Alfa Romeo Giulietta JTDM-2 2012 Review

Yet while the Golf sold over 18,000 cars in Australia last year, the Giulietta managed just 526. There are various reasons for this, not least of all the lack of model diversity in the Alfa Romeo range and the entry-level price point for the two cars. Perhaps too it's the lack of an automatic transmission – at least until now.

Alfa Romeo's reputation for mediocre build quality and durability, a reputation sullied in the past and perhaps yet to fully recover, is also a bugbear. And buyers might consider the resale differences too. According to Redbook's retained values, a 2011 Giulietta QV, which is $1500 more expensive than the Golf GTi when new, is now worth between $29,500 and $32,600 to pick up as a used car. Twelve months down the track, the Golf will still cost between $32,900 and $36,100 to buy used.

So the new (factory-owned) distributor for Fiat and Alfa Romeo has its work cut out for it, rebuilding Alfa Romeo's brand image in Australia to sell more cars. But the makings of a success story are there in the case of the Giulietta, starting with diesel-engined, twin-clutch-equipped Giulietta JTDM-2.

Before now motoring.com.au had not sampled the Giulietta in this configuration, but now we have it has us asking the question: why has it taken so long to reach us and when will buyers stop ignoring it?

In addition, the car is equipped with: a multi-function leather-bound steering wheel featuring ‘infotainment’ system controls, chrome effect window sills, cruise control, 17-inch Turbine design alloy wheels with 225/45 R17 tyres and hands-free system with voice recognition and media player with USB port. Completing the equipment list are the electrically heated and adjustable door mirrors, electro-chromatic mirror, fog lights, reverse parking sensors, rain-sensing wipers and auto-on/off headlights.

At its price point, which is $1500 less than the Giulietta QV, the JTDM-2 looks a bit pricey, particularly against the Volkswagen Golf Comfortline 103 TDi that sells for $6000 less again. While the Alfa has its fair share of features and benefits to offset the price difference, they're mostly intangible qualities. The Alfa is larger in almost every dimension than the Golf, it develops more power and torque but uses less fuel in the combined-cycle test. It also has reverse parking sensors and 17-inch alloy wheels versus 16-inch wheels. In the main, therefore, the Alfa is the spec champion, despite the VW boasting an eight-speaker stereo system, rather than the six-speaker system of the Alfa.

But that $6000 difference is a hard sell for Alfa buyers — and the all-new Golf 7 is not too far away either. Then again — and check COMPETITORS below — the Giulietta just about gets away with that price difference in light of its combined presence and specification.

The common-rail engine, which is Euro 5-compliant, develops 125kW and 350Nm — and the factory claims the Giulietta can reach 100km/h from a standing start in 7.9 seconds.

In official combined-cycle testing the diesel consumes just 4.5L/100km and the CO2 emissions figure in the same test is as low as 119g/km. Both fuel consumption and the emissions figure top the respective numbers for the same car with a manual transmission instead of the TCT, which has been developed in-house by Fiat with operating system software courtesy of Marelli.

But rational as the Giulietta's interior is, it doesn't achieve that ideal by throwing style on the sacrificial altar. The look of the interior is closer to conventional mainstream thinking than Alfas from the past, but the metallic grey garnish across the dash and the soft-touch toggle switches in the centre fascia manage to look good and (in the case of the switchgear) feel nice to use.

Overall, the Giulietta provides a comfortable and ergonomically efficient driving position from its well-shaped seats, however, the driver's side mirror won't adjust far enough to cover the blind spots outboard of the car's rear flank.

In other respects, both the packaging and the safety features of the Giulietta are much as they were when we first drove the car on local soil.

It's larger in every dimension than the Golf, excluding height, and that does bring some added roominess inside the Alfa. And in Europe NCAP has rated the Giulietta as a safer vehicle in a crash than the Golf... Marginally.

Does Alfa Romeo in Australia see Audi as the main game for the Giulietta then? Possibly, but the Audi would be snapped up in a straight line by the higher-performance Alfa.

A much closer comparison is the cheaper Ford Focus Titanium, which bundles up a lot of equipment for the price, but many buyers will prefer the looks (and the badge cachet) of the Alfa. Peugeot's 308 Allure HDi is another car that undercuts the Alfa on price — and specification to some degree.

There are yet cheaper alternatives again (including Holden's Cruze, the Renault Megane, the recently launched Opel Astra and even Hyundai's i30), as well as the more expensive Mercedes-Benz B200 BlueEfficiency. Simply, however, the Alfa bats these cars out of the park if style and image, performance and dynamics, safety and equipment — or any combination of these — count for anything.

And that's even allowing for the pricing of the Giulietta. Just one point though: most of these cars won't depreciate as quickly, either as a percentage of the new price, or as a lump sum of dollars.

In fact, only the tyres generated any sort of din at the open-road limit. The Giulietta was impressive for the way it insulated the cabin from any drivetrain noise; the engine being so quiet at idle, the co-driver thought it was a petrol engine. Only one tell-tale — the tacho redlined at 4500rpm — gave the game away.

Over the course of the leg back to Albury, the Giuletta's trip computer posted an average fuel consumption figure of 5.7L/100km, which was a good effort in the circumstances, given the way the car was being driven. There was abundant torque on tap and the car hauled nicely in a straight line.

The engineers have set up the TCT to hold a gear if the driver plants the foot — provided the engine management ECU recognises the engine is already developing maximum torque, or near to it. It's one instance when not kicking down can be the right option — with the car relying on the engine's combination of power and torque to deliver optimal acceleration.

Even without resorting to the Dynamic setting in the DNA 'sports mode transmission/throttle facility or shifting manually, the driver could extract more than adequate performance from the Giulietta, but it's good to know there's more available when required.

Overtaking doesn't pose much of a problem, in other words.

Other aspects of the Giulietta that were pleasing to note included the smooth-shifting TCT, which seemed to have taken the best elements of VW's DSG setup, or Ford's Getrag PowerShift box, and none of the vices such as hesitant launching or thumps and bumps under load.

We'll have to wait for a seven-day test vehicle to confirm, but it's looking good for the Alfa TCT box. The sooner it can be introduced into other Fiats and Alfas — replacing the robotised Dualogic single-clutch boxes presently used — the better.

In terms of handling the Giulietta sets an example for other cars in the same market segment to follow. Steering is well weighted, there's good feedback through the wheel, and the Giulietta turns into corners responsively. Straight ahead, the Giulietta pointed true at all times; no constant correction of the wheel was required; not like the MiTo driven immediately beforehand.

Relative to its stablemate, the Giulietta is a car that hits most targets. If you're a traditional Alfa fan, you could even grow to like the diesel engine...

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