[BahnBaum]

A few weeks and 1500 miles in, I wanted to share some initial thoughts on owning this car.

First, before anyone asks, there have been no reliability issues. Yet, anyway. I may regret saying this, maybe even as soon as on my drive home.

Driving dynamics are spectacular. The steering is incredibly precise and ultra quick, precise and quick to the point where you feel like you have to pay more attention to what you're doing. I read somewhere that the fixed ratio 11.8:1 rack is the quickest of any sedan made today, but that might be fake news, and it's just a tad over two turns lock to lock. It's AWD, but under normal conditions it sends 100% of the power to the rear, and the performance package comes with a mechanical lsd. As far as I'm concerned it drives like a rwd car. This is the first car I've owned with selectable drive modes and adaptive suspension, and I'm impressed with how well this covers the different ways you might want to drive it. In generally, it drives much lighter than it's 3500#ish weight.

The engine is responsive and torquey, with very little turbo lag. It can sound a bit coarse, but it feels every bit as quick as my e46 m3 was (which sounded even coarser). The ZF 8 speed is incredibly quick shifting and it's programming fits each of the 3 different driving modes pretty well, there's even a bit of cool sounding rev matching on manually activated downshifts in dynamic mode. It's got massive aluminum column mounted shift levers and it's a fun transmission to drive in dynamic mode shifting manually. This car (like the Camaro SS that I rented recently) has proven to me that the lack of MT doesn't have to be the deal killer for me that it once was.

The Continental brake-by-wire brakes are bipolar for me. The fronts are 4 piston brembos and at speed they're fine, really linear and with long pedal throw. It's in stop and go that they fucking suck. The initial low speed bite is vague, vague to the point that you're not positive where your foot is in the throw. I used to pride myself on perfect "limo stops"; 1500 miles in and I still can't consistently get it right. Setting aside the inconvenience of jerky stops, I have found myself more than once in a stop and go sudden stop wondering if I was actually going to stop in time. Its inconsistency makes me wonder if something is wrong with the system, but from reading on line my experience isn't unusual.

The interior is a nice place to be. It's relatively simple, thankfully without a shit ton of buttons. There are no shared FCA part bin items that I can tell. The seats and driving position are fantastic and fit me just about perfectly. The best thing about the infotainment system is that it's hidden in the dash and doesn't look like they nailed an ipad somewhere, but everything else about it is just mediocre. For a car that was a clean sheet design and went into production in less than two years, it's obvious that infotainment took a back seat. The interior material quality is mixed, extended leather covered dash and doors looks and smells great, but pieces like the infotainment selector knob, which looks like it could be made of billet stainless, reminds you that it's not every time you touch it. Overall, the driving dynamics trump any issues I have with the consistency of interior quality.

And because it's an Alfa it's got quirks. Some of them I suppose have reason to be quirky, some of them are quirky due to poor execution and some are quirky due to someone just totally forgetting something. They include things like:

On the dash, aside from the speedometer and tach, there are two gauges: a fuel gauge (and even that is an electronic display using a serious of 8 dashes, so it doesn't even pretend to be precise), and an engine oil temp gauge using the same 8 dash display. No coolant temp, no voltmeter, no oil pressure gauge. No problem, because you'll find that in the car info section of the infotainment system, right? Well, wrong. The car info section contains 3 screens: tire pressure info, fuel economy info and a complete pdf of the owners manual (!). Speaking of owner's manuals, have you ever seen an owner's manually that had separate addenda, printed on A4 paper and folded in half and placed in the manual?

The automatic headlight system has 3 levels of sensitivity. All three levels appear to result in auto headlights activating while even driving under a quick overpass in broad daylight. Unfortunately, they don't care about being as sensitive about turning off, so you go through a few extra seconds of not being able to read anything on your infotainment screen (like waze) because of the dimmed dash. I don't know if there's a on/off cycle life for xenons, but it's annoying enough that I've considered turning off the auto headlights and going old school.

The backup camera has the equivalent screen quality of a 5th gen iPod. And it's similarly sized. It's borderline worthless. Fortunately the optional rear cross path detection system does a great job of audibly warning you that you need to look more closely at the shitty rear camera display because you missed something. Or better yet, look back over your shoulder.

No aspect of ESC or TC is defeatable on this car. Nothing. It's always there. This car drives so well I'd have considered showing up at an autox or doing a track day, but not until someone figures out an aftermarket solution to this.

Alfa may think it's not safe to allow it's drivers to defeat ESC and TC, but they're certainly fine with you digging into infotainment menus as deep you want while you're driving, including reading the pdf of your owner's manual. I haven't yet experienced a single one of those "Sorry you can't do that while in motion" nannies.

It's got Pirelli P Zero runflats. Since I'n not leasing this car, I'll have to figure out a solution, but I have some time to figure that out.

As of today, I'm very happy. I paid nowhere near MSRP, I've got an extended warranty, it looks like I'll get about 30 mpg in my normal routine, and every time I walk up to the car, from every angle, I'm taken aback at how gorgeous it looks. Compared to what I would have gotten in a BMW, Audi or Genesis for similar money, I can't imagine having a car that would be this much fun to drive and still serve it's practical purpose as my primary commuter and occasionally people hauler.

I do reserve the right, however, to come back here and flog myself publically for buying a car with a history of reliability issues, regardless of how much fun it is to drive. It could be that's some of the allure for me. Maybe it's like the risk inherent with dating a former hooker, not that I've ever done that.

Alex