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2017 Alfa Romeo Giulia Ti Lusso Drivers' Notes | We've got a crush on Giulia

American car enthusiasts have pined over Alfa Romeos for decades. The automaker stopped importing cars to the U.S. in 1995, with only a brief appearance with the beautiful but exotic 8C Competizione. The 4C followed along a few years later, but it too was a niche product, mainly intended to raise brand awareness than raise sales. That's where the Giulia steps in. As a compact sport sedan, Giulia is Alfa's BMW 3 Series competitor. Sure, the Giulia Quadrifoglio might get all the headlines, but cars like the Giulia Ti Lusso and Sport will be the real volume models. This is an extremely cutthroat segment with high expectations when it comes to both luxury and performance. Alfa has been out of the game for a long time, and the reputation it left wasn't exactly the greatest. Alfa Romeo has a lot riding on this car. Associate Editor Reese Counts: I like this car right from the start. It's a looker. While I prefer colors that pop, the Giulia looks wonderful even in this metallic black paint. The proportions are all perfect, and that iconic grille has rarely looked better. If Alfa does one thing right, its the styling. I felt the same way about the interior. The design is all simple and clean. The seats are particularly nice, with Ferrari-esque ribs down the middle. I'm also a big fan of the wood and leather. Only some cheap feeling plastic bits brought it down. This Giulia has a middling transmission, a good engine and great steering. There's some weird low-speed hesitation from the eight-speed that makes it feel like a dual-clutch. Once you're on it, the shifts are quick and smooth. The Lusso doesn't come with paddle shifters. That's fine. Not every car needs them. Buy the Sport if you want that sort of thing. Power and torque come on quick and effortlessly. It feels every bit as its class-leading (four-cylinder) 280 horsepower and 306 pound-feet for torque would suggest. The 5,500 rpm redline comes in quick and abrupt, making me wish it had a little more room to breathe up top. The steering is wonderful. It's quick and precise but doesn't feel jittery. I'd have to drive the competition back to back, but I think this has the best steering in the class. The wheel feels nice in your hands. Some of the other touch points are a letdown, but Alfa got the driving position and controls just right. Not a , but still a . Good engine, better steering.

Touring's Disco Volante makes us green with envy [w/video]

In its entire production run, Alfa Romeo only ever built 500 examples of the 8C Competizione – just 90 of which ended up in the United States – and another 500 Spiders. That makes it a pretty rare car indeed, but it's positively commonplace compared to the Disco Volante, the version reborn by the talented and steady hands at Carrozzeria Touring Superleggera. In correspondece with Autoblog, Touring's CEO Piero Mancardi confirmed that the coachbuilder will only build eight examples of the Disco Volante, in colors chosen by their individual customers: one in black, one in blue, one in silver, the one in green you see here and the rest in different shades of red. That makes this particular example a one-of-a-kind work of art that we were privileged to behold here at the 2014 Geneva Motor Show, and you can see what we saw through the camera lens in the high-resolution image gallery above, or by checking out the video below. Featured Gallery Touring Disco Volante: Geneva 2014 View 20 Photos Related Gallery Alfa Romeo Disco Volante by Carrozzeria Touring Superleggera in green & gold View 38 Photos Image Credit: Live photos copyright 2014 Drew Phillips / AOL Geneva Motor Show Alfa Romeo Coupe Luxury Performance 2014 Geneva Motor Show touring alfa romeo 8c competizione carrozzeria touring superleggera disco volante

This is the Alfa Romeo Tonale compact crossover in official images

Alfa Romeo has unveiled the Tonale concept crossover at the Geneva Motor Show. The carmaker was able to keep the Tonale's name and design secret until yesterday, when images of the stand leaked online; the concept was revealed to be a shapely PHEV in metallic red. The concept will lead to a production vehicle, which will be Alfa Romeo's first CUV. Bared and shown in detail, the Tonale concept looks really good — dare we say, on par with recent Mazdas. It blends Stelvio styling cues into a smaller vehicle, but the concept still manages to look like its own thing, and perhaps even better than the bigger sibling. There are classic Alfa Romeo touches like phone-dial wheels, and the front end has a hint of the SZ and Brera coupes of earlier times. The interior, while largely concept-car-like, brings more Alfa styling to the table. The gauges are housed in traditional bucket shapes visible through the steering wheel, conjoined by a central display. There's a large central screen, underneath which runs a central tunnel covering that looks like muscle fiber, repeated in the door cards. The seats are styled like the racing buckets of a sports car. Alfa Romeo states that electrified power has been used for its own means, instead of Alfa bowing down to accept new standards. "The electrification of Alfa Romeo comes at the service of sportiness and emphasizes the famous 'Mechanics of Emotions' mission of the brand," as Alfa Romeo says. This also means the Tonale's hybrid branding will be discreet instead of obvious. The Tonale ("tonal," in English) is a plug-in hybrid, with a rear-mounted electric motor; however, any definite specifications as to the engine, the electric powertrain or the utilized platform remain unannounced. One detail emerges, though: Earlier, fossil-fuel-only Alfa Romeos have used the "DNA" selector for Dynamic, Natural or Advanced Efficiency modes; now the Dynamic mode has been changed to Dual Power, and the other end is Advance E, for full electric mode. Related Video: