I’m steaming northeast toward the Alps in a white Alfa Romeo Giulietta, a lovely bit of car- building falconry destined for the U.S. in 2014, if all hews to plan. It is, to put it up front, a wonderful car, with a hyper-efficient 1.4-liter, 170-horsepower turbocharged engine bolted to a slick six-speed manual transmission; an electronic limited-slip differential between the front wheels; utterly purr-fect steering feel for a front-drive car; a fuel-saving stop-start sys- tem; and Alfa Romeo’s three-stage chassis dynamics software—the DNA system—which gradually turns up the wick on the throttle, steering, torque-vectoring and braking response, while dialing down the nannying stability control. The whole is wrapped in a close-curried, stub-nosed Alfa stile that puts a pithing cane in the notion that hatchbacks are boring. This thing is about as generic as the .25 Beretta you keep in your boot.
I’m going about 140 kph. Or about 87 mph. This is relevant.
When it comes to handicapping the chances of Fiat and Alfa Romeo cars in the U.S.—as part of the Chrysler-Fiat merger, Fiat has land- ed this year and Alfa will land in late 2012, with the 4C sports coupe—I think about the metric system. America’s failure to adopt the International System of Units does not bode well for us. We are the only industrialized country in the world that still relies on the clunky Imperial system—even the British have abandoned it, for the most part—and our attachment to this un-arithmetic system of medieval measures costs us billions in trade and makes us look like the feebs of the Western world. You should see the condescen- sion that crosses German engineers’ faces when they obligingly convert to inches (instead of millimeters) and foot-pounds (Newton-meters). You just know what they’re thinking: How did we lose to these guys?
Our clinging to pounds and inches isn’t quaint. It’s a measure of our insularity, our complacency, our paranoia (metric sys- tem=New World Order), our malign unwilling- ness to join the rest of the planet. And that
brings me back to the Alfa. What would it take for the Alfa Giulietta to suc-
ceed in the U.S.? Well, first, it would require a good number of Americans to abandon the smug cliche? of Italian cars being unreliable, “Fix It Again, Tony,” etc. Italian cars are as good as, and in many ways better than, anything else on the road. Such is the nominalizing effect of the glob- al supply chain, from which all companies source their parts and technology. In March, an outfit called ALG announced the results of its “Perceived Quality Study,” polling U.S. consumers, in which the Fiat brand came in last. Well, I ask this with all due respect: What the hell do they know? Is it reasonable to expect those polled to have been keeping up with Fiat in the 27 years it’s been gone?
Alfa Romeo left the U.S. market a decade later, and the romanticism of the marque—the AR Spider Veloce, “The Graduate,” Fellini, etc.—means its sledding will be a little easier than Fiat’s. Still, the lingering stink of a “failed” European brand will have to be overcome. See, I told you the metric system would never work!
When it arrives on U.S. shores in 2014, Alfa Romeo’s peppy new hatchback, the Giulietta, should do much to scuttle Americans’ reflexive dislike of Italian family cars according to WSJ’s Dan Neil.
Second, it would require American car buyers to change one little letter in their premium-car- buying yardstick, exchanging “mpg” for “mph.” This will not be easy. However, $4 per gallon at the pump will certainly focus the car-buying mind.
The metric system can help. Miles-per-gallon is a daft way to measure fuel economy. U.S. or Imperial gallon? What kind of miles? Does an increase from, say, 40 to 50 mpg save more gas than 10 to 11 mpg? (Answer: not even close.) We might as well measure in rods per hoghead.
Europe, on the other hand, measures fuel econ- omy by liters/100 kilometers, and this system makes comparing fuel economy between cars easy. So measured, my test Giulietta returns fuel economy of 6.7/4.3 L/100 km, city/highway. That computes to a thundering 35/55 mpg (with a small asterisk for the differences in U.S. and Euro test cycles). You would have a hard time finding a car anywhere in the world that delivers the Giulietta’s fashion sense, practicality, corner carving and fuel economy.

