---
title: 'The 2017 Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio Is a Bargain Fast Sedan'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=cEjX6XW8jQM'
video_id: 'cEjX6XW8jQM'
date: 2026-07-16
duration_sec: 1659
channel: 'Doug DeMuro'
---

# The 2017 Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio Is a Bargain Fast Sedan

> Source: [The 2017 Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio Is a Bargain Fast Sedan](https://youtube.com/watch?v=cEjX6XW8jQM)

## Summary

The 2017 Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio, once an $80,000 high-performance sedan, has depreciated to around $20,000-$30,000, making it a compelling bargain. This review explores its quirks, features, driving experience, and whether it holds up after 100,000 miles.

### Key Points

- **Depreciation Bargain** [00:05] — The Giulia Quadrifoglio originally cost ~$80,000 but now sells for $20,000-$30,000 on Cars & Bids, offering over 500 horsepower for a fraction of the price.
- **Return of Alfa Romeo** [02:03] — The Giulia marked Alfa Romeo's return to the US market with a mainstream car after a 20-year absence, and it switched back to rear-wheel drive.
- **Power Advantage** [03:44] — The twin-turbo V6 produces 505 horsepower, significantly more than rivals like the BMW M3 (425 hp) and M3 Competition (444 hp).
- **Quadrifoglio Exterior Telltales** [05:35] — Distinguishing features include the four-leaf clover badge, fender vents, carbon fiber rocker panels, rear spoiler, and quad exhaust.
- **Interior Durability Surprise** [09:39] — Despite initial criticism of cheap materials shared with Dodge/Chrysler, the interior holds up well after 100,000 miles, with durable plastics and Alcantara seats.
- **Ferrari-like Start Button** [12:24] — The starter button is a red circle on the steering wheel, reminiscent of Ferrari, and the drive mode selector includes a 'Race' mode that disables traction control.
- **Column-Mounted Paddles** [14:06] — The metal shift paddles are fixed to the steering column, ensuring they are always in the same position during turns.
- **Infotainment Quirks** [15:42] — The infotainment screen is not a touchscreen; it uses a rotary controller. The backup camera is high-resolution but small.
- **Annoying Turn Signals** [17:31] — The turn signals return to center after activation, a design similar to BMW's that was widely disliked.
- **Tight Rear Seats** [18:15] — Rear seat space is limited, with a large transmission tunnel making the middle seat nearly unusable. No rear cup holders or fold-down armrest.
- **Driving Experience** [20:33] — The car remains fast and immediate, with sharp steering and handling. The ride is harsh but the powertrain is exceptional, even at 102,000 miles.
- **Comparison to BMW M3** [24:48] — The Giulia feels more precise and immediate than the F80 M3, though it has a rougher ride and touchier pedals.

### Conclusion

The 2017 Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio offers incredible performance and character at a bargain price, but potential buyers must accept its harsh ride, tight rear seats, and the risk of reliability issues.

## Transcript

Quadrifoglio and it's become a total bargain. 10 years ago when this was a bargain. 10 years ago when this was a new car, it had over 500 horsepower and a sticker price of around 80 grand. These days, 10 years later, it still has
over 500 horsepower, but you can routinely buy these early Giulia quads routinely buy these early Giulia quads for around 20 grand. And that strikes me as a lot of car for the money. Today, I'm going to review this heavily
I'm going to review this heavily depreciated used Giulia and show you all depreciated used Giulia and show you all of its quirks and features.
