Nearly a decade ago, the world got its first glimpse of a sports sedan of the ages. Not from Munich or Stuttgart, but from Italy. For the first time in decades, Alfa Romeo had a rear-wheel-drive mainline car, and the top-spec model borrowed enough Ferrari brilliance to be an instant want-one proposition. Fast forward to the here and now, and when the end of the 2024 model year drew near, Alfa Romeo shut the order books on the Giulia Quadrifoglio in America, marking the end of an eight-model-year streak of winning hearts, but attracting fewer customers than Alfa Romeo would’ve liked.
In hindsight, the Giulia Quadrifoglio was a landmark sports sedan, with a thumping 505-horsepower twin-turbocharged V6 propelling it to a heroic maximum velocity of 191 miles per hour. With enough runway, no stock BMW M3 or Mercedes-AMG C63 S could touch it, but the going really got good once the roads started to twist.
With fast, accurate steering and superb damping for real-world bumpy roads, the Giulia Quadifoglio came alive in a way that a contemporary BMW M3 didn’t, serving up a genuinely exotic experience in a surprisingly practical format. Former FCA CEO Sergio Marchionne put the chassis engineer of the Ferrari 458 Speciale in charge of the Giulia project, and it really shows.
However, thanks to Alfa Romeo’s low sales volumes in America, you haven’t yet missed out on buying a new Giulia Quadrifoglio. According to the inventory locator on Alfa Romeo’s U.S. website, there are still 160 Giulia Quadrifoglio sedans available nationwide. Seriously, you can pretty much take your pick of spec, because they’re almost all here. Red ones and blue ones and green ones and Carbon Edition ones. Just about the only color not available is Verde Montreal, but Verde Fangio is still on the menu.
Best of all, you almost certainly aren’t going to be paying full list price for a new Giulia Quadrifoglio. Take this red one up for sale at a dealership in Atlanta for $78,665. Considering it carries a manufacturer suggested retail price of $88,665 including $5,700 in options, it’s being sold for $10,000 below list, and there doesn’t seem to be a catch of stacked conditional incentives according to the dealer website.
If that’s a bit boldly painted for you, this white Giulia Quadrifoglio Super Sport is advertised at a dealer in Missouri for $14,581 below MSRP. Yep, that’s nearly $15,000 off a 505-horsepower Italian sports sedan. While the Super Sport edition is largely a cosmetic package consisting of red carbon fiber interior trim, dark exterior accents, special stitching, and a litany of carbon fiber bits on the outside, only 72 made it to America, with only 275 existing worldwide. Interesting pedigree for $76,984Â before tax, title and licensing.
Fancy a Carbon edition? This Rosso Etna Giulia Quadrifoglio is up for sale at a dealership in Wisconsin for $81,222 including a $10,693 dealer discount. Oh, but it gets better. Until the end of March, Alfa Romeo is running a nationwide incentive of an additional $2,500 off Giulia Quadrifoglio sedans, bringing the price of this unit to $78,222 if you’re buying with cash.
In an age when the Mercedes-AMG C 63 weighs 5,000 pounds and features a four-cylinder engine, and the BMW M3 looks like that, the Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio is still one of the most attractive sports sedans you can buy new. However, there is an elephant in the room. You can buy a used Giulia Quadrifoglio for sinfully cheap, with used examples dipping below the $30,000 mark if you search hard enough. However, if you’ve always wanted a Giulia Quadrifoglio and wouldn’t want to own one without the benefit of a factory warranty, a heavily discounted new one isn’t a bad way to go about it.
Top graphic image: Alfa Romeo
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It’s because a base M3 with a manual is $76,700. Why would I buy an unreliable, automatic Quadroformaggio over that?
As tempting as these discounted 2024 units are, used Giulia Quadrifoglios are even more temping.
I picked mine up last week (2017, 37k miles) for 35k. A more heavily optioned (but also heavily worn) one just went for 23k on CarsandBids today. Even if you must have a refreshed 2020+, you are still only looking at mid 40s.
It’s an absurd amount of car for the money. And not just in performance. It’s got a certain personality that so many modern cars lack. Don’t believe me? Go read the comment section of any listing on BaT or C&B; there will be at least one former owner lamenting their decision to move on (even if it was the greener pastures of a Porsche or Ferrari).
“But it’s so unreliable!” (Queue Car and Driver article)
I see this parroted everywhere, almost entirely by people who don’t own them and couldn’t name a single problematic component on them. Having lurked forums and investigated close to a hundred Carfax reports over the last three months, at this point they really don’t have that many issues compared to other high performance cars.
