Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio 2024 Review

Inevitably, the entry price to the 2024 Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio has risen over the years to $153,700 plus on-road costs – around a $10,000 hike from when it was first introduced in 2017.

Alfa will point to the increase in standard equipment as justification, which we’ll get to in a moment, but it’s worth noting the Giulia QV remains much cheaper than its German opposition.

The Audi RS 4 Avant kicks off at $166,100 plus ORCs, the BMW M3 at $161,300 plus ORCs (and you can add more than $10,000 to that for the Competition) and the new Mercedes-AMG C 63 S E Performance will set you back $190,900 plus ORCs.

That isn’t quite the whole story with the 2024 Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio, however, as there are a few options to contend with. Not that it is alone among its contemporaries in this regard.

We’ll start with $2200 for metallic paint (black, blue and grey, while a solid red is available as standard), $4400 for special paint like the pictured Etna Red or delectable Montreal Green, $1300 for dark alloy wheels and then there are the big-ticket items.

Carbon-ceramic brakes top the list at $15,950 and Sparco carbon-fibre front seats not only cost $8350 but remove power adjustment and heating, while the exposed carbon roof costs another $6500. Our test car had none of these and was no worse off for it.

There is plenty of gear as standard, including 19-inch wheels wearing Pirelli P Zero Corsa tyres (245/35 front; 285/35 rear), three-stage adaptive dampers, sizeable brakes and, as mentioned in the intro, a mechanical limited-slip diff instead of the old electronically-controlled one. More on that later.

The biggest addition in terms of equipment are the LED headlights, which are now adaptive matrix units, joining keyless entry and start, powered and heated seats with powered bolsters, dual-zone climate control, a 14-speaker Harman Kardon stereo and aluminium paddles and pedals.

Alfa offers a five-year/unlimited-km warranty with service intervals of 12 months or 15,000km, but it’s not a cheap exercise. The first five visits will cost you $5345 primarily thanks to a $2195 sting in the tail at four years/60,000km. Five years of roadside assistance is included as standard, however.

The 2024 Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio has never had an official ANCAP safety rating as it was excluded from the base model’s five-star result, though that has since expired in December 2022 anyhow.

Regardless, there’s most of the equipment you’d expect in a modern vehicle, including autonomous emergency braking (AEB) with pedestrian detection, blind-spot assist, rear cross-traffic alert, lane-departure warning, forward collision warning, traffic sign recognition and active cruise control.

The systems aren’t too enthusiastic in their intervention, either, which is welcome, especially in a driver-focused machine such as this.

Another new feature of the 2024 Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio is the 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster. Personally, I liked the old analogue dials – Italians tend to do these things well – but the digital dials offer a range of screens including a fiery Race mode with a central tacho.

The 8.8-inch infotainment screen scored a big upgrade in 2020 when it became a touch-screen and went to widget-based functionality and it works fine. It’s not exactly the latest tech but easy enough to use with the crucial (wired) smartphone integration of Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

Wireless charging is also standard, along with a USB-A port in the dash for charging and a USB-C in the centre console bin for charging and smartphone mirroring.

There are no changes under the bonnet of the 2024 Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio. The 2.9-litre twin-turbo V6 soldiers on with 375kW of power at 6500rpm and 600Nm of torque over 2500-5000rpm and it remains attached to an eight-speed automatic acceleration.

The claimed 0-100km/h acceleration time is 3.9sec and the top speed is 307km/h.

Cylinder-deactivation and idle-stop allow the 2024 Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio to claim just 8.2L/100km on the official combined cycle and as little as 5.7L/100km in highway use.

Realistically, unless you’re a hypermiler who’s made a very, very inappropriate purchase, the 12.4L/100km urban claim is a lot closer to a realistic average figure.

Awesome. Truly awesome. As a previous Australia’s Best Driver’s Car, the 2024 Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio has the resume but time – it’s been a few years since we’ve driven Alfa’s sports sedan – dulls the memory and also allows the competition to get stronger.