Giulia Quadrifoglio is currently for sale and it's being auctioned live on Cars and Bids. This one's going to be a great deal. It has over a 100,000 miles, but it's finished in the best color for one of these. In pretty nice shape, and
it has limited modifications, and you can buy it on Cars and Bids. So, once the link in the description below to visit the live auction for this Giulia Quadrifoglio, where you can bid on it and buy it only on Cars and Bids. If
you want the best possible result, and that starts with presentation. I always tell our community that ceramic made simple is the way to go. Mothers has formulated these products for fanatics, meaning you get professional-grade
userfriendly. You don't need a professional detailer to get that deep gloss. It's affordable. It's accessible at basically any auto parts store. and it's the single best way to add curb appeal to your auction listing before
you hit that submit button. Visit mothers.com to find out more and to purchase Mother's products. All right, time for the quirks and features of the Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglios. Starting with a little background. So
Starting with a little background. So the Giulia, this car came out in 2016 as Alfa Romeo's direct rival to cars like the BMW 3 Series and MercedesBenz the BMW 3 Series and MercedesBenz C-Class. And this car was a big deal for
a lot of reasons, but the biggest deal, at least here in North America, was that at least here in North America, was that it marked the return of Alfa Romeo. it marked the return of Alfa Romeo. Alpha left the US market after 1995 and
they'd been back with a couple of low volume sports cars. The 8C, which was very limited production, then the 4C, which was more common, but still very focused. This was the return of Alfa Romeo to the United States with like a
Romeo to the United States with like a mainstream car that people would buy. It was a huge deal in the States for that reason. And some more big news with this car was the switch to rearwheel drive. Years before this, decades actually,
Alpha had abandoned rearwheel drive and switched to front-wheel drive, which is always thought it was kind of an odd decision for Alpha, which was ostensibly kind of an enthusiast brand. But with the Giulia, it marked the return of Alfa
Romeo to rearwheel drive, not just in the States, but globally when this car launched. and it put Alpha back on the radar of some enthusiasts who hadn't considered front-wheel drive Alphas before. But the Giulia's most exciting
news may well have been the powertrains. In North America, the Giulia launched with two powertrain options. Regular Giulia models got a turbo four-cylinder with about 280 horsepower. But if you stepped up to this, the high-performance
stepped up to this, the high-performance Giulia Quadrifoglio, you got a twinturbo V6 with 55 horsepower, which was an absolutely massive figure for the time and still today. Back then, the competing BMW M3,
which was probably this car's closest rival, had only 425 horsepower, 80 less than the Giulia Quad. And even if you stepped up to the M3 competition, it wasn't much competition for the Giulia quad that got
competition for the Giulia quad that got you 444 horses. You were 60 back still you 444 horses. You were 60 back still of Alpha's new sport sedan. With that said, pricing was a bit of a stumbling block even from the very beginning.
Despite this new cool brand, rearw wheelel drive and all that power, $74,000, the starting price of a Giulia quad. And that was big money for what was in North America to most car buyers an unproven
brand. Alpha hadn't been here in 20 years. It was very unfamiliar. And that was big money especially because well equipped often these were pushing 80 grand. Again strong money for a relatively unknown kind of uncertain
brand at least in the states. The good news is 10 years of depreciation has since happened to this car. And now on Cars and Bids, we routinely sell early
Julia Quadrifoglio models for 20 to $30,000, which again seems like pretty reasonable money for a powerful, special, cool, high-performance sports
sedan. But anyway, next up onto the exterior quirks of this car. Or one thing I always thought was interesting is there's not that many ways to tell apart the Quadrifoglio, the high performance version from the regular
performance version from the regular Alpha Giulia, the M3, the AMG C63. Very distinct from their lesser counterparts. But with this car, they really let you option up a regular Giulia to almost completely look like a Giulia quad. I
assume because they just really wanted to sell any or as many as they possibly could and letting people kind of dress it up like the performance version was part of that. Nonetheless, there are some telltale signs you're looking at a
Quadrifoglio. And the most obvious is right here. This little triangular fender badge that shows a fourleaf clover. The fourleaf clover is a historical alpha Romeo racing symbol. It was a good luck charm that an Alpha
racing driver used over a hundred years ago. And the symbol has always stuck with Alpha's cars, and it appears on the front fenders of the Quadrifoglio models to signify their specialness relative to other Alphas. You may have also noticed
the engine cover. It doesn't say Quadrifoglio there or outside the car anywhere. It doesn't have to. If you know this badge, you know what you're only the Quadrifoglio got this little
fender vent on the side. The regular Giulia models did not, which helped distinguish it a bit more. And there were some other kind of subtle distinctions, like for example, the carbon fiber on the rocker panels. You
can see that was a Quadrifoglio thing. And this carbon fiber rear spoiler, kind of small, but tech there on the trunk was quadrifoglio specific. And the rear splitter, that's another big way to tell it apart. was a very aggressive, very
race carish rear splitter that includes quad exhaust. And that was certainly distinctive to the Quadrifoglio. And they made quite some sound. This powertrain when you rev it, you can really hear it. Take a listen.
