Alfa Romeo Giulia Saloon

2.0 Turbo Intensa 4dr Auto [2024]

If you fancy a very nice, premium saloon car but don’t want to go with the obvious choices of BMW, Audi or Mercedes-Benz, Alfa Romeo claims to have the solution.

Alfa reckons that the Quadrifoglio version of the Giulia saloon is so good that it'll tempt you away from the likes of the BMW M3, C-Class AMG and Audi S4.

Quadrifoglio is the name the Italian manufacturer gives to its high-performance cars - it literally means "four-leaf clover."

While that doesn't sound especially sporty, it revives a moniker that's over a century old. The clover symbol was first used on the Alfa Romeo RL in 1923 when it entered the Targa Florio.

If that name doesn't sound familiar, the Targa Florio was an endurance race in Sicily, the most prestigious motor race in the world at the time.

So, Alfa Romeo’s history is riding on the success of the Giulia and its other car to carry the Quadrifoglio name, the Stelvio SUV.

But Alfas also have a reputation for underdelivering – and that’s a part of its history that the Italian marque would be happy to shed.

The Giulia appears to have done that successfully since it was first unveiled in 2015.

Between 2016 and 2020, it won over two dozen awards worldwide.

It got a mid-life facelift a few years ago, but now Alfa Romeo has made a few more minor revisions to celebrate last year’s 100th anniversary of the four-leaf clover.

So, does Alfa turn an already impressive Giulia Quadrifoglio into the finished article?

We’ll see if we can find out.