, Sam Smith at Road & Track:
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llaroo - 7/21/2017 8:23:40 AM

+3 Boost

competition today can wipe out a brand overnight if it gets a bad wrap. In a world of product saturation you had better make sure you stand up and stand out.

carsnyc - 7/21/2017 9:17:09 AM

+3 Boost

Alfa should go presidential on the bad press and call it fake news!

MDarringer - 7/21/2017 9:40:29 AM

-2 Boost

The problem with that is that the news isn't fake.

MDarringer - 7/21/2017 9:47:24 AM

-2 Boost

Reading the article would imply that the Giulia was a rush-job design that did not receive sufficient prototype time for engineering development. You then couple that with shoddy build quality. The Giulia is 100% an Alfa Romeo: all hype and all crap.

TheSteve - 7/21/2017 10:06:01 AM

+5 Boost

The Alfa brand isn't exactly known for its lack of defects.

TomM - 7/21/2017 12:00:08 PM

+4 Boost

The fact is - what Italian volume producer of cars ever had a good reputation for lack of defects?`This introduction was bungled by FCA from the beginning - with only the highest priced units avalable first. The people who came to look initially, never returned to try a lower end car.

mini22 - 7/21/2017 1:25:57 PM

+3 Boost

The car was probably rushed to the market. Saying that at least they seem to have identified most if not all the major issues. Now it is simply taking all cars sold so far and fixing all the issues with the software in quick and timey manner(I would also have owners of cars that do not exhibit any problems bring them as well). Next make sure all the fixes are in on any new cars being built. It's important that they get this right quickly before the Stelvio comes out. That car is supposed to be Alfa's volume seller.

MDarringer - 7/21/2017 2:21:51 PM

+1 Boost

The Stelvio press cars had some issues too.

senft - 7/21/2017 7:46:55 PM

+3 Boost

Anyone who believes FCA has the money for build quality isn't paying attention. They're running on fumes.

MDarringer - 7/22/2017 1:12:30 PM

+1 Boost

Amen, brother, amen. Nevertheless, it is perplexing that they can produce fairly reliable Hellcats, but the Giulia is such a turd pile. Heck, even the Ghibli doesn't have the catastrophic reliability issues of the Giulia. Moreover, the car has been available in Europe for over a year, why weren't these issues solved by the American on-sale date in late November?