car, these wheels, which interestingly are not distinctive to the Quadrifoglio. Again, lesser models can be optioned with these wheels, but they were rare on lesser versions and common on the Quadrifoglio, and they look so cool, so
aggressive. these kind of thin spokes that make circles. They are very racy, sporty wheels, especially when they are just in front of bright yellow brake calipers, which also look very racy and sporty. And that's especially true when
you combine it with this color, which to me was always the color for this car was called Rosso Alpha or Alpha Red. And it was just the correct color that these were supposed to come in. Especially paired with these wheels and the yellow
brakes and the four-leaf clover on the fender, you almost had something of like a Ferrari sedan. It really had that aggressive sports car feel. And the overall styling of this car certainly helped too. The general look of the
helped too. The general look of the Giulia was and still is both beautiful and attractive and cool and they just nailed the design of this car completely. It was gorgeous. It was racy. It was special. It was great. And
pair that with all the little details I just mentioned, plus the Alpha Romeoess, the Alpha distinctive front grill, and you had this like cooled special car. It was Italian. And it brought a new flare to this sports sedan segment, a new
look, a new car, a new brand, sort of a new life. It was fresh. It was new in a segment that had kind of been dominated by the same basic cars for a while. And that was a big deal, a huge selling point of the Giulia, especially when it
first came out. But as exciting as the hype was around this car when it first came out, things got a little less exciting when you climbed inside. When the Giulia was new, a lot of its criticism centered on the interior.
Alpha's parent brand was Fiat Chrysler. And so there was a lot of sharing And so there was a lot of sharing between this performance sedan expensive car and a lot lesser vehicles from the Dodge and Chrysler portfolio. And you
window switches, for example, seemed borrowed from cheaper Dodges and Chryslers. Same deal with the power mirror control. Well, it was also true of like the steering wheel buttons, for example. They were kind of taken right
off of relatively inexpensive Dodge and Chrysler products at the time. And the gear selector was maybe the most obvious example. Very plasticky, very flimsy, and maybe not quite befitting what you'd expect to find on a car they were trying
to sell for $80,000. Now, I piled on with those criticisms at the time as well. But I must say, I'm sitting in this car now with over a 100,000 miles, and the interior is actually held up. It may not be the
nicest materials, but they were certainly durable materials. And I'm actually surprised to see how relatively nice things look in here. It hasn't worn. It hasn't faded. You don't have creeks and rattles, stuff broken. It
actually looks pretty nice. And the overall interior design was always pretty cool. It has kind of this swooping dashboard and this angled center stack look. There was pretty liberal use of carbon fiber all
throughout the center control stack. The dashboard, the steering wheel got a lot of carbon fiber. It was a nice, attractive, kind of cool, stylish interior that was let down by what we thought were crappy materials. But
looking at this car now, I'm wondering if maybe they really weren't so bad. Plus, the seats in this interior were and are excellent. You can see very heavily bolstered sport seats with nice contrast stitching on the edges. And the
seat centers in Alcantara were intended to keep you there, add some friction to resist sliding and hard cornering. And they too have held up well. Over a 100,000 miles. It really doesn't look like that with these seats. I'm shocked
at how well this car is worn and how relatively durable this interior has turned out to be. It's also cool that the key matches the color of the car. You can see the backside is the same Roso Alpha as the car with the famous
Alfa Romeo badge. It looks really cool. Although I must concede that if you flip the key over, you are greeted by the buttons that again come straight from Chrysler products. And this key fob is used in a lot of different cheaper cars.