Make no mistake, the Giulia QV is still a top-flight performance car. It. Is. So. Fast. The outputs don’t jump off the page in an age of electrification but the rampant way it devours its lower gears barely allows you to gather your thoughts before another upshift is required.

We independently performance tested the Giulia QV and, while a significant hesitation (relatively speaking; we’re talking a couple of tenths of a second) before power kicks in means we couldn’t match the 3.9sec 0-100km/h claim, numbers of 4.3sec and, in particular, a 12.2sec quarter-mile at 195.5km/h show just how fast it is.

Sending so much power through just the rear wheels might sound like a recipe for sweaty-palmed lairiness but there is outstanding traction, at least in the dry.

The stickiness of the focused Corsa tyres (at least once they’re warm) certainly play a big part, but though I can find no reference to it, the suspicion is it limits torque output in first and second.

One flaw of the Giulia QV is that it is at its wildest and most enticing in Race mode, but that completely disables the stability control – there’s no halfway setting like in the vast majority of performance cars these days.

Dynamic isn’t a total killjoy, especially when there’s so much grip that you have to be trying very hard to run out of it, but an ESC Sport setting would be helpful.

Nevertheless, having explored the Giulia’s outer limits on track, it’s incredibly friendly and forgiving when you do provoke it. This is where that new limited-slip diff comes into play.

Going from electronically-controlled to mechanical may seem a retrograde step, but previously Giulia diffs could be very inconsistent, occasionally locking up fine and other times not at all, especially if they got hot. No such problems now, with beautifully predictable behaviour.

It’s a similar story with the brakes. The Giulia was one of the first cars to switch to brake-by-wire and early examples could again be very inconsistent, especially under heavy applications.

But now there is fantastic feel and progression along with outstanding braking performance, pulling up from 100km/h in just 32.5m (most regular cars are in the high 30s).

For all its eyebrow-scorching performance, possibly the most remarkable thing about the Alfa is its comfort. There is a fair degree of road noise, but the ride quality is truly outstanding. You could drive it around with the suspension in is stiffest setting without drama, but in comfort mode it is unbelievably compliant for a performance car.

Combine this with light steering – though the super-quick ratio and immediacy do take some getting used to – and the smooth auto gearbox and it’s entirely painless in day-to-day driving.

The primary issues are ‘crabbing’ from the front wheels at full lock at low speed and creaks and groans from the brakes as you release them.

Speaking of creaks and groans, probably the biggest question mark regarding the 2024 Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio is how it’s built. It certainly doesn’t have the sensation of having been carved from granite, a feeling not helped by the buzzes and rattles in the dash.

There are some lovely touches, though. The standard seats are incredibly supportive, the giant fixed aluminium paddles could be lifted straight from a Ferrari and the driving position is very good, but another new addition will likely split opinion.

Carbon-fibre is liberally applied throughout the cabin but instead of the usual smooth, glossy stuff, it’s coarse and thatched like a wicker basket. It’s quite odd and personally not for me, but you may feel differently.

In the back there’s sufficient space for anyone who isn’t too large, though there are some cheap materials – especially the big slabs of plastic on the front seat backs.

Getting in behind the driver can also be a bit of a squeeze as the ‘easy access’ driver’s seat means rear legroom is at a premium until they get in, turn the car on and subsequently slide into their preferred position.

Boot space is on par for this sort of car at 480 litres, but this is partially because there is no spare of any kind – only an inflation kit, which can be very much hit and miss.

The 2024 Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio is a heart-over-head purchase. It is usually so with an Alfa.

This isn’t to say there aren’t some very sound reasons to buy it – specifically, a substantial discount over the German opposition, staggering performance and great ride comfort.

You will have to make peace with the odd creak and rattle and the fact you don’t have the latest tech, but if you’ve fallen for the Giulia Quadrifoglio’s beguiling looks and incredible capability, that shouldn’t be a huge stretch.

2024 Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio at a glance:
Price: $153,700 (plus on-road costs)
Available: Now
Engine: 2.9-litre twin-turbo V6 petrol
Output: 375kW/600Nm
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Fuel: 8.2L/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 189g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety rating: Unrated