Ah, Alfa Romeo. Everyone’s favorite purveyor of cars is known to damage your wallet, but they’re so good to drive and so full of character that we’re willing to forgive them.

Of course, Alfa Romeo is a huge deal in Europe but not quite as much in North America. In the middle of the 2010s, Alfa once again tried to dip its toes into the American market with the 4C.

It was like a mid-engined Miata that was three times more expensive and about three times wider. After that, Alfa’s brand new rear-wheel drive (RWD) sedan, the Giulia, made its debut in North America, too.

Built on an all-new rear-drive-based Giorgio platform, the Giulia wanted to steal some of the precious spotlight from the 3 Series and C-Class but had limited success. Being an Alfa, depreciation has absolutely ransacked the Giulia on the used market. The question is, should you bite the bullet?

Time To Give The Base Giulia Some Love

It’s important to note that we will not be focusing on the Giulia Quadrifoglio here. That’s a wonderful car in every way, but I feel the regular Giulia deserves some love.

When not wearing its four-leaf clover badge (Quadrifoglio), the Giulia is an RWD compact luxury sedan with more restrained, but still painfully gorgeous looks. Perfectly proportioned, perfectly sculpted, and just a joy to look at.

The Quadrifoglio is the only Giulia with more than four cylinders, the rest of the North American lineup used a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine making 280 horsepower (hp).

This powertrain was built in-house in Alfa Romeo, although it found a home in several Mopar vehicles, and as Motor Reviewer tells us, it was called the Hurricane in those models.

280 hp is plenty for most uses, but there’s also an even more impressive 306 lb-ft of torque to play with. RWD came standard on the Giulia, though you could also get it with what Alfa calls Q4, or AWD in normal parlance.

Sadly, there’s no manual transmission—an eight-speed slushbox was your only option. This makes sense, as the competition had phased out manual transmissions for a while at this point.

Electronically-controlled Brembo brakes, double wishbones in the front and multilink rear, and the infamously quick steering ratio made the Giulia a brilliant experience behind the wheel. As Edmunds bravely proclaimed, the Giulia might even be the best handling car in its class.

You get a small but somewhat usable trunk and a decent amount of back seat space relative to what it is, not to mention standard 40/20/40 split folding rear seats. To all intents and purposes, however, the Giulia is a driver’s car first and foremost.

There’s also some pretty good equipment on offer, like adaptive dampers, various wood trim in the interior alongside some lovely upholstery colors, not to mention Bluetooth connectivity for your phone and a Harman Kardon sound system. For all of your frequent users of smartphone mirroring solutions, however, you’ll need a slightly later-model Giulia.

Neatly, that brings us to the most important question of the day. How much, and is it worth it?

Buying A Used Giulia

Car data site Classic.com says that the average used market value for a base model Giulia (that means everything that doesn’t have a clover sticker) is just over $22,000. That sounds incredibly tempting, but we’ve been told, time and again, to stay away from unfathomably cheap luxury cars. As this is an Alfa Romeo, I feel as though this is especially important.

You might have heard the horror stories about the problem child that was Car and Driver’s Giulia Quadrifoglio long-term test car, which went back to the dealer for repairs multiple times. However, ownership forums tell a different story, especially about the GME-powered base Giulia.

First of all, a proper service history is a must. I know, go figure! But this is especially important with the Giulia — oil and filter changes in particular.

There are very few complaints about the Giulia’s powertrains on the internet, but most people warn of electrical components that can go wonky, as well as a battery that doesn’t have the guts to power the electronics from the factory.

If you do end up buying a Giulia, check the battery and budget a few hundred dollars to replace it. Make sure the electrical components are all in working order, as Italian cars seem to stop working for no reason, according to a number of owners online.

There’s another thing you need to know. From 2017 to today, there have been several recalls for the Alfa Romeo Giulia, and according to Cars.com, a lot of them have been brake-related. The most recent one was in December 2024, once again related to brakes.

Owners have also said that the very earliest Giulia models suffer the most, so it’s best to get one from 2019 and onwards. Plus, 2019+ Giulias include smartphone mirroring, so that’s an added bonus.

Check with the owner to make sure the recalls have been taken care of, and if you buy a Giulia that’s been burdened with the most recent one, don’t worry: according to CarScoops, Alfa will take care of it free of charge.

I know, it seems scary. I don’t want to sound like a parent, but if you take care of things, they last. You probably shouldn’t buy the cheapest Giulia out there, but $30,000 to $35,000 will net you a fantastic example.

Owners also warn of bad Alfa Romeo shops that would rather do something else than service a Giulia, so be careful with that as well.

If the car has been properly taken care of, you’ll have a brilliant compact sports sedan on your hands that you won’t want to get out of. Plus, you’ll always turn around and look back at it as you lock the doors and walk away, and if that isn’t the most important quality in an enthusiast car, I don’t know what is.