hello everyone and welcome to the very lovely looking alfred mayo julia veloce
it's the kind of car you buy if you need a mid-sized executive saloon
but fan to go against the norm and not buying a bmw audi or mercedes-benz
there's very little wrong with the three series a4 saloon and c-class so that means the
alfa romeo giulia can't just rely on its good looks and italian charm to win over customers
it's got to drive well compact with technology
and be spacious enough for those times when you do actually use all of the seats and luggage area so
does the julia have the substance to back up its style and should you spend your
hard-earned cash on one i'm hope ellen and this is another parker's cars review
before i get started don't forget to subscribe to the channel and turn your notifications on
so you get a reminder every time we publish a new video at the time of filming the alfa romeo giulia
is available with three engines all of which are petrol ranging from the 200 horsepower two liter
four-cylinder to the incredible 2.9 liter v6 fitted to the quadrifoglio performance version
into the julia and the first thing you'll notice is a cabin that's logically laid out
and punctuated by some attractive design touches yes it probably will feel dated compared to new
arrivals this car came out in 2016 but it's still got plenty going for it for starters
the driving position is excellent there's lots of adjustment but regardless of how you like to sit
you should feel at home behind the steering wheel with great visibility all around you will also
notice physical dials for the speedometer and rev counter in this car something you
barely ever see anymore on cars at this price point which by the way is around 46 000 pounds
for this veloce spec model maybe it's a personal thing but i really like the dials as not only are
they nice and clear but they also give this instrument cluster a distinct look
that you simply don't get if there's just a screen there don't panic though if you'd much rather see
a digital readout there is a screen between the two dials however it doesn't have anything like
the amount of functionality you'd get on rival systems like audi's virtual cockpit for example
i do like the steering wheel it has a nice shape plus the buttons are easy to use without looking
and check out these metal gear shift paddles these are way better quality than you get in
most cars at any price point move to the center console and you'll note that post
facelift cars have a much nicer finish on the gear lever and an updated infotainment system
displayed on this 8.8 inch touchscreen which could also be controlled using this rotary dial
it's by no means the best infotainment system in the market it can sometimes be laggy the graphics
aren't massively attractive and rivals have more functionality but it does do the basics fairly
well however i am pleased to see that while you can change the temperature on the touchscreen
you've also got these proper physical chunky dials right here lovely
interior quality in the julia is much better than you might expect most of the materials feel
nice to the touch while even after 12 000 miles this car still feels very solid with no annoying
squeaks or rattles if you want to know more about this car and what it's like to use every day then
check out our video diary series with the julia veloce as for storage space it's about average
the door pockets could be a bit bigger as could the space under the armrest but there's
a hidden compartment here plus two usable cup holders and another space forward of that
the julia is available with a straightforward selection of trim levels including sprint
veloce a stremmer and quadrifoglio all models come as standard with adaptive cruise control
wireless phone charging keyless entry and front and rear parking sensors with a rear view camera
climb into the back of the julia and practicality is surprisingly good considering this car's sleek
looks from the outside there's a decent amount of head and leg room for average size adults and you
could get a middle seat passenger in for short journeys i say short journeys because there is
this central tunnel for them to contend with it is a bit disappointing however that there's
no separate climate control zone back here or even any usb points boot space is 480 liters
with the rear seats in place which measures up well compared to the bmw 3 series and audi
a4 it's not the most practical shape if you want to get awkward shaped items in but then
that's normal on saloon cars handily though the rear seats fold down in a 40 20 40 split
as standard which does create extra flexibility when you fold them down it's time now to see
how user-friendly the julia veloce really is and we're going to do that with a quick usability test
it's called hopes car olympics now against the clock i've got to fold down the rear seats sew
their flats tune in the radio to absolute fm and set the sat nav to take me to buckingham palace
let's go right so i've got a sneaky suspicion that i've got to start in the boot oh is it
