New Veloce

[eazy_71]

48 hours in with the new love of my life - Giulia Veloce - Alfa Red, sunroof, Stereo upgrade, yellow calipers.  Loving every minute so far - first impressions are it is close to perfect.  Quick, refined, light to drive, great dynamically, economical, comforatble, and of course looks stunning!  Stereo upgrade sounds excellent. 

Only a couple of quirks - user manual on the infotainment system is reassuringly useless and the panel in the drivers footwell (on the gear shifter side) has quite hard edge which digs into my knee when I put my left leg in it's preferred position. 

Looking forward to the next few months.  I've searched in vain for any official guidance on running in period but can't find a thing.  What has anyone else heard??

[alfagtv100 (Biggus)]

Congratulations eazy_71
You are right about the onboard user manual.  At least the paper manual is good even if it does a poor job of explaining the exact changes turning the DNA knob makes (throttle?, steering?, braking?).

I asked the dealer about running-in.  He said something about fully synthetic oils.  Then he said, "Just drive it normally around town and on the freeway.  Work the engine to build up some heat but take it easy after cold starts until the engine warms up".  He did say something about avoiding very long running at highway speeds, which is pretty standard - or at least it was in 'my day'.

Enjoy your new toy.

[eazy_71]

3 weeks in now, really had a chance to get to know the car.

The good stuff:   It drives really really well - better than my 428i which is bit surprising as I always felt that was close to faultless.  It's hard to describe but it feels really light and precise in comparison to the bmw although the weight difference is only 20kg.  Refinement is good and fuel economy has been a really pleasant surprise.  Front seats are really comfortable and I could happily stare at the interior all day long and not get bored.  It looks good...really good - I keep spotting little touches in the sills, the headlights, the headrests etc etc that show where just an extra 1% effort has been spent to get the aesthetics right.  The headlights are excellent and turn with steering - makes tight manoeuvres in the dark a lot easier. 

So what is not so good?  Niggling doubts that the build quality is not quite "there" yet - a few squeaks and rattles have shown themselves on poor roads.  The infotainment system is "good enough" but not as good as the bmw and I really miss the head up display.  I knew the transmission was good having had the same unit in my 4 series but the set up is just a little different and it feels like there is one ratio too many -   1st and 2nd are really short and much of the overtaking work has to be done in 3rd.  The steering wheel looks great but is a little thin for my liking..

On balance though, very happy so far!

[eazy_71]

3 months in and I have found my first brilliant Alfa-ism!  Bonnet release catch is nowhere near where it says it is in either printed manual or on board manual.  I spent a good15 minutes wondering if I was losing my mind.  The large red pull handle shown in the drivers footwell in the manual, is actually a small black, well concealed handle under the steering wheel!

[bazzbazz]

So what you're telling us is that you've owned the car for 3 months and haven't lifted the hood once??   

I know some people are not mechanically minded but didn't curiosity even get the better of you to take a peek as to what was actually under there? 

   

[eazy_71]

Fair point!  I'm basically from the "if it
ain't broke, don't fix it" school!  Normally curiosity would have taken over but I think it got used up when I got a loan car for a week when my delivery was delayed — day 1 with the new car was a bit of a non-event!