Yes, some of the earlier model years had some electrical gremlins (general consensus was sketchy batteries & software). Because of that a lot of MY 17/18 got lemon lawed; the ones that didn’t are pretty safe to buy.
A lot of examples out there with 80-100k miles and minimal fuss. ZF8 transmission is bullet proof. The only remotely common failure points I saw are the radiator & fuel pump.
Plus, you can choose to get a Mopar extended warranty (pretty much bumper to bumper) for a pretty reasonable price as long as its currently under 100k miles.
The one legitimate gripe is the dealer network, especially with the recent wave of closures. If you don’t have one close, or don’t have confidence that the only one near you will stay open that definitely a reason to stay clear. Everyone else is missing out on one of the last great sports sedans that might ever be made.
In my dreams I have a beautiful green one sitting in my driveway. While it’s most likely broken and undrivable, it’s at least pretty to look at.
Seeing this reminded me of the old “Maxcare” approach to a questionable used car, so I typed in Carmax to see what they have for sale for fun.
Apparently Carmax does not do business in Alfa Romeos. Zero in stock. Alfa is not even a brand in their filter. 17 Smarts. 53 Rivians. 0 Alfa Romeos. I see they have zero Maseratis as well.
Guess Carmax is one step ahead of me with the Maxcare Quadrifolgio plan.
I have a feeling this is one of those cars that, at death’s door, I’ll still be saying “I should have bought the Alfa…” (The other auto regret was a new 2008 S2000 being sold at a Honda dealer that needed a major attitude adjustment and a nuclear weapon to clean house.) But the first batch of these were so rough around the edges with quality – the C&D Long Term Test was a total disaster – and forums were filled with stories of electrical and mechanical gremlins that I just couldn’t do it. And now Alfa Romeo of Louisville, not too far from home, has just closed, along with a dozen or so additional dealers. Does this mean they are closing up shop soon? I found it amazing that this dealer closed because Alfas are pretty thick on the ground here.
And this Alfa dealer would barely budge on prices. Good luck getting any kind of discount on a Quadrifoglio, even the stunning red that sat in their showroom for months. At least their sister Audi dealership next door was very fair with pricing.
It seems these Giulia’s were always plagued by software. The nuts and bolts seemed solid. I really don’t know enough about the quads to make an informed statement, but if they’ve ironed out the software they might be a decent used car. I think it’s worth a gavel gazing.
It seemed like every review always had the phrase “mystery warning light” or “dash lights lit up” somewhere in it. I thought the first batch of 2.0 turbos had some teething issues, but by 2020-ish, they were worked out.
As much as I like these, there’s no way I’d ever buy one – especially not new. The fact that my “local” Alfa dealer packed it in a while ago, leaving (as far as I know) only one Alfa dealership in all Colorado, I don’t have high hopes of ongoing parts support that Alfas are known to need.
With that said, there’s a green Quadrifoglio near me that I see from time to time that makes me reconsider my “No Alfas” lifestyle…
Alfas tug at my heart more than most brands, but I just know it would be a mistake. I thought maybe their reliability reputation was a thing of the past, or overblown or something, but a friend of mine test drove a brand new Giulia (not a Quadrifoglio), and he says the CEL came on during the test drive. That’s embarrassing.
” Take this red one up for sale at a dealership in Atlanta for $78,665. Considering it carries a manufacturer suggested retail price of $88,665 including $5,700 in options, ”
Here is the thing… that’s a 2024 model. And we are in 2025 now. And thus, it’s not that new anymore. Vehicles age even if they are not driven.
So while “$10,000 off” sounds great on the surface, the reality is that this is a 1 year old car that has a COVID-shortage-fantasy-level MSRP.
And since it’s not truly “new” anymore, at the very least, take that MSRP, subtract 20% (or around $18,000) and THEN we can talk about this just being an “okay deal”… not amazing… just okay.
Talk to me about this being a great deal when the discounts are at least $30,000 off of that $88,665 MSRP.
As it sits with that $78,000 asking price, I’d say that car is still overpriced by about $20,000.
Giulias were relatively common on LA streets for about a year after they came out and then pretty much vanished completely. That tells me they probably suck to own.
So did they end up? In container ships heading to places unknown? At the bottom of canyons or lit ablaze on seedy side streets after being insured to the hilt? Are they being stored in a secret ultrasecure, climate controlled lair somewhere by a cabal of UberAlfaFans?
Where did they go?
Back lots of dealerships as they waited to be fixed.
“You can’t be a true petrol head until you’ve owned an Alfa Romeo”
“and an Alfa has made you cry…” (or broke)
Nope
2015 called it wants it’s fire back.
Or wait a minute and buy one for half price.
Nice car, wrong transmission, no sale.