Test Drive: 2019 Alfa Romeo Stelvio and Giulia Quadrifoglio

I’m back at Alfa Romeo’s test drive experience in Carmel Valley. Three times I’ve enjoyed Alfa’s hospitality during Monterey Car Week, and this time there is new metal to try. Let’s go drive the 2019 Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio.

Stelvio Quadrifoglio

I’m excited! The Stelvio Quadrifoglio has been high on my list of hot family haulers since I saw a concept car at this very test drive experience in 2017. The concept Stelvio Quadrifoglio was set low on its haunches and looked more like a hot hatchback or puffed-up wagon than an SUV. The promise of 505 hp, AWD and a reasonably spacious cabin made me think the Stelvio could stand toe-to-toe with the super wagons of the world.

Now that I’m finally in the Stelvio Quadrifoglio’s driver’s seat, I have an Alice in Wonderland sensation. My visual memories from two Giulia test drives flood to mind. The Stelvio’s cabin appears to be the Giulia’s cabin set in front of a fun-house mirror. The design is nearly identical, with a 20% vertical stretch on the dash and center stack. Ergonomically the cabin is a decent place to be, but Alfa’s tech lags far behind the latest crop of digital dashes and large navigation screens offered by the German luxury juggernauts. I’ve forgiven great driving cars with dated tech before. Perhaps I can do it again today?

Gripping the busy carbon/leather/suede steering wheel and fingering the long aluminum shift paddles, my hands think I’m in a Giulia sports sedan. But the SUV seating position puts my butt high off the floor, and my eyes are a good two feet higher from the ground than they should be. This is not a slammed hot hatch like the concept Stelvio. In the translation to a production vehicle, the Stelvio fully embraced an SUV’s ride height and seating posture.

My test drive begins. The supportive seats are firmly padded and sprung but comfortable. Thanks to the magnetic ride suspension, the Stelvio rides compliantly over the choppy pavement. No, the ride is not as Downy soft as an air suspension would be, but the magnetic ride suspension delivers excellent ride comfort while communicating a connection to the road in a way befitting of a sports sedan.

In its softest suspension setting, the Stelvio does tip from side to side when I saw at the surprisingly quick steering. In this mode, I am acutely aware of the Stelvio’s high ride. When I firm the suspension, most of the tippiness is quelled. The level ride comes at the cost of more bumps and jolts being transmitted into the cabin. (The firmest suspension mode goes with race mode. I could not test this as race mode was forbidden on my drive.)

You won’t be surprised that this 505 hp SUV is fast in a straight line. It goes like you think it should. The Stelvio also delivers upshifts with a humorous tailpipe burp. I do miss the cracks and bangs that other manufacturers program into their engine overruns; these theatrics are not present in the Stelvio Quadrifoglio, at least not in Dynamic mode. I continue to be a fan of Alfa’s transmission programming, as little is lost in Alfa’s choice to use the ZF 8-speed automatic transmission instead of a true dual-clutch transmission.

My test drive is short and sadly deficient in tightly twisting tarmac. I appreciate the Stelvio’s suspension compliance and its gutsy acceleration, but I am ultimately saddened at how little the Stelvio feels like a hot hatchback. The Porsche Macan, Mercedes AMG GLA 43, and even Tesla Model X blur that line better. Perhaps a jaunt in race mode on a writhing mountain road would reveal a more playful Stelvio? As it is, I feel little emotional connection to the Stelvio Quadrifoglio.

Giulia Quadrifoglio

I jump straight from the Stelvio into a Giulia Quadrifoglio. Alfa’s swooping interior design feels custom-tailored to the Giulia. Since the Giulia was released before the Stelvio, the interior may have actually been tailored to the car.

I like the steering wheel and shift paddles—they are identical to those from the Stelvio Quadrifoglio—but I would prefer a simple all-leather covering to the busy carbon, leather, suede mix that is an added-cost extra. I’d wondered if the turn and wiper stalks would be hard to use as they are placed behind the moose-antler shift paddles, but the reach is fine for my long fingers.

While Alfa has nicely integrated the navigation screen into the dashboard, the interface seems to have half the features and half the pixels of current Audi and BMW infotainment systems. As a result, the Giulia feels a generation older than its M3 and RS5 peers.

The Giulia and Stelvio Quadrifoglios share most of their key components. The same 505 hp V6 is in the Giulia, but because 500 lb are shed by jumping from the Stelvio into the Giulia, the Giulia is faster. The ZF 8-speed transmission has the same right-now shifting in the Giulia. The magnetic ride suspension delivers the same—or perhaps even better—great ride in the Giulia.

(Although other journalists have complained, I didn’t notice anything strange about the drive-by-wire brakes.)

The Giulia’s steering is super quick and somewhat feelsome. It communicates modest road texture but none of the slow wiggle and wave of old hydraulic steering; in this regard, it is no better or worse than any steering system from the contemporary crop of super sedans. The way the Giulia responds to inputs, especially in firm suspension mode, is on-point and completely at pace with the steering’s amped-up speed. The front tires are ready for the quick steering inputs, and the sticky rear tires are seldom overwhelmed by the fine engine’s output. Overall, the Giulia changes direction like a light, nimble sports car, never mind its 3,800 lbs.

Come right down to it, that is what I like best about the Giulia Quadrifoglio. It is a sharp and quick as Rafael’s sais (yes, the Ninja Turtle), yet it does normal sedan things, too, like seating five, smoothing cruddy roads, and automatically pacing traffic. If I can accept the dated infotainment and brace myself for the questionable reliability, then I’ll be rewarded with a car that matches the M3’s track worthiness, has touched-by-Ferrari sex appeal, and Cadillac ride quality. That is a formula I can get behind!