I knew the name before I knew much else about cars.

I’ve been an Alfa Romeo fan for as long as I can remember being interested in cars. At the time, I didn’t know exactly what drew me to them, but the design was impossible to ignore. Back in the mid-90s, most cars around me seemed to resemble one another. Alfa Romeos were different. They were good-looking, a little strange, and promised more fun than the refrigerators on four wheels around me.

Alfa Romeo 146

My first Alfa love was the Alfa Romeo 146 Junior. I spent a lot of time outside a local Alfa Romeo dealership, admiring the 146 through the window. At some point, even though I wasn’t old enough to drive yet, I found the courage to walk in. I was grateful that the people there were kind enough to let me sit in it and take it all in, even though I certainly didn’t look like a prospective buyer.

To me, it felt like going to a theme park. It looked nothing like anything else I had seen, and even though I couldn’t legally drive it yet, I could at least imagine myself driving it while sitting behind the steering wheel. That alone made it special.

Years went by, and I still didn’t get a car, even after getting a job. It stayed out of reach, but I kept following Alfa Romeo anyway. New models, announcements, photos, whatever I could find. Since I couldn’t own one, I found other ways to keep the interest alive, mostly through Alfa Romeo merchandise.

Alfa Romeo 156

The next Alfa that truly pulled me in was the 156, released in the late 90s. I still remember seeing one on the road for the first time. It stopped me in my tracks. If I thought the 146 looked like nothing else on the road, the 156 looked like something alien. Its designer, Walter de Silva, became a design hero to me. I wanted one, but I couldn’t afford it.

Life moved on through school and work, but Alfa Romeo never really left my mind. When Alfa Romeo released the Giulia, it instantly became a favorite of mine. It always brought a smile to my face when I crossed paths with one on the road. It had that same feeling: different, elegant, and somehow more alive than most of what was around it. So when the time finally came to buy a car, the Giulia was already somewhere in the back of my mind.

A Giulia on a damp road, just like the one that made everything click.

For close to six months, I had been thinking about buying a car, looking at all the logical options: a reasonable SUV, maybe a German liftback, or even a Japanese sports sedan. I went to see a few of them in person at dealerships, but I kept coming back to the same question: is this really what I am going to drive? More than that, would any of them make me turn around after parking and feel genuinely glad it was mine?

Then one morning on my way to work, on a damp highway, a red Alfa Romeo Giulia overtook me with an older gentleman behind the wheel, grinning from ear to ear. In reality, I think I already knew the answer. I was just trying very hard to choose the car that made sense on paper, instead of admitting which one I actually wanted.

Finding the right Giulia was not straightforward. I had been looking for a very specific one: Milano White, red seats, rear-wheel drive, and the Veloce package. For a while, I wondered if I would have to keep waiting.

Then, somehow, the right car showed up **.

My 2026 Alfa Romeo Giulia Veloce

I had to fly to another city to pick it up, then drive it back close to 350 miles (about six and a half hours with stops and traffic). Most of the drive was just that: driving, navigating, watching traffic, and staying focused on the road. But every now and then, the realization would hit me all over again: I’m driving my Alfa Romeo home.

Even now, looking at the pictures in this post, part of me still feels like someone is going to pinch me and I’m going to wake up. It may take a while for this to fully register.

After close to four decades of dreaming about an Alfa Romeo, today I brought home a 2026 Alfa Romeo Giulia Veloce.

I’m biased, but pics don’t do this color justice. I thought the seats were bright red when I first saw the photos, but in person they’re a deeper red — almost burgundy — and honestly, it looks even better.

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**I have to give my thanks to u/Consistent-Group-314 — not only for replying to a thread I started, but for actually helping me find the right car. I use Reddit for a lot of things. Finding cars was definitely not on that list.

