2020 Alfa Romeo Giulia on 2040-cars

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2022 Kia EV6 and Acura NSX Type S driven | Autoblog Podcast #715

In this episode of the Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore is joined by Senior Editor, Green, John Beltz Snyder and Road Test Editor Zac Palmer. The car chat begins this week with a review of the 2022 Kia EV6, followed by Zac's drive of the 2022 Acura NSX Type-S. Then they discuss Autoblog's new long-term loan, a 2022 BMW 330e xDrive. They've also been driving the Ford Explorer Timberline and Kia Sorento Hybrid. In the news, they discuss the soon-to-be-revealed Alfa Romeo Tonale, as well as the recently unveiled Aston Martin DBX707. Finally, Greg talks about a historical Detroit landmark, the old American Motors Company headquarters, which is set to be demolished. Send us your questions for the Mailbag and Spend My Money at: Podcast@Autoblog.com. Autoblog Podcast #715 Get The Podcast Apple Podcasts – Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes Spotify – Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast on Spotify RSS – Add the Autoblog Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator MP3 – Download the MP3 directly Rundown Cars we're driving 2022 Kia EV6 2022 Acura NSX Type S 2022 BMW 330e xDrive 2022 Ford Explorer Timberline 2022 Kia Sorento Hybrid In the news 2023 Alfa Romeo Tonale coming soon 2022 Aston Martin DBX707 revealed AMC headquarters to join rest of company in oblivion Feedback Email – Podcast@Autoblog.com Review the show on Apple Podcasts Autoblog is now live on your smart speakers and voice assistants with the audio Autoblog Daily Digest. Say “Hey Google, play the news from Autoblog” or "Alexa, open Autoblog" to get your favorite car website in audio form every day. A narrator will take you through the biggest stories or break down one of our comprehensive test drives. Related Video:

The new Alfa Romeo Giulia needs to be a BMW beater

The introduction of the Alfa Romeo Giulia as a BMW challenger is a claim that historically has meant that it will not be as good as a BMW. Mercedes, Audi, Lexus, Infiniti, Cadillac, and a few others have tried to loosen BMW's grip on the sports sedan market with little success. It was BMW that was doing the copying when in the early sixties they looked to Alfa Romeo's sport sedans for inspiration. Alfa Romeo's pre-war racing pedigree was second to none, and series production Alfas were sporting twin cam engines, and fuel injection years before BMW. What the post-war Alfa cars did not offer was reliability and an North American dealer network that knew how to service or sell their products. Consequently in 1995 Alfa abandoned the US market. Now it is the Alfa Giulia taking aim at the BMW 3-series. The Fiat/Chrysler group has a lot of resources (think Ferrari), and the engineering chops to beat BMW at its own game, but it will take a long time to build a reliable dealer network, not to mention the quality issues that have dogged them for decades. Alfa will follow what has become a familiar recipe to challenge the 3-series. With 3 sets of trim available, the most affordable model, the Giulia, and further upscale, Giulia ti, both with a turbocharged 4-banger and 276 HP compares favorably with the BMW 328i and the Audi A4. The 505 HP Giulia flagship is shooting for the M4/3. Good luck with that, Alfa. A delayed introduction hints of troubles to come. Unfortunately for Alfa both the Audi A4 and BMW 3-series have millions of dedicated fans, most of whom do not have to be reminded about their automobile's pedigree. Millennial have never had the chance to aspire for an Alfa, and the older generations that still remember them are only a very small share of the market. Alfa has to avoid joining the automotive graveyard of models that have tried to attain BMW's status. Just to be cruel I will mention the Cadillac Cimarron. If you are too young to remember, it was the cheapest Chevy front wheel drive platform with a Cadillac badge. Panned by both GM management and the automotive press, it was a spectacular flop. I hope that the executives of the Fiat/Chrysler group remember it well. We do not need a Fiat in a stylish suit.

Scrapyard Gem: 2008 Alfa Romeo Spider 2.2 JTS

Alfa Romeo departed our shores after the final 164s and Spider Veloces were sold here as 1995 models, then returned for the 2015 model year with the 4C. Thanks to its position in the mighty Stellantis Empire, the current American-market Alfa Romeo lineup looks quite a bit like the Italian-market one, but we missed out on some interesting machinery during our Alfa-deprived 1996-2014 period. One of those cars was the 2006-2010 Spider, and I found a discarded example in an Italian/French specialty breaker's yard near Leeds, England during a recent trip. Sherburn Motor Spares is located in Sherburn-in-Elmet, on the former site of the factory where Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers were built during World War II. They specialize in Italian and French cars, which means the place overflows with vehicles we didn't get on our side of the Atlantic. I've written about a 1999 Alfa Romeo 166 and a 2009 Alfa Romeo Brera S that reside there, and now it's the turn of the Brera's convertible sibling. I couldn't resist buying this stunning "International Van of the Year 2008" emblem from a Citroen Dispatch at Sherburn Motor Spares; it now lives on the door of the breaker box in my garage. GBP3 well spent! "Spider" is a term originally applied to an arachnid-ish horse-drawn carriage and is applicable to any convertible-top automobile today, but Alfa Romeo didn't hesitate to use it as a model name in its own right when it came time to built a sporty convertible on a platform originally devised by Saab for use beneath GM and Fiat machinery. As it turned out, the only production cars using that platform ended up being Alfa Romeos. Giorgetto Giugiaro handled the design of the Brera coupe, while Pininfarina did both the styling and assembly of the Spider. As you'd expect, reviewers thought both cars looked great. Just over 12,000 2006-2010 Spiders were built. The U.K.-market Spider was available with front- or all-wheel-drive and a choice of three petrol and two diesel engines (yes, a diesel Alfa Spider!). This car has the base 2.2-liter JTS straight-four petrol engine, which was a direct-injected unit based on GM's Ecotec engine block. Output was 182 horsepower and 170 pound-feet. This one had donated some body parts by the time I arrived on a freezing Yorkshire morning, but it appears to have been in reasonably good condition upon arrival.