Alfa Romeo experiences

Sir,

All you say about the Alfa Romeo Giulia TI is correct but the real truth is implied in your last two paragraphs. I have owned one for 15 months (24,000 miles).

None of you testers has ever (to my knowledge) referred to the guarantee period of six months only. This is mentioned in the service voucher book. Being slow at this sort of thing, and reading the instruction book only, I found out after a piston seized at 5,500 revs. This happened 23 days after the six months were up and the bill, including towing back to London (there aren’t many dealers, you know), came to nearly £50. A.R., after much pressing and delay, contributed nearly £12.

Prior to this the gearbox had been off three times for synchro trouble (all within six months, fortunately) and many other more minor repairs/replacements had been done. Since then there have been many more extremely annoying and expensive troubles, so that the car has been to one garage or another practically every fortnight. This all culminated in three broken piston rings (I shudder to think what the bill will be), now repaired, yet the car is still using oil at a great rate so that it will have to go back for the service it deserves, once again before its proper time.

The cost of buying this Giulia, plus its repair and maintenance over the 15 months, has been greater than the total my partner has spent on buying, repairing and maintaining his 3.4 Jaguar and he has had that six months longer. The Giulia, by all technical accounts, ought almost to be able to do what D.S.J. described so well in his article “Journey to Sicily.” (Why doesn’t Mr. Chapman make a car for children with legs?) Anyway, it should be capable of going all day at around 5,500 revs., so they say. I’m afraid I have no longer the confidence in the car to try a journey to Shrewsbury now—other than in my wife’s Mini-Cooper.

Horley.
Peter Watkins.