Alfa Romeo Giulia vs Kia Stinger

What's the difference?

Alfa Romeo. A brand with more re-boots than success stories. Yet one which driving enthusiasts the world over can’t seem to shake the allure of.

Of course, these are not cars for just everyone. Most mainstream buyers are scared away by what I like to call the three Rs. Rust. Reliability. Resale.

Alfa’s tumultuous (and often overstated) past is one it has trouble putting behind it. Reputations are hard earned and easily lost, and besides, the majority of the voting public aspire to own something German, which they see a lot more of on the road.

It doesn’t help that Alfa also dragged its feet on committing to a five-year warranty in Australia (in early 2022), hardly a statement of confidence in its product.

You’re probably wondering by now why anyone would buy one, and why it’s the car which most enthusiasts wish they were brave enough to own.

Well the Giulia is the Alfa Romeo. The low-slung, sporty, sexy car which a few of us out there still use as a reference-point for how to make a sedan in 2023 good-looking, and how to make one drive like it has heart.

The brand can throw all the SUVs at us it wants, but for those who see Alfa Romeo for the brand it should be, this car is it.

Parting sorrow, perhaps, the version we’re looking at for this review may be one of the last - under its new Stellantis management, Alfa has said it will leave this fantastic, promising Giorgio platform behind it in a move to be more electrified.

Travel with me, dear reader, as we celebrate a car which is the culmination of Alfa’s past, at a moment before it steps into the future.

There is nothing quite like a car company occasionally building a car that could be considered a risk. And there are all kinds of risks in the car business - the market isn't ready for that car, people don't identify your brand with this or that type of vehicle, the list goes on. And it's long. It's very easy for me to sit on the sidelines and say, "Pft, what were they thinking?" Few cars land on your driveway without years of thinking having already gone into their development.

The Kia Stinger is the kind of car that would have caused lots of thinking and plenty of hand-wringing at Kia HQ in Korea. Not because it was a bad idea - it wasn't. Not because it's a bad car - it is, in fact, the opposite. And not because SUVs have already changed the way we look at cars - Kia has done well out of that.

It's just that Kia has never produced a car like the Stinger. A five-door coupe-sedan, rear-wheel drive and with a focus on driver dynamics. Most of us know very well how the Stinger GT burst on to the scene in a blaze of well-deserved glory. It's not all about the GT, though. There's a whole range of Stingers and just below that very accomplished sports sedan is the Stinger GT-Line.