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First Drive: Alfa Giulietta Cloverleaf. Image by Alfa Romeo.

First Drive: Alfa Giulietta Cloverleaf
Range-topping Giulietta is fast, but devoid of the thrills offered by its rivals.

   



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| First Drive | Goodwood, England | Alfa Romeo Giulietta Cloverleaf |

Alfa's Giulietta isn't just one of the most beautiful hatchbacks money can buy, it's also got substance to back up that style. The impressive range is headed up by the Giulietta Cloverleaf, which, with power by a 1.75-litre turbocharged engine delivering 235bhp, promises a sporting drive to match its looks.

In the Metal

As you'd expect from Alfa Romeo, the Giulietta is stunning to look at and the Cloverleaf detailing builds on that. The lights front and rear are a delight, with the way the rear lights frame the back of the car particularly spectacular. Inside, there's more style, the deeply recessed instruments and flowing dashboard giving the overall feeling that someone has lavished time on the design to make the Giulietta one of the nicest cars in its class to sit in. Unless you're behind the wheel that is, where the pedals are too close together, making it difficult to find a decent driving position.

What you get for your Money

Sitting at the top of the range the Cloverleaf comes very well specified indeed. There's climate control, Bluetooth phone connection, sports suspension, 18-inch alloys in a dark finish, red brake callipers and Cloverleaf badging. That's on top of the already comprehensive list of the lesser Giulietta models. Like them it gets stop-start technology to help keep fuel consumption and emissions down. At £24,495 it's pitched against cars like Ford's Focus ST and VW's Golf GTI, rivals which, on paper at least, it matches and even betters in some areas.

Driving it

Specification, styling and looks count for little behind the wheel. While there's nothing wrong with how the Giulietta Cloverleaf drives it's just not as entertaining as you'd expect a car with a quoted 0-62mph time of 6.8 seconds and a 235bhp 1.75-litre turbocharged engine powering it to be. It certainly is quick, but it's just not that involving. The suspension takes the worst edges off bumps, but it's lacking the sort of precision and feel on offer from the best hot hatches.

A Golf GTI driver will be more relaxed and a Focus ST owner more informed, the Alfa sitting somewhere in the middle ground. Our main criticism is with the driving position, which places the pedals too close to you and the steering wheel too far away. In the Cloverleaf the pedals are closer together thanks to the wider pedal covers, which is great for heel and toe downshifts, but that's easy enough in the standard cars and there's nowhere to rest your left foot as a consequence.

The steering is light and quick, and it can be adjusted - along with the throttle settings - with Alfa's DNA system. In Dynamic mode it all sharpens up noticeably, the by-product of that being that it feels like everything is operating through treacle when you switch it back to the normal setting. In summary, the Alfa is fast enough, but there's none of the 'drive me' appeal that marks out the best hot hatches in this class.

Worth Noting

Alfa Romeo originally intended to badge the Giulietta as 'Milano', which is equally as evocative and a good deal easier to spell... Internal politics changed all that at the last minute.

The Cloverleaf delivers 235bhp from its blown four-cylinder 1.75-litre engine, but switch on the Dynamic mode and the torque swells from 221lb.ft to 250lb.ft.

Summary

A fast, capable and stylish hatchback there's a lot to like about the Giulietta Cloverleaf. It's spacious and well equipped too, but its driving position does count against it. More than that, what's missing is the sort of fun, drive-me appeal of some of its key rivals. The Giulietta Cloverleaf is certainly a good hot hatchback, but is not quite good enough to be considered among the greats.

Kyle Fortune - 2 Jul 2010



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2010 Alfa Romeo Giulietta specifications:
Price: £24,495 on-the-road
0-62mph: 6.8 seconds
Top speed: 150mph
Combined economy: 37.2mpg
Emissions: 177g/km
Kerb weight: 1320kg

2010 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Cloverleaf. Image by Max Earey.2010 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Cloverleaf. Image by Max Earey.2010 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Cloverleaf. Image by Max Earey.2010 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Cloverleaf. Image by Max Earey.2010 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Cloverleaf. Image by Max Earey.

2010 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Cloverleaf. Image by Max Earey.2010 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Cloverleaf. Image by Max Earey.2010 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Cloverleaf. Image by Max Earey.2010 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Cloverleaf. Image by Max Earey.2010 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Cloverleaf. Image by Max Earey.



2010 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Cloverleaf. Image by Alfa Romeo.
 

2010 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Cloverleaf. Image by Alfa Romeo.
 

2010 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Cloverleaf. Image by Alfa Romeo.
 

2010 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Cloverleaf. Image by Alfa Romeo.
 

2010 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Cloverleaf. Image by Alfa Romeo.
 

2010 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Cloverleaf. Image by Alfa Romeo.
 






 

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