As always take with a grain of sale. Please read the article for details- main points below

• Stellantis is reportedly talking with two industrial partners for Maserati’s future.
• Italpassion claims one of those potential partners may be BMW, though this is unofficial.
• The Alfa Romeo angle: future Giulia and Stelvio are expected to be developed alongside Maserati’s next large models.
• If Maserati uses outside tech, Alfa may be pulled into the same solution.
• Italpassion says Alfa still has not finalized the technical direction for the next Giulia/Stelvio.
• Main Point: the next Giulia/Stelvio may not be a straightforward STLA Large program.

Great review by MCN

I just finished reading Superveloce: How Italian Cars Conquered the World by Peter Grimsdale. If you have even a passing interest in Italian cars and the evolution of Italy’s automotive industry—including Alfa Romeo—I highly recommend it. The book includes several fascinating stories about Alfa Romeo and how the brand developed over the decades.

One thing to keep in mind: the story ends in the late 1960s or early 1970s, so it doesn’t cover the company’s more recent history. If you’re looking for an account of Alfa Romeo over the past 40 years, this isn’t that book. It's still an excellent read though.

Here are some highlights that stuck with me...

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Alfa Romeo dominating grand prix racing

• Dominating the first Silverstone GP after WWII: At the 1950 British Grand Prix at Silverstone, the first-ever round of the Formula 1 World Championship, Alfa Romeo entered four Tipo 158 “Alfettas” for Nino Farina, Luigi Fagioli, Juan Manuel Fangio, and Reg Parnell. They dominated qualifying by locking out the first four grid positions, then controlled the race. Farina won, Fagioli finished second, and Parnell finished third, giving Alfa Romeo a podium sweep. Fangio retired, so it was not a 1–2–3–4 finish, but it was still total Alfa dominance.
• Dominating the first Belgium GP at Spa - In the 1925 Belgian GP at Spa, Alfa Romeo was so dominant — and the field so depleted — that only Ascari and Campari’s Alfa Romeos finished. Spectators reportedly booed the anticlimax.
  • The famous story that the drivers stopped for a leisurely meal while mechanics cleaned or polished the cars is part of the legend, but at least one historian argues it was actually a normal tire-change pit stop that later grew into folklore.

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Memorable Quotes

• Today I killed my mother” - Enzo Ferrari
  • Before founding Ferrari, Enzo Ferrari was an Alfa Romeo works driver and later a team organizer. Alfa became the training ground where he learned to understand motor racing as a complete system—drivers, machinery, preparation, factory politics, and the mythology surrounding a brand.
  • Memorable quote: When José Froilán González gave Ferrari its first victory over Alfa Romeo in 1951, defeating the dominant Alfa 159 and the full factory team, Enzo Ferrari cried with both joy and sorrow. “I cried with enthusiasm, but also with pain,” he later recalled. “That day, I thought: I have killed my mother.”
• Alfa is a kind of illness - Orazio Satta Puliga
  • Orazio Satta Puliga (1910–1974) was the engineer who helped define Alfa Romeo’s postwar identity. Rather than an exterior stylist in the modern sense, he served as the company’s chief engineer, technical director and overall architect of its vehicles.
  • Memorable quote: “Alfa Romeo is a way of life, a wholly distinctive way of conceiving and designing a motor car—something involving sensations and passion, more closely connected with the heart than with the mind.”

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A Recurring Pattern in Alfa Romeo’s History

Alfa Romeo’s history often seems to follow the same six-stage cycle: (1)Brilliance → (2) expansion → (3) crisis → (4) rescue → (5) reinvention → (6)repetition

1. Brilliance: Alfa creates a car that captures the brand’s technical and emotional identity, such as the 6C, Giulietta or original Giulia (or more recently 156 or Giulia Quadrifoglio).
2. Expansion: One successful model becomes the basis for a broader lineup or ambitious growth plan.
3. Crisis: Sales, quality, costs or weak product cadence undermine that expansion.
4. Rescue: New ownership, funding or leadership steps in with another turnaround plan.
5. Reinvention: Alfa rebuilds itself around fresh engineering and products, such as the Giulia and Stelvio.
6. Repetition: The new cars earn praise, but limited follow-through allows the lineup to age and the same problems to return.

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A CA dealer posted all the prices for limited bikes. 💸💸💸