In September of last year, Car And Driver published a 10,000-mile check-in report on all of the maintenance headaches with its long-term 2018 Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio, including never-ending warning lights and the car spending an entire month in the shop to replace its differential. Over 20,000 miles later, things haven’t improved.
After we last left off with Car And Driver’s Giulia, it seems the unfounded warning light issues were still occurring. At around 31,000 miles, the car flashed a low engine oil warning, despite a check of the dipstick showing the oil level was indeed fine.
They took the car to dealer about the inaccurate warning light, where it spent a week and a half out of their hands for troubleshooting:
First, they reflashed the system, which didn’t work. Next, they replaced the oil-level sensor, which also didn’t work. Then the techs brought out an engineer with a fresh software update, which finally solved the problem. It cost us no money, but we spent a great deal of time and nearly ran out of patience.
Probably the funniest issue with the car happened before that, though, when a staffer took the car through a car wash:
Following a morning carwash, the Giulia warned of an open rear door and an inoperative turn signal. The incessant attention tones mingled unhappily and were joined by the warning beeps of the malfunctioning parking sensors whenever the car’s speed dropped below their activation threshold. It’s a soundtrack that might be useful in CIA black-site interrogations.
One would think having a car mimic the soundtrack of a CIA torture chamber would be a feature, not a bug.
And then, suddenly as if nothing was ever wrong, all of the commotion stopped, and reportedly hasn’t come back after 8,000 miles and multiple subsequent car washes.
At 30,000 miles, Car And Driver had the car serviced, including an oil change and new oil filter, an inspection, and six new spark plugs, totaling $786.
But even still, after 35,142 miles and 13 months of continuous headaches, with the car off the road for service for over a month, Car And Driver still reports it’s the “most rewarding and thrilling sedan on the market today.” They’ll just never try to convince you to buy one.