2023 Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio

Italy is known for many things, but one of its most famous exports is stunning sports cars, and although it's unchanged from last year, the new 2023 Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio sedan is still one of the best. This compact executive sports car is one of the best-looking vehicles to come out of the Alfa Romeo stable in a long time, and it's not just handsome; it moves too. Under the hood, this Italian brawler packs a 505-horsepower twin-turbo V6 engine that gets it to 60 mph in under four seconds. The show of style continues inside the cabin, but this is where the Giulia Quadrifoglio starts to show its shortcomings. Build quality is not on par with German rivals, and some recent reliability issues have us wondering if competitors such as the BMW M3 or Audi RS5 Sportback aren't better choices. Alfa Romeo is hoping that the wailing V6 and rear-wheel-drive handling purity will change your mind.

As a standalone high-performance model, the Giulia Quadrifoglio will cost you $79,760 in the US. This base price excludes tax, licensing, registration, and a destination charge of $1,595. It also excludes a range of tasty upgrades that can push the final Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio price to around $90,000 including destination. In the USA, the new BMW M3 comes in at a less expensive MSRP of $72,800 or $76,700 in Competition guise. Once again, these prices can escalate rapidly with a few options.

The Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio's main rival is the benchmark of this segment: the mighty BMW M3. In order to come even close to the refined level of performance offered by the M3, you have to know what you're doing, and in the case of the Alfa, the news is good. This car isn't only a beauty; it drives well too, thanks to a well-sorted chassis, near-perfect weight distribution, and Quadrifoglio-tuned adaptive suspension. This car offers razor-sharp turn-in and, in contrast to many modern performance cars, it offers feedback through the steering wheel. Throttle control is easily achieved and results in manageable tail slides when the occasion presents itself. Alfa Romeo's Alfa DNA system offers the driver four driving modes: Dynamic, Natural, Advanced Efficiency, and Race mode. In Race mode, things tighten up nicely, and the six-pot Brembo brakes hardly show signs of fade, even after hard use. It's no less impressive in a straight line, and that 0-60 sprint of 3.8 seconds remains unbeaten in this class, even by AWD rivals, while the 191-mph top speed is unmatched too. When driving at normal speeds, the Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio becomes a natural cruiser and is easy to live with on long road trips with superb damping and a compliant ride. Alfa Romeo has created one of the best-driving cars in this class.

When Alfa Romeo first launched the Giulia Quadrifoglio, most were skeptical. Could Alfa Romeo compete in a class filled with legendary sports cars? After experiencing this car, there is no doubt left in anyone's mind: Alfa Romeo has built a BMW M3 killer. From the outside, this stunning Italian sports car exudes timeless Mediterranean style. We love how aggressive this thing looks, and it backs it up with incredible performance. The Giulia Quadrifoglio's chassis is expertly balanced, and its steering system is one of the best in its class. That turbocharged V6 sings a beautiful song and also gets this car up and moving at an impressive rate. One area where the Giulia Quadrifoglio disappoints is in its interior quality; at this level, you can't afford build quality slip-ups. J.D. Power's reliability review of the Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio also produced middling results. If you can look past that sore point, you're left with one of the best compact high-performance sedans on the market today. The big fly in the ointment is one of the Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio's competitors - the Cadillac CT4-V Blackwing. A lot more power, superb RWD handling, and a manual transmission for $20k less make the Alfa a hard sell by comparison.

As there is only one trim on offer, the Giulia Quadrifoglio you end up with will depend on how you want to spec it. If it were us, we'd go for the default Alfa Rosso paint with the 19-inch dark five-hole wheels. We'd also equip the $1,000 Active Assist Plus Package for access to all the available driver-assist technologies. We'd also be happy to spring for the $3,500 Sparco carbon-fiber race seats since this is a car that deserves to play at the track regularly.