Hello all.
I am in the final part of my trip now. Currently in Milan.
Had a great time with my Giulietta 2.0 JTDm.
We did well over 2000KM, thru Italy, Swiss and Germany.
Here is a small review.
I Took my car once I got off a train from Swiss to Milano. It was a White Giulietta 2.0 JTDm, 6 speed manual, without glassroof, without leather seats and without the LCD infodisplay (which I really wanted to play with. )
Its a Diesel with 168Bhp, so not really an impressive number, I drove it and pretend it to be the 1.4TB version. with a 30+KG weight in the front.
I am not going to Lie to you that every corner of the car looks beautiful. The front of the car and the headlights, to me, is just plain awful. Audi like LEDs in an Alfa is exactly what i do not want to see.
The rear end however, is another story. I am very happy to see the 156/147 styled rear door handles, and the whole rear is beautiful.
I took it out into the swiss alps in a foggy rainy saturday morning.
The feeling was great. The Diesel however, is rubbish. I am not going into detail on how bad the diesel is, because we are not getting the diesel in HK anyways. but its rubbish.
it is using hte same DNA and electronic steering rubbish that i am familiar with in the Mito. However they did do something to the software in Dynamic mode, and the throttle response in D mode is very very good. Just excatly how i wanted it.
The steering, lets be honest, cannot be compared to the Delta or the 155 or the older models, Electronic steering really took a lot of information out, however it is still usable. Feedback is still there although not as much as I hoped.
The dashboard is excatly like a Mito. (will add photoes tomorrow)
But they putted in a shift assist logo in it telling you when to shift.
HOWEVER, its not telling you when is a good time to shift to maintain maximum power output,
its telling you when to shift to maintain maximum GAS MILEAGE. Just... WHAT?!
The brakes of the car are not sporty, lets face it, its only a rubbish clamp, but its good enough for the power.
The car is heavy. 1400KG for the diesel model, 1350 for the 1.4s. However i did not feel any understeer at all. very natural car, even with a heavy rubbish diesel engine in the font.
On the German Autobahn, I maxed out at 215KM/H. The car is very very stable in that speed, it is not like my 155 where it felt like everything is falling apart at speed, and I even did a emergency turn to avoid hitting a eagle (yes, an low flying EAGLE on the autobahn) at 180KM/H and there is no drama.
The car feels BIG. it felt bigger then my old 156. maybe because its LHD and i am not very used to it, but it really felt big.
The boot space is huge. Fitted 2 25 inches luggage flat in and a large one on top, so i am impressed.
The rear legroom is, well.. acceptable. but could be better. I can fit in no problem even with the front seat in my driving position, and i am a 6 feet tall 185 lbs fat guy.
But is it comfortable? well....
As for the ride itself, its very very very smooth. I think it could be harder (and maybe it will be harder in the cloverleaf) but it rides out the bump perfectly.
But up in the swiss alps, i really hoped that it is a little harder.
Overall it is a very good car, and it is nothing like the Mito. I thought it is going to be a 4 door slightly bigger Mito when i first got it, but i was very wrong.
Will i get one? Yes i am sure i will. I am still very very eager to test the 1750 TBi engine and their new TcT gearbox.
Saw several Cloverleaf version on the Nurburgring and it seems pretty natural even on track.
The one big downside of the car, not counting the diesel engine, is the start & stop system. Its those rubbish system where the car cuts the engine when u are in N and off the clutch.
Its rubbish. lucky there is a big switch in the middle of the car to turn it off. But you will get a permanent warning light on the dashboard.
Like all Alfas, its not very very fast, but it felt good.