Once again, like other stuff in this interior. But anyway, moving on to a few other interesting quirks inside this car. Starting with well, the starter. When you get inside and start this car, the button isn't to the right of the
steering wheel like in most cars. Instead, it's this little red circle hanging off the steering wheel, which almost seems Ferrariish. Ferrari was doing this in this era. The start stop button on the steering wheel, and the
Alpha looks just the same, and it looks cool. And also like Ferrari, you had a very prominent drive mode selector. Unfortunately, not located on the period, but instead in the center
console. It is a rather large dial. And you can see it has well three letters. DN A, which stood for dynamic or sport mode. N was natural or regular mode. And
A was advanced, which for some reason was eco mode. I imagine DNA had to they had to look for words that would work in Italian and English and maybe
others. And so that's how you ended up with that. But the real key of this drive mode dial is at the top you have race mode. When you twist it all the way to the right, you switch into race mode, which does quite a few things at once.
For one, you can see it defaults to turning on the sport suspension, which can also be accessed by pressing a button inside the drive mode selector at any time. But in race mode, it goes on instantly. Race mode also lets you know
that you should be driving the car in manual mode instead of automatic because race is optimized for manual mode. And race mode also turns off your driver aids like your forward collision warning and turns off your traction control. It
really wants you to go have fun. If you've chosen race mode, you're going you've chosen race mode, you're going fast. And by the way, speaking of manual mode and the transmission, I have to hand it to Alpha for these shift
paddles, which are not only metal like you would expect to see in a true high-end exotic sports car, but they are mounted on the steering column, which is exactly what you want, not on the wheel itself. And so if you're in a turn,
wondering where your paddles are. They're always in the same spot, fixed in place, which is great. And the gear selector has a nice performance car touch, too. When you move it into manual mode, if you want to shift using the
mode, if you want to shift using the gear selector itself, upshift is down and downshift is up, which to me is the correct way to do it. If you're a corner trying to downshift. Your weight
forward to downshift. I think that's the right way it's done. And they've done it correctly here. So, there are some real performance car details they've thought about. One lovely quirk of the shifter, by the way, if you have it in manual
mode, sort of skewed off to the side, and you press P to go into park, the gear selector will automatically move itself back over to the center and get out of manual mode as if an unseen ghost has just pushed it over there and so it
can correctly go into park. Kind of an interesting quirk. Other interesting wheel and kind of below the dashboard, the driver footwell, you have this little storage compartment in there. Little hidden storage where you can
store little hidden items. The infotainment system in this car has some pros and cons. One pro is it sort of angled look which perfectly fits with the style and design of this dashboard. It's actually a pretty cool thing,
infotainment systems were just straight rectangles. This system is intuitive. It's high resolution, easy to figure out, but unfortunately it is not a touch screen. In order to control this
infotainment system, you're using this large circular center controller in the supporting buttons around it. And of course, that makes it relatively clunky to operate, especially in these modern days where touchcreens have taken over
with instant responses. Also worth pointing out, the backup camera in this car is pretty high resolution, but quite small, almost laughably so. It's clearly kind of an afterthought, but it is there, of course, because it's mandated
by law. One nice benefit here in the center control stack is that the climate controls are not integrated into the infotainment system. And so, you can speed, your heated seats, etc. with physical buttons and dials rather than
going into the screen. Now, as for the gauge cluster, the gauges themselves are pretty cool. Old school analog gauges, as you can see, they look nice. They look sporty. kind of a cool font. And the speedometer even has the
quadrifoglio symbol, the lucky charm, the fourleaf clover, which kind of adds to the specialness of the car. In the gauge cluster, there is also a screen, which was actually pretty advanced for 2016 when this car came out. A full