going to open it's going well so far hey there we go i was pressing the wrong one uh right
we've got these two levers here give them a pull come round so that has actually like unlocked them
but i've actually got to pull them down myself start this one up two down there another one
here that's complete jump in the front jump in the front oh very windy day today right so navigation
nice and straightforward first thing on there um search would be oh come on i have no idea
ah continue browsing no i don't want to browse i want to get to a point get me to a point
navigate to this point here we go so then you can go to here
no this is confusing this is really confusing i
don't know how to actually enter a uh place in am i just being a donut
it's not navigation no it's just ah there we go there we go there we go i couldn't tell you how
i got onto there it was just a bit of a pressing around and a bit of guessing buckingham palace you
can see it's a bit laggy as mentioned earlier but it's not doing a bad job press it on there
it's loading loading loading it's giving me different route alternatives which is good start
navigation so that's happening then we're gonna go home the last piece of the puzzle go on to radio
uh there's a list along here of favorites that i imagine is the full list yes absolute radio
boom here's the proof oh it's a cheeky advert so there we go then we've just seen how the alfa
romeo has got on with hope's car olympics and i will say the most challenging part of that was the
navigation whether that was just a me thing rather than the system i'm not going to admit to just yet
in terms of folding down the rear seats it would have been nice if you could just pull those levers
and it automatically goes down but it wasn't too much hassle and finding the right radio station
using the rotary dial was super duper easy it's now time to take this baby out on the road and
to do that we've got a special guest joining us now he's been using this car as his everyday car
for the last seven months so he should know a thing or two about what it's like on the road
so presenter james you've been driving this car a lot longer than i have
so what have you got to tell me about it well i can probably tell you a lot about the sat nav
because you really seem to struggle in the hope's car olympic section and i know it's not as good
as a bmw on audi as you quite rightfully pointed out but it's not that hard to set
the sat nav to take you to buckingham palace i mean what was going on there you say that think
back to way back when when you first jumped in this car was it easy then because there was no uh
magnifying glass to search yeah okay i mean it's not as straightforward as perhaps it could be but
still what i do like about this car moving on from the sat nav is mainly the way that
it drives because i've done as you said seven months in here 12 600 miles and i am still
every time i get in it i'm still so impressed with the way that this car drives and handles people
think bmws and jaguars are good but honestly alfa romeo's engineers they've played a blinder this
is fantastic to drive so what sets it apart from the likes of a bmw first off the steering it's
nice and sharp it's quick it's got a much faster rack as we'd call it but it's not too fidgety on
motorways which can be the downside of that it's also quite light which is good for obvious reasons
it's got a front engine layout with rear wheel drive which is great for weight distribution
and just in general the dampers these are the passive dampers so they're fixed there's no
adaptive setting which you can get only with the s dremer and the quadrifoglio versions of this car
you can no longer get it on the blockchain but the dampers you don't need them to be
adaptive in the passive setting is great because you know exactly where you stand the ride quality
is good but it also means that when you want to have a little bit of fun so you've got a
corner coming up you can go in and it handles so well i mean honestly in some sports cars
it doesn't feel as good as this so this is just fantastic i mean you are going for it
now and as a passenger yeah i do feel quite safe yeah i will say oh my face might disagree
i love it it's got power it's got power it's got it's got a big roar going on there i've
pleased he brought up the power because the engine 280 horsepower two liter petrol four
cylinders so not the biggest engine in the world but you know now in 2022 it doesn't need to be
and it's not obviously a patch on what you get in the quadrifoglio but 510 horsepower exactly 510
horsepower but 280 horsepower is more than enough it gives you ample speed i would like it to sound
a little bit better and i would like the gearbox to be a bit sharper when it's not in dynamic mode
because actually you'll find that this car drives best in all scenarios basically when it's in its
sportiest mode because it can be a bit sluggish otherwise um you mentioned the manual mode there
interesting because of these very impressive metal gear shift paddles tell us about them i mean
even in cars that cost twice as much as this and have got twice as much power
