Cars & Bikes, Driving & Riding

[MR25]

What's an Alfa without wonky reliability?

[tifosi77]

That's part of the charm, sure, but I figured they wouldn't have bothered re-entering the US with this level of suck.

[NTP66]

I’ve heard some really bad reviews from the two people I know who own Alfa’s - one Giulia and one Stelvio. Most of the issues are actually with electronics.

[dodint]

A buddy of mine is head over heels for them, and wants a Giulia Quad. Found a lemon law buyback on a used lot for 'cheap' and I spent a lot of time talking him off of it. (This is Tyler, Cbear).

[tifosi77]

One of the issues I read about in a long-term test was that they had lots of niggly little things like warning lights that would come on with no underlying fault, or things that require like 5 minutes of work to correct. Just stupid sort of QA stuff that put you in a position to schedule service, take the car in, wait til the thing is diagnosed and fixed, etc etc. Like 2 or 3 times a month for half a year in one review.

Another one was a black box that was replaced under recall/warranty. It effectively made the car either undriveable or unsafe to drive (which is essentially the same thing, really). But when they brought the car in and turned it over, the service dept had multiple other Giulias in the shop for the exact same repair, and they ran out of stock in inventory. And since it was a recall item, everyone who had an Alfa that required the part was bringing them in for the service, so they couldn't just call another Alfa dealership, and the most Alfa part is Alfa didn't anticipate the hit to their supply chain, and so there was a shortage of the part that left the testers without their long-term test vehicle for iirc 23 days or something like that.

[RonnieFranchise]

In a similar vein to Tif's post above, starting to look for an AWD mid or full size Sedan for purchase around bonus time in March. I'm not really an SUV guy, we are keeping Mrs. Franchise's Flex so I can use that if I need to haul something. Finally my turn to get a car I really want.

Budget is $55k or less. Ideally I want an A6 but anything above the base Premium model is above budget and it only gets middling reliability ratings.

The Camry/Avalon/Lexus ES 250 have AWD but for some reason Toyota puts only the 4 cyl in those. Drove an Avalon yesterday and while it checked the other boxes and was $12k under budget, the 4 cylinder was uninspiring. Reliability on those however should be no problem.

Lexus terminated the GS which had an AWD 6 cyl, pricy but by the time I'm ready to buy I might be able to find a bargain 2020 kicking around.

Any thoughts on other vehicles in that segment I ought to look at?

[NTP66]

I’m an Acura guy, so I’ll obviously throw the 2021 TLX into the mix. The new Type-S should come in around or a little below your max budget in the spring, and will have a turbo 6.

[faftorial]

[RonnieFranchise]

Damn I love suicide doors!

[Shyster]

Any thoughts on other vehicles in that segment I ought to look at?

The Genesis G70 and G80 both have available AWD. A top-of-the-line G70 would be under the price cap, and I think so would a V6 G80. There's a new G80 for 2021, so you might find deals on the 2020s.

The Kia Stinger also has AWD.

[dodint]

Big Stinger fan here. Probably my favorite sedan.

[tifosi77]

You said A6, but Mrs Tif has an A4 for a time, and I quite liked it.

[NTP66]

The A4 and A6 seemed to have very cramped cabins, IMO.

[dodint]

Are you too big for joggers as well?

[NTP66]

I have no idea what joggers are (shoes?). I’m just saying, for somebody over 6’ tall, I thought they felt a little cramped inside, similar to my dad’s 535.

[dodint]

I was kidding about the joggers (they are sweatpants) but now I'm actually confused because our 535 was as big as a house inside.

[NTP66]

I was kidding about the joggers (they are sweatpants) but now I'm actually confused because our 535 was as big as a house inside.

I forget what year his was, but it was like they designed everything to envelope you. Thick cladding on the interior, and the center console was wide as ****.

[RonnieFranchise]

Any thoughts on other vehicles in that segment I ought to look at?

The Genesis G70 and G80 both have available AWD. A top-of-the-line G70 would be under the price cap, and I think so would a V6 G80. There's a new G80 for 2021, so you might find deals on the 2020s.

The Kia Stinger also has AWD.

One intangible the Stinger has going for it is the Kia dealer is a couple miles away right here in Beaver County, they also sell Ford and I know them from servicing the Flex. All the other dealers are Wexford/Moon/Boardman/Sewickley.

[NTP66]

Just checked out pics of the Stinger - that’s a sharp looking car.

[faftorial]

Just checked out pics of the Stinger - that’s a sharp looking car.

@dodint can correct me if wrong but I think they hired a BMW designer.

[NTP66]

I’m not a big BMW fan, so that wouldn’t really help me, lol.

[willeyeam]

What's up with these cars with tilted wheels? I saw tons in FL

[faftorial]

Like this?

[willeyeam]

Basically. The ones I saw weren't flared out to that extreme though

[faftorial]

I always think this is what happens: