Say hello to…
…the Alfa Romeo Giulia, the Stellantis-owned company’s executive saloon which has just been facelifted and the range simplified to a single 2.0-litre petrol engine.
The company car carpark used to be full of mid-size saloons and the Giulia is refreshingly old-school. It is a rear-drive, four-door saloon with minimal pretences to being particularly low CO2 and is a poke in the eye to the SUV-brigade.
As well as simplifying the Giulia range with a just a single engine, Alfa Romeo is only offering the car in three trim levels.
- Sprint
- Veloce
- Competizione
Standard equipment on the Sprint includes 18-inch alloy wheels, 8.8-inch infotainment screen, active cruise control, 12.3-inch driver’s display, Apple Carplay, Android Auto, auto high beam, climate control, USB sockets, drive modes, power fold door mirrors, keyless entry, heated washer jets, auto wipers, wireless charging and auto wipers.
Veloce adds 19-inch alloy wheels, heated leather seats, limited slip differential, powered driver’s seat, heated steering wheel and leather seats.
Competizione adds tinted rear windows, uprated stereo and adaptive suspension.
Is The Alfa Romeo Giulia Suitable For My Fleet
Unfortunately, with a CO2 figure that sits in the maximum 37% BIK tax band, the Giulia isn’t going to be popular as a company car. However, as a premium four-door saloon that’s far less common than a BMW, Audi or Mercedes the Giulia is still very appealing, if run on a cash for car basis.
Leasing An Alfa Romeo Giulia
Intelligent Car Leasing is offering the Veloce trim level Giulia for £846 a month on a 3+36 contract with 20,000 miles a year. Gensen Reports that while maintenance costs on 20,000 miles a year would be a fairly competitive £84 a month, the Class 1A NIC would be more than £162. A similarly premium and similarly quick plug-in hybrid car in this class would be around a third of this figure.
Driving An Alfa Romeo Giulia
With the vast number of SUVs on the market available to business drivers, it’s refreshing to go back to a ‘regular’ four-door saloon car.
SUVs may be hugely popular with the masses, but even a short drive in the Giulia, a rear-drive saloon, reveals why this kind of car was once king of the fleet hill.
With a significantly lower centre of gravity than an SUV, the Giulia has excellent body control. This is apparent in slow and faster corners.
Alfa Romeo is famous for engineering its cars to have great steering feel and the low centre of gravity both helps and exploits this. Simply put, the car feels incredibly natural to drive with no artificial weight to the steering.
Ride quality is pretty good too. Alfa hasn’t updated the suspension for the facelifted car because it didn’t need to. While the car majors on fun, comfort levels are well above acceptable even the Giulia isn’t quite at the level of a Mercedes C-class or Audi A4.
What has been updated to improve the driving experience is the infotainment screen and system. The screen is clear and quick to respond to inputs and relatively intuitive to use. Standard Apple Carplay is also installed too.
Overall the updates and great original design and engineering mean the Giulia is still a hugely enjoyable car.
FleetandLeasing.com Verdict On The Alfa Romeo Giulia
Look past the CO2 figures and the Giulia remains a great driving and desirable car.
Alfa Romeo Giulia
- Model: Giulia Veloce 2.0
- Power: 280hp
- Torque: 400Nm
- Max speed: 149mph
- 0-62mph: 5.7s
- Official mpg: 46.3mpg
- Test mpg: n/a
- CO2 emissions: 167g/km
- BIK tax band 2022/23: 37%
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