Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint 2020 UK first drive

The Sprint is surprisingly quick, although this has just as much to do with how brilliantly well the chassis sustains velocity as it does with how much power and torque the engine makes. 

There’s certainly no shortage of torque – something that's useful, because the gearbox is smoother than it is quick. There’s also an oddly pronounced sensation of flywheel effect, and of the crankshaft being driven by the gearbox rather than the pistons. This robs the powertrain of some involvement – more so because the exhaust note is muted, in line with the car’s quasi-opulent vibe. 

No, what really beguiles with the Giulia driving experience is the way the chassis maintains composure without resorting to firmly sprung suspension. Even rougher B-roads don’t seem to upset its cornering balance, which is one of resolute power to the rear wheels, with the fronts used only for guidance. 

It sounds simple enough, but when so many cars are either front-wheel drive or have driveshafts at each axle, it’s easy to forget just how good pure rear-wheel drive can feel when executed well, even in relatively normal machinery. And the Giulia makes more of a virtue of this than any rival apart from, perhaps, the Jaguar XE. 

In fact, with the Giulia, the platform itself feels carefully and expensively engineered; this is unusual and quite different from the more obvious feeling you get from expensive dampers, which alone couldn’t deliver such unruffled ride quality. The stiffness of the structure is evident in every easily dispatched ridge or rut along your B-road route, and in the way the Giulia never seems to waste any of its relatively modest power.

The result? If you had told me this four-cylinder turbo engine made closer to 240bhp, I wouldn’t have doubted it, and yet the crank will still turn unobtrusively on the motorway, returning almost 45mpg in the process. 

Of course, there are also some less impressive aspects. The steering remains too alert off-centre and largely anonymous in terms of road feel, and the Giulia is a confidence-inspiring sports saloon despite its electromechanical rack, not because of it. The brakes, which operate by wire, are also somewhat numb and never feel linear enough. It's a shame, because the design of both the steering wheel and the pedals wouldn’t look out of place in a bona fide sports car. The slim rim of the former is brilliant to hold. 

Whether you buy this Alfa is going to come down to your priorities, and what you’re prepared to trade. 

Dynamically, the Giulia isn’t as sharp as the new 3 Series. However, its gait is more mature and the chassis is more satisfying to guide at a canter. The cabin is also possibly the more refined of the two, at least in terms of pure isolation, and all of the above gives the Giulia an enjoyable and thoroughbred GT-style character – one the romantic exterior feeds into at all times and in all places.