you often will find that the gear shift paddles which are a really big touch point
they're pretty rubbish they're plasticky they're cheap these yeah i mean i'm gonna go for a little
feel there feel the quality they are metal they're really big e really easy to reach them
and the action on them that click this is nice and satisfying it's such a treat and i really admire
alfred mayo for actually including this because so many times you'll find that the engineers want it
and the accountants don't and the accountants will win the argument this time this time they haven't
so we've got some lovely gear shift paddles and the buttons of course on the wheel very easy to
use yeah easy to use there's nothing too flash or too fancy on this car and that is partly because
it's actually a few years old now i know it's 2016. but all the basics are there and some
and it's not cluttered no even though it's got all of these jazzy features okay 2016 like you
mentioned but it's got everything you need and then some without being overwhelming exactly
okay i know you love this car james and i know you're sad to give the keys back
but there must be some things something that you'd like to see different yeah so if you've seen my
uh long-term video diary series on the parker's cars channel where i go over this car in detail
and we've got episodes for each individual thing i talk about then you'll already know this but
the wind noise so from the mirrors there's more wind noise than i'm convinced there should be
because on the quadrifoglio when i had that in for a comparison there wasn't the same amount of wind
noise so that affects the refinement when you're traveling at speed so that's a bit of a shame also
when you lock and unlock the car there's a really loud beeping sound which you can't actually turn
off you can't do it in the menu system and as far as i know the dealers are pretty reluctant
to do it as well so that's a bit of a pain if you're getting up early in the morning and you
don't want to wake your neighbors up but yeah other than that and i mentioned the gearbox
they're quite picky things they are quite picky things and yeah genuinely it's been fantastic
because people think that alfred mayers are unreliable as well but touchwood is going back
in a few days but touch would have not had any issues on that front particularly apart from a
couple of software things laughing this car should be more of a hard over head purchase but if it
weren't for the fact that the pcp deals aren't quite as competitive as other rivals but on the
used market that can change obviously but if it weren't for that then i'd say this car's you know
it's got everything really that you actually need yes there's bits of tech missing that bmws and
mercs and audi's will get but otherwise for a car that drives billion brilliantly looks amazing
and generally just feels a bit special yeah i absolutely adore it most important question
james scale of one to ten how cool do you feel in this car i feel i feel a million dollars
honestly i mean people still look at this car even now years after it's come out which
i think speaks volumes and as i said and as you can see it's just fantastic fun to drive
this corner is a bit tricky you can really get it wrong sometimes can you yeah okay so i've driven
this car enough do you want to have a quick swap around yeah go on man i don't know if i'll do the
corners quite like you but i'll give it a good go i should try it it's great fun once james finally
let me have a go i was impressed with just how agile the julia felt compared with any of its
rivals some may find the quick steering takes a little bit of time to get used to
but once you do it is extremely good fun to drive i have to say though it does feel quite big on the
road when you first get in so the reversing camera and all-round parking sensors are a big help
so we've seen them the alfa romeo is a pretty nice car but here's the lowdown on the versions you can
go for firstly the cheapest version is called the sprint model it costs forty one thousand pound and
has a two liter petrol engine i'd also recommend that same model if you are a company car user
if you want some speed and power in your life then go for the 510 horsepower model called
the quadrifoglio the alfa romeo julia may be a rarer sight on the road than its german rivals
but that doesn't mean it's any less worthy of your hard-earned cash yes other cars offer better
on-board tech and a slightly more refined driving experience but the good looks and
fleet footed handling of the julia means it has something that really sets it apart from the rest
objectively speaking bmw's audis and mercedes-benz offerings will appeal to a broader range of buyers
but that doesn't mean you should discount the alfa romeo it definitely feels more fun to drive and
has the edge on exclusivity which when you're spending over forty thousand pounds on a car
surely has to count for something if it were my money this velocity spec
certainly gets my vote although the regular sprint model will also be a fine compromise
you