color kind of high-res screen is a bit of a surprise. And it shows you various information. Strangely enough, it is controlled with a button at the end of the windshield wiper stalk. So, you press this button and that adjusts the
info you see on that screen. Not all that common to use the wiper stock for anything other than wiper because most people don't want to press a button at water on their windshield, which it does in a lot of cars. Well, in this one, it
the best layout. Probably could have figured out something better for that. steering column, I will perpetually be annoyed with turn signals that return to center when you put the signal on. You push down, it pops right back to center,
by going the other way, then you turn on the other signal. It is just not a great design. BMW pioneered it 20 years ago, and they ditched it because people hated proliferate to other brands, including
this otherwise very usable car. And next, we move on to the back seat, which is well, it's tight back here. For an adult, it is a pretty tight place to be. You can see knee room. I'm squinched up here. Foot room is also at a premium. I
sitting in this car and there is not room for a second me in back. Only smaller adults or everybody kind of compromising on position is really going to work in here. And even though this is set up for three across rear seating,
you can't really get anybody in the middle seat because the hump in the floor for the drive line going through the car is so massively big that there is nowhere for rear center seat passengers to put their legs. let alone
their feet. You just wouldn't have a comfortable time three across in back. You barely would have a comfortable time two across in back. With that said, it's nice to have a USB charge port back here. Only one single USBA port. This
to have that in this car along with climate vents, which you weren't always seeing in cars like this at this price point in this era, but it's nice to have. Strangely enough, despite those nicities, you do not back here have a
fold down center armrest, which is sort of like the basic thing that most vehicles have their back seat. You don't get it here. You also don't have rear cup holders in this car, unfortunately, which kind of subtracts a little from
the rear comfort and convenience. You do however have the same Alcantara seat centers that you had up front along with some of the same red contrast stitching which at least makes the back seat look cool even if it's not the most
functional or the most comfortable. And finally, we move on to the cargo area, the trunk in the Giulia. Pop it open and you get in. You can see there is a Julia you get in. You can see there is a Julia gym bag which contains the cargo cover,
You can use it as a gym bag. And wouldn't you be cool in the gym if you had one? Interestingly enough, this trunk is quite large. It goes very deep. trunk is quite large. It goes very deep. It's got a lot of space, but the opening
for this trunk is quite small. There really isn't a huge amount. It's a surprisingly small little mouth that the trunk has, even though the trunk itself is quite big. So, some stuff might actually be able to fit in the trunk. It
just can't fit into the trunk, which is kind of an odd design. But there you go. Those are your quirks and features of the Giulia Quadrifoglio. Now, let's get this car out on the road and see if 100,000 miles later, it's still fun to
drive. And it really is a bargain. All right, driving a 102,000mi Giulia Quadrifoglio. I drove one of these I reviewed for my channel when it was a brand new car when it first came out and it was the all the rage. It was
like? Me and Falippo actually filmed the video. We were living in Philly. We went all the way down to DC to film a video with it because the car was so like hot. with it because the car was so like hot. Uh and that was, you know, 8 7 years
Uh and that was, you know, 8 7 years ago. It was a long time. And now here we are driving 102,000 mile one. They've gotten to this point. I am astonished by how well this interior has held up. It does not look radically different than
the zero mile car that I drove all those years ago when this was brand new. Some of the Alcantara has worn a little bit like on the steering wheel. Even the seat centers though which are Alcantara have held up astonishingly well. Um the
plastic like there is not usually like some frequently touched button you know is partially worn and you can't read what it says anymore or something. This car has held up shockingly uh after all these miles.
mechanical reliability, but looking around the interior I'm like maybe this outside, I also wouldn't expect this as a 102,000 mi car either. But it actually
goes even further than that because driving this car is also surprisingly nice. When you first start it up, there's a little bit of a like a weird idle for like 30 seconds. However, this car does have a few light modifications.
