Are you so excited for the Alfa Romeo Giulia? Do you dream of hearing its 503 horsepower twin-turbo V6 put spicy Italian noises in your ear-holes as you row through the gears of its six-speed manual transmission? Scratch the last thing off your list if you’re an American, because it ain’t happening here.
Journalists are currently attending the Giulia’s U.S. press launch in Sonoma, Calif. (We weren’t invited, probably because we said something mean about a Jeep recall or something.) And there, reporters became aware of the car’s lack of a three-pedal option in this country.
Our friends over at Road & Track confirmed the situation with Fiat Chrysler: there are “no plans at this time” to offer a manual Giulia here.
The spokesperson explained that Fiat-Chrysler decided not to offer the stick shift to U.S. customers based on our market’s general lack of enthusiasm for three-pedal offerings. Still, it’s a strange turn of events—the Giulia show car that graced Alfa Romeo’s booth at every major U.S. auto show featured a six-speed manual, and Alfa Romeo set its first Giulia Nurburgring lap record using a manual-transmission model.
Which is an absolute shame, because this car is supposed to be for people who are enthusiastic about things like manual transmissions. While it’s true many cars in this class have given up on stick shifts, it’s a strike against the Giulia that it lacks something you can get on a M3 and M4 or a Cadillac ATS-V.
You see that, America? Take a good, long look, because it’s the only place you’re going to see it. Be sad.