2011 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Prestige
• Base price: $33,939
• Price as tested: $40,550
• Powertrain: Turbocharged direct-injection inline four-cylinder with variable valve timing, hill-hold and stop-start function; six speed manual transmission; front-wheel drive with electronic limited-slip differential
• Horsepower/torque: 170 hp at 5,500 rpm/170 pound-feet at 2,250 rpm
• Length/weight: 171.2 inches/3,003 pounds
• 0-60 mph: 7.5 seconds (est.)
• EPA fuel economy: 35/55 mpg city/highway (est.)
• Cargo capacity: 12.3 cubic feet (behind rear seats); 25 cubic feet (seats down)
It would help if we Americans were a bit more stylish too. Alfa Romeo is—yes, I think I’ll stand by this—the best mass-market car stylist in the world, from the puckish Mi-To subcompact to the dead-sexy Brera. I’m a little worried that Alfa’s hormonal design might get the brand banned in Kansas.
As for the Giulietta, it starts with the great quote of the Alfa Romeo hawk-bill grille up front, then unfolds in graceful, wind-whipped ribbons of hood accents, light lines and the shoulder swages that unite at the hatch. The headlamp assemblies comprise silvery constel- lations of LEDs and eye-blistering projector lenses; the red LED taillamps look like tiny ion drives for the Italian Space Patrol. Great confor- mation, stance, proportion and surface excite- ment. For a five-door compact, the styling gets at least an A-minus.
The aerospace theme continues inside with big, square aluminum switches in a row—a clas- sic cue, for Alfisti—situated mid-dash, below the audio switch panel and above the three climate dials, which are big, hefty and detented like a socket wrench. At the front of the center con- sole is the oversized, sassy DNA switch, with settings for Dynamic, Normal and All Weather. The heft and affirmative feel of the Alfa switchgear is just terrific.
As are the seating position and outward sight-
lines. I drove about 500 miles (800 kilometers) in the Alfa and could have gone that times two with nary an ache. The rear seating is gener- ous; throw the seatbacks down and the car can accommodate four huge suitcases. And then there’s the leather upholstery of my test car, jet black with blood-red thread stitching. I’d pay real money for a couch this nice.
Overseas the Giulietta comes with a choice of three direct-injection turbo gas engines and two turbodiesels. Stateside we’ll likely see only the 170-hp turbo-four with Fiat’s MultiAir cylin- der head. This is a torquey and flexible little soprano of an engine, capable of providing a big boosty moment when you put your foot down. Between the nicking gearbox and the leaf-blower turbo, it feels like you’ve hooked a baby tarpon. Zero to 60 mph hovers in the 7.5- second range and top speed is quite in excess of 200 kph (you do the math!). I do wish the engine was a little more soulful sounding, and I would not kick it out of bed for more horse- power. However, if enough orders appear, Alfa may send over the Quadrifoglio Verde (green shamrock) edition, with 235 hp out of a fully tweaked 1.8-liter four. That might give the Mini Cooper JCW something to think about.
The Giulietta’s C-Evo chassis will provide the bones for several Fiat/Alfa and Chrysler prod- ucts, which is reason enough to wish it well. It includes an aluminum multilink suspension and clever, road-feeling steering rack. This car courses up alpine roads with a surety, solidity and grip, a steady appetite for g-forces that makes it a huge pleasure to go fast. Dive in a corner, take a set and pour it on. Let the torque-vectoring software do its thing. The car is just there for you.
The Giulietta is one of those cars that people come back from Europe wishing they could buy. Well, bust out the checkbook, Yank. Soon you can. The Alfa’s likely targets in the U.S. are other small primo compacts from Europe, the highly refined Audi A3 and BMW 1-series, and maybe upper reaches of the Mini line. A full- boat Subaru Impreza is also a good car to cross-shop, with lots of self-defined charisma. But Italian cars have got it going on and it’s plain that with the Giulietta, Alfa’s gone the extra kilometer.
Write to Dan Neil at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it