2022 Alfa Romeo Stelvio Ti on 2040-cars

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2023 J.D. Power Initial Quality Study shows there's less quality than last year

Vehicle inventory, vehicle pricing, and the supply chain are finally showing improvement. Vehicle quality, on the other hand, is still going the wrong way. That's the takeaway from the 2023 J.D. Power Initial Quality Study that found overall problems exceeded last year's record high. The study surveyed owners of 2022-model-year vehicles to assess the average rate of problems per 100 vehicles (PP100) during the first 90 days of ownership. The average figure for the 32 ranked manufacturers in 2020 was about 166 problems per 100 vehicles. In the 2021 IQS, that dropped to an average of 162. For 2022, the average jumped to 180 problems. For 2023, the PP100 is up to an industry average of 192 — an increase of 30 problems per 100 vehicles in just two years. Let's get to the good news first: Dodge reclaimed the crown of having the lowest number of problems per 100 vehicles at 140. Buick won last year with 139 PP100, falling to third this year. Dodge was the first American automaker to top the IQS in 2021. Its return as the least problematic gives parent company Stellantis three wins in four years after Ram was crowned in 2021. It also gives U.S. brands a four-peat after Buick topped the chart in 2022 by having owners report the fewest problems. This year's top 10 is Dodge, Ram, Alfa Romeo, Buick, Chevrolet, GMC, Porsche, Cadillac, Kia, and Lexus. Stellantis gathered a few feathers for its cap, in fact. Maserati showed the largest improvement year-on-year, followed by Alfa Romeo, and Alfa Romeo posted the lowest PP100 among the premium class, beating Porsche and Cadillac. Alfa Romeo has been vocal about working to improve quality, mentioning Lexus as a target. Last year the Japanese brand finished sixth, the Italians finished near the bottom, between Jaguar and Mitsubishi. This year Alfa jumped to third, Lexus dropped to tenth. Ram was the third-best on the list of improvers from 2022 to 2023.   The individual model with the lowest PP100 is the Nissan Maxima. Now for the troublesome bits. In the words of Frank Hanley, senior director of auto benchmarking at J.D. Power, "The industry is at a major crossroad and the path each manufacturer chooses is paramount for its future.

Alfa Romeo 4C priced at $53,900* in US, gains 342 pounds vs Euro version

We're out in California driving the Alfa Romeo 4C as we write this – which is the good news. The bad news is that we can't offer up any driving impressions of the car for another few days. On the other hand, we can provide a few interesting non-driving-based tidbits from the launch program, with which to further enlighten you about Alfa's upcoming "compact supercar" (that descriptor comes direct from Alfa CEO Harald Wester, for what it's worth). So, for starters, the price. When Matt Davis drove the European-spec 4C in the fall of last year, he guestimated that the starting price for the US would hover around $55,000. As it turns out, that was a pretty good guess. Eventually, the starting bill on a 4C will be $53,900, plus a significant $1,295 for destination, netting out to $55,195 out the door. That price might sound inline with what you'd expect for an Italian quasi-supercar, but it's not likely what you'll actually pay if you buy one. We're told that $62k to $65k will be the sweet spot for 4C sales in the US. What's more, if you simply have to have a 2015 model, you'll have to pony up a healthy $69,695 (that's including destination), for one of just 500 examples of the launch edition that will be sold here this year. In addition to a serialized plaque that will certify your historic purchase, the launch edition cars get the larger optional wheels in a dark-finish, the sport suspension, sport exhaust, and some other bits and bobs. Finally, while we're happy to report that the curb weight of the feather-light 4C will stay below the magical 2,500-pound mark (2,495 lbs., wet), it has still gained some 342 pounds versus the European-spec car. The added weight is down to a beefier carbon-fiber tub and additional US safety equipment. It's also fair to mention that the ultra-light European model was arrived upon thanks to a homologation rule with the EU, that (among other things) will limit 4C sales on the continent to just 1,000 units per year. We'd expect that to evolve as the model stays on sale. Stay tuned for our full review of the car, thick carbon-fiber and all, early next week.

Cold start comparison: 2020 Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio vs. 2013 Dodge Challenger SRT8

The 2020 Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio is a five-seat, compact luxury sport sedan packing 505 horsepower thanks to a 2.9-liter twin-turbocharged V6. My personal 2013 Dodge Challenger SRT8 392 is ... well ... not. It's a full-sized muscle coupe whose iron-block 6.4-liter V8 makes 470 hp in the very traditional way: it's freakin' huge, like everything else about the car.  On paper, these two have nothing in common beyond the fact that they were built by the same multi-national manufacturing entity.  But if paper were the be-all and end-all of automotive rankings, everybody would buy the same car. And we don't, especially as enthusiasts. Whether it's looks or tuning or vague "intangibles" or something as simple as the way a car sounds, we often put a priority on the things that trigger our emotions rather than setting out to simply buy whatever the "best" car is at that particular moment.  So, what do these two have in common? They both sound really, really good. Like looks, sounds are subjective. While a rubric most assuredly exists in the world of marketing (attraction is as much a science as any other human response), we have no way of objectively scoring the beauty of either of these cars, and the same applies to the qualities of the sound waves being emitted through their tail pipes.  But we can measure how loud they are. In fact, there's even an app for that. Dozens, as it turns out. So, I picked one at random that recorded peak loudness levels, and set off to conduct an entirely pointless and only vaguely scientific experiment with the two cars that happened to be in my garage at the same time.  For the test, I opened up a window and cracked the garage door (so as not to inflict carbon monoxide poisoning upon myself in the name of discovery), and then placed my phone on a tripod behind the center of each car's trunk lid. I fired each one up and let the app do the rest. I then placed my GoPro on top of the trunk for each test so that I could review the video afterward for any anomalies.  I started with the Challenger. The 6.4-liter Hemi under the hood of this big coupe is essentially the same lump found under the hood of quite a few Ram pickups, and it has the accessories to prove it. Its starter is loud and distinctive. Almost as loud, it turns out, as the exhaust itself. As its loud pew-pew faded behind the V8's barking cold start, we recorded a peak of 83.7 decibels. In the app's judgment, that's roughly the equivalent of a busy street.