New Giulietta (Type 940) 2010 - 2020

This Giulietta Veloce is my mid-life crisis purchase - that is in case I have a mid-life crisis.  It replaced a car (not an Alfa) I'd been running since September 2005.  The justification for buying the previous car was that it needed to see me to retirement in 2021, which it just managed. I parted company with it at the back end of 2021 and ran the 147 I was minding for our youngest son while he learned to drive (I am still minding it).  I had spent a considerable time before the demise of my daily looking at various options.  Many were probably very sensible options.  But after endless searching through a well-known used car website, each car I looked at left me feeling.... well meh!  Totally uninspired.   A conversation with our eldest petrol head went along the lines of 'why don’t you get a convertible'.  He was having huge fun with his MX5 at the time.   I dismissed this suggestion, although would love a Spider.  It would be living outside, very close to a large tree in our garden.  Bad idea I thought, I can see a lovely mohair hood turning sap coloured.  But that conversation set the cogs in motion.   It didn't take long to think something with a nice large glass sunroof might be a good compromise.  After all, life is full of compromises.  But what would tempt me.  Looking for something that would have some life left, I stumbled on the idea of a Giulietta.  I began searching for a 1.4 (170) with the panoramic roof.  Then came another talking to from our eldest petrol head.  'Go for the Veloce' he said, 'you only live once'.   Led astray, the search was on for a fairly late Giulietta Veloce with the panoramic roof.  My goodness it was a rare option.  At around £1200, it’s not surprising. 

I've learned over the years when buying second hand cars that colour is probably not the highest priority.  The roof was the deal breaker.  So I searched and I searched.  Missed a blue one that was sold almost as soon as it was listed.  I saw a 17 plate Nero Etna car at one of the car supermarkets (a long way from home).  Looked at the MOT history and thought, is it worth the journey to look.  A history check revealed it had been untaxed since the previous September and the MOT history could have been better. Used car prices were also painfully high.  I resisted.  Paul Jones put me in touch with Mark Gunston.  I said what I was looking for and Mark agreed there were not many with the sunroof around.  A couple of weeks later, I got a message from Mark with a link to a Nero Etna car with a sunroof.  You've guessed, it was the car I had looked at previously.  A chat with Mark was reassuring and I thought some more about it.  As a result, I reserved it and had an RAC check done.  I spoke to the engineer who confirmed it appeared to be a good  car and he sounded impressed. I suspected he wasn't an Alfisti, but he was positive.  One issue he found was with the climate control.  It didn't appear to be working.  The seller promised to promised to sort it.  That is a whole other story which I won’t bore you with here.  I decided to go ahead with the purchase.

We collected our Giulietta on the 1st June 2022.  It is a March 2017 car in Nero Etna with the panoramic roof.  It also has the Bose sound system and adaptive HID headlights. It was well specified by the first of two previous owners.  It was sold new through Desira Norwich and covered around 35000 miles before I bought it.  I'm not usually a fan of black cars, its a personal thing.  But the Etna paint is rather special and it looked gorgeous in the bright sunlight when we collected it in Bristol.

Our first drive wasn't to be homeward bound.  Eldest petrol head was helping with some pit crew duties for a Ford Ka team doing a 24 hour race.  So we planned a scenic route to the circuit on Anglesey. Well it would have been rude not to!  The twisty Welsh roads really suit the Giulietta. I have photos taken by Bex, my long-suffering wife, that shows the smile on my face.  Did we have any problems on that journey? Well, yes we did.  Pulling into motorway services not that long after collection, I found the TCT gearbox wouldn't confirm park was selected. Result was that the key was not coming out of the ignition barrel. Great start.  Much leafing through the manual and I found the emergency procedure to deal with this. A bit inconvenient, with only makeshift implements but we had a temporary fix.  Clearly this was down to the car being stood for so long. A great journey to start to get to grips with the TCT though.

Although service history was properly documented, I thought a comprehensive service and at 5 years old a new cambelt and water pump would be a good idea.  Northern Alfa Performance did a great job for me and sorted the TCT issue by a clean and lube.  

Since buying the Giulietta, I've done around 5000 miles.  I love it!  As a young lad, I was a massive fan of Group 4 Ford Escorts which had the Cosworth BDA (and later versions) 4 cylinder engines.  I love the sound.  As a result, I've always been a fan of 4 pot motors.  The 1750TBi is a cracking bit of kit. I love the way it revs quickly

Every journey is fun in this car.  It rides well, is quick enough for me and the sunroof is great.  Had to buy a cap to prevent sunburn though.  We’re looking forward to some serious road trips with this car.  I can’t think of anything better!