2020 Alfa Romeo Giulia Review

Since its introduction in 2017, the Alfa Romeo Giulia has delivered an exceedingly appealing combination of style and driving fun. Alas, its interior storage and technology features fell far behind the curve of other compact luxury sedans. For 2020, Alfa Romeo has updated the interior and safety tech and added new standard features that seek to remedy these shortcomings.

While we greatly enjoyed driving the Giulia, our biggest complaints centered on the lack of interior storage options and frustrations with the center touchscreen interface.

For the former, the 2020 Alfa Romeo Giulia boasts a revised center console with larger cupholders and additional cubbies, including more space for your phone on the available wireless charger. Alfa Romeo has also improved the quality of the materials in this area, so the rotary controllers look and feel a bit nicer.

As for the displays, the larger 8.8-inch center touchscreen is now standard equipment, as is the formerly optional 7-inch screen in the center of the gauge cluster. Alfa Romeo says both screens have improved graphics and functionality.

In addition, driver aids now include adaptive cruise control, lane keeping assist, driver attention monitoring, and active blind-spot assist, which all complement the existing lane departure warning, parking assist, forward collision mitigation and automatic high beams. As with most luxury vehicles equipped with these features, the adaptive cruise slows the Giulia to a stop, which makes high-congestion areas more tolerable.

The Alfa brand is on life support globally, and its lackluster showing in the U.S. isn't doing it any favors. We didn't have complaints about what the Giulia was like to drive, but it fell behind the class in terms of technology and storage — the kinds of practical things that matter to a lot of buyers.

Other factors are at play in Alfa's success (or lack of) in the U.S., but making the vehicles more competitive can only help. We love seeing fun-to-drive sedans on the road, so we're keeping our fingers crossed that Alfa's on the right path.