Goodwood Test: 2021 Alfa Romeo Giulia Veloce Review

The Giulia is Alfa Romeo’s answer to the BMW 3 Series or the Mercedes C-Class, but rather than a slightly awkward saloon, Alfa seems to have put more thought into the Giulia’s design. Achingly pretty while still being a practical, the Giulia Quadrifoglio sits atop the range, with its mighty Ferrari-derived V6 motor, 510PS and pure rear-wheel-drive standing it apart from the competition. But if you either can’t afford the circa £60k needed for a Quadrifoglio, or really don’t need that much power and performance in your life, there is another option – the Veloce, a near 300PS warm saloon that should not be overlooked.

What do you say about the Giulia that hasn’t been said before? It’s a genuinely pretty car, which isn’t said very often about modern a mid-sized saloon is it? When it arrived on the scene back in the mid-2010s it was the real return to form from Alfa Romeo. Yes the Giulietta had shown that Alfa did not lose any of its styling prowess, but it was still just OK. The Giulia took the saloon and said “yes, this can still be a nice thing”.

The design feels less fussy than its competitors, even after a mid-life facelift. That iconic triangular grille still looks different and striking even as its rivals just go bigger and bigger, the lines are smooth but taught and the rear is worthy of something much more expensive, with the slim lights aping those at the front.

The Veloce gets a few touches above the standard car. The lower air intakes at the front are a teeny bit more muscular, there’s some rather lovely “Veloce” writing on the front haunches and at the rear there’s a gentle diffuser and small lip on the boot. It’s not the extreme styling of the Quadrifoglio, but it feels like enough of a difference over the standard car to be noticeable to anyone who knows. If you want to be ‘seen’ then you save for the Quad, if you want to be rapid without the standard person on the street knowing you buy the Veloce.

Sadly the Veloce does not get a V6, having to settle for a standard four-pot petrol engine, producing 280PS (205kW) and 400Nm (295lb ft) of torque. The engine is actually very good, thumping its torque out at 1,750rpm and hitting peak power at 5,520rpm. That means the pickup is very good, and with everything sent to the back – like the Quad – it’s a lithe machine off the line. The downside is the noise. There’s some trickery going on to make it feel a bit more burbly when you get going, but when it’s idling – dare we say it – it sounds a bit like a diesel. Which is not really what you want from a performance car.

Out on the open road the Giulia’s great chassis is still there, with a very quick steering rack and fast throttle pickup meaning you can have some fun. Sadly whatever fun you are having can only go so far though, as the traction control is always there – there’s no way to turn it off. Even so, it actually lets you get away with quite a lot before it cuts in. Floor it in a straight line on a damp road and the Veloce will squirm quite happily and quite far up the rev range before the overlords cut in. In fact it’s actually quite hard to extract the supposed 0-62mph time of 5.7 seconds in anything other than absolutely perfect conditions, because the rear is too happy to get involved. It also lets you find some slide when you’re out and about, in the highest D setting on the adjustable dial that is. You can let the rear step out a bit, but the reaction is sharp if it cuts in, so watch out, as the snap back can be a bit startling.

But the joy of the Veloce over the Quadrifoglio is that while you can still have a lot of fun, it is much more relaxed when you just want to calm down. Come back down to “N” on the dial and everything is settled, the eight-speed auto ‘box is relaxed and gentle and it all feels very refined. While the Quad always feels like it has something that can bite if you just overstep a bit too much, the Veloce is much more relaxed if you would like it to be.

We’ve already seen this interior in our reviews of the Giulia and Stelvio Quadrifoglios. It’s the same as the old car, but better. It’s one of those Team GB “incremental gains” situations, just with fewer dodgy paper bags. The old interior looked great, so don’t change that, just add some touches here and there, like the excellently positioned wireless charger, or the new infotainment system. It’s now a touchscreen, which is OK, but the big improvement is that the system it uses is much, much better, and that means that the already decent rotary dial control is much more intuitive to work with. You do also get some of the elements from the Quadrifoglio on the Veloce without paying the price. No, we’re not talking about the carbon seats, but touches like the coloured stitching, the black-badged wheel and the beautiful, and massive, metal gear paddles, which are lovely to use.

Our test car would set you back £45,720, but that included £3,145 of optional extras, so you’re looking at around £42,575 for the car on the road. Those options were the Harman Kardon audio (do you really need that?) and Driver Assistance Pack Plus, which sounds like it means traction control, but actually means parking sensors, a rear parking camera, auto high beams and blind spot recognition. As standard the Veloce comes with the 8.8-inch touchscreen with radio, sat-nav etc. included, lane departure warning (and thankfully a button to turn it off), dark finish Giulia, Veloce and Alfa badges and a dark surround on the grille, xenon headlights, active cruise control, that great wireless charging pad and more.

The power and might of the Quadrifoglio made us fall head over heels in love, but at times the numbers and noise do make it feel a bit like a genitalia measuring contest. The Veloce is probably more than enough for the everyday for most people. It’s fast, that should not be underestimated, and brings a satisfying amount of driver engagement for a car that will not let you turn the TC off – no matter how hard you twist that DNA dial. It’s still by far the best looking car in its class and the interior now matches the exterior in terms of not just look but also class. If you were asking us to put our own money down on a mid-sized saloon car for our daily driver we’d probably be hard pushed to look beyond the Giulia Veloce, not just because it’s a good car, but because really who wants yet another 3 Series on the road when there’s something just as good available from Alfa Romeo?