welcome back to my video diary series with the alfa romeo giulia veloce i've had this car
for about a month now so i thought it'd be a really good idea to make a video on
my first impressions in terms of what i like and what i don't like quite so much now before we
go on remember that this is the second part in a series of videos covering what it's like to live
with the julia veloce so you don't want to miss out on any of those then make sure you hit the
subscribe button and turn your notifications on right let's start with the good bits
first up ride comfort for those that don't know you can get the julia veloce with
something called the performance pack a and it includes things like adaptive dampers
this car doesn't have it it's got the cheaper passive dampers but even so the ride quality
is extremely impressive i mean the cupraleon estate that i had before this that had the
dynamic chassis control so adaptive dampers but the ride it wasn't as polished as it is
in this giulia veloce with its fixed dampers i mean it's not super soft but they have made
a really nice compromise where you've got good handling ability as i'll get onto in a second
but it's still smooth over almost every surface they've done such a good job that you have to
take your hat off to the engineers at alfa romeo because this is well as good and probably a little
bit better than anything you'll find in terms of a passive setup from any of its german rivals
now the next thing on the list is linked to what we just spoke about because you'd think that a car
with a nice comfortable ride and passive suspension wouldn't be that sharp to drive but
it's completely the opposite in this julia veloce because well the sharp steering the agility that
you get coming through corners it all adds up to mean that this is extremely good fun
in fact this is probably the best driving and best handling mid-sized executive saloon that
you can buy and it does feel like a baby julia quadrifoglio and that's very high praise indeed
now beauty is a very subjective thing but just look at this i mean the mizano blue paintwork the
yellow brake calipers the cheeky offset number plate the smooth but aggressive lines it just
looks fantastic and it attracts far more positive attention than any of its rivals i mean people
smile and wave at me in this they wave at me in a bmw 3 series but in a slightly different way
and finally for the good bits is the engine it's a two liter 280 horsepower
four cylinder turbocharged petrol and basically it just does everything you want it to do it's
quick enough more 62 miles an hour takes less than six seconds it sounds pretty good
it can be quiet when you want it to as well though it's responsive the gearbox works well
it's just a really good all-rounder i mean maybe a bit more fuel economy could be good i'm getting
low 30s and you'd think maybe you could get a bit more but i don't know i think i'm being a bit
picky because as i said overall it is a fantastic engine and i'm really really warming to it
so that's the good bits now on to things that i'm less convinced by starting with um well wind noise
so i'm driving along down the motorway or down an a road and i'm enjoying the ride but there is
a lot of wind noise from around here i'm not quite sure why that is it sounds like i've got a window
open but i haven't i'm wondering if there's a seal out of place or something like that but
looking on the alfa romeo julia forums that is a bit of an issue people can hear excess
wind noise some around the wind mirror and around the driver's door so if you've got
this and you think there's a way around it let me know because i would be interested to hear it
next up is the gps and what i'm talking about is when you're using the apple carplay so you've
got the waves or you've got the google maps going about half an hour into the journey it'll suddenly
forget where it is and i know that it's the car's gps rather than the phone because when i unplug
the phone it then recognizes where it is again but the car sat nav is still completely lost and
honestly i'm a bit baffled by what it is it seems a really strange issue and it is a pain if you're
trying to get somewhere where you don't know where you're going so hopefully when i take it
into the retailer to have a look they'll be able to figure out and find out what the problem is
now i'm probably being a bit fussy here but there's a couple of bits of tech that
this card doesn't have and i think it really ought to given how much it costs
the first is an automatic handbrake hold assist which is handy when you're at a traffic light
so you don't put your foot on the brake so it hasn't got that the second thing is auto dipping
side mirrors so when you put it into reverse the mirrors dip down so that you can see
the curb my old cooper leon estate long term i had it and so did the bmw 4 series before
that this for some reason doesn't but i have found a way around it because if you use the memory seat
function and program the seat so that you've got one setting for your normal driving position
and one for your normal driving position but with the mirrors dipped then you have
a kind of makeshift function which does the job so there's a top tip for you there
the final thing that i want to mention is that when you unlock or lock the car you're greeted
with this very shrill beeping sound that comes from somewhere around the rear end like this
probably doesn't sound that loud on camera but trust me when you're standing next to it it does
stand out a bit and i thought well why does it need to make this noise it doesn't
seem essential so i went into the infotainment system to try and turn it off but it doesn't
seem to have that function you don't seem to be able to turn it off via the menus i don't really
understand why so i'm going to take it to the retailer and ask them what the deal is and can
anything be done about it because it can wake up neighbours and draw attention to your car which
you probably don't want to do it is only a relatively small thing but it's still something
that you will notice so there you go four things i like four things i don't quite like so much on my
new alfa romeo giulia veloce as you can tell i'm a fan of it overall there's just a few little things
that need addressing and hopefully by the time the next video comes around in about a month's time
we'll have an update on those in the meantime let me know what you think of
the car if you've got any questions or whether you're an existing owner
you want to tell us about something all of that is welcome otherwise see you next time
you