Maybe that causes it. After that ends, it's it calms down. And again, I'm driving this car and I am not feeling dramatically different than the feelings I had when I drove this car back when it was a new car. It's jerky. Uh, but that
was always how these were. These were always pretty hardedged in terms of suspension, in terms of touchiness of the accelerator pedal and the brake pedal. Like they were always like pretty immediate cars, particularly for sport
sedans from 2017, 18, 19. like they were always pretty tough, pretty immediate that, but I don't think there's a problem. Oh, it's so fast. That's the other thing. This car always was fast. And it still is fast. This powertrain is
exceptional. It really, really is. This small little V6, I've never felt it sounded amazing, but it drives great and it has great power at all speeds. Low speeds, mid-range. It is a powerful car and a powerful engine and it feels
It's interesting because I don't think of this car as particularly refined. In of punishing, which it is because of its immediiacy. The the I'm not even in the the sportiest mode. I'm in D, which I think is dynamic. And I'm still kind of
know, the pedals are touching all that. Um, but when you're actually driving around, if if you can get past the general uncomfortability of like a highrung sports sedan, it's actually quite quiet in here. And the seats are
quite nice. It's a little bit of a dual personality situation. But man, this car is just uh it's it's it really is a treat. And I'm I astonished by how much treat. And I'm I astonished by how much of a treat it is all these years later
when I would have expected that these had all kind of wasted away to total crap. This one is either really well-kept or maybe it's a lot of highway miles or maybe they're actually not so bad. And maybe this is one of those
Vantage where the manufacturer's reputation causes significant depreciation, but the car itself is actually better than the reputation. And so you can benefit from the reputation even though you don't actually have the
the pitfalls of it. Oh, this powertrain is so good. God, I love driving these things fast. Car is just so immediate where where it's a problem when you're feels bumpy and the accelerator feels too touchy and all that. When you start
to actually get on it, those things become real benefits to this car. The touchy accelerator, you go when you want to go. The twitchy steering, you turn when you want to turn. There is a precision to this car that I truly
believe makes the F80 BMW M3 feel like a lazy car by comparison. It also has a rougher ride, a touchier brake pedal. It there are some things that make it a little bit more, let's say, hardcore. There are definitely people who want
don't, and I totally understand that. But man, this car just has this wonderful immediiacy to it that really makes it pretty cool. And I really like the steering and handling. The steering is tight and quick. The chassis is
great, ready to move, flat, very eager to go. And it's also, in my opinion, it competition. And I always loved how these looked, but also it's like it's interesting. It's more unusual and exciting and kind of cool in a way
pretty impressed with the transmission. It's not that quick. It's not a dual rough the shifts feel, even though shifts when they're slow. I think that's just sloppy and slows the car down. But
I like a good rough shift when they're fast because it's doing the job correctly, but it's also adding like a little bit of mechanicality to the car that makes it fun. This car still has all of that pleasure and all of that fun
and all of that flare except at a vastly lower price that makes it, in my opinion, pretty appealing if you're willing to, you know, roll the dice on on Alfa Romeo, which I don't know, maybe it's worth it. This
I don't know, maybe it's worth it. This car is cool. And so that's the 2017 Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio. These are fast cars. They look cool.
They drive well. They're fun and exciting and special. And they're cheap. If you're willing to roll the dice on an aging Alfa Romeo, if you are, you can
get this one on Cars and Bids. And now it's time to give the Giulia it's time to give the Giulia Quadrifoglio a Doug score.
100, which puts the Giulia Quadrifoglio here against similar cars. The Giulia harsh and immediate like a true sports car, but that's a problem for slow speed around town daily driving, which a sedan should be good at. It's really
sports car brethren. But is it reliable? This one has held up shockingly well, mechanically from here? It's a bargain, but will it stay a bargain with enjoyed this car a lot more than I expected to given the mileage and how
expected to given the mileage and how relatively affordable it is now.