2019 Alfa Romeo Giulia Technology & Safety Review

As a picky car buyer, you have all the right to expect the Alfa Romeo Giulia to have all the bells and whistles. It's a compact luxury sedan after all, so it’s expected to deliver a high standard in the toys found inside its cabin. With car reviews available over the internet with just one click, it's easy to find out whether a car would provide the best out of your hard-earned money. In this regard, the Giulia delivers nicely.

However, this doesn’t mean that the Giulia isn’t without shortcomings in its Philippine-spec technology and safety features, as discussed in my in-depth review. This articles aims to discuss those deeply – the good and the bad – to help you with your car buying decision.

Upon opening the Giulia’s doors, you’ll instantly notice the heaven-sent power adjusters of the front seats, crowned with a three-fold memory setting for the driver. All windows are also automatic, with auto up and down function for all window, while the headlights and rain wipers are all automatic as well. No peculiarities here yet. Everything works like a charm at this point, except maybe for the non-locking turn signal sticks that are pretty common among European cars.

At the driver’s seat, you’ll be greeted with two screens: one is the multi-information display in between the hooded dials, while the other is the 6.8-inch infotainment that’s integrated within the dashboard. The former is clear and unaffected by sun rays, but some icons seem out of place which kind of clutter the display. Well, just a little bit.

The infotainment system, on the other hand, is probably the biggest quirk inside the Giulia. It’s a tad small for the massive dashboard integration, which made me really wish for the bigger 8.8-inch of the global-spec unit. Of note, the PH-spec Giulia at least have parking cameras to go with the sensors. To be fair, the infotainment system is idiot-proof and very intuitive to use, while smartphone pairing’s a cinch even without Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

Another odd thing with the Giulia’s tech offering is the lack of brake-hold function. With electronic parking brakes intact, Alfa Romeo could have completed the package with the brake-hold function, which is a very convenient feature to use amidst heavy traffic. Speaking of which, the auto start/stop feature isn’t the most pleasant thing to have while in bumper-to-bumper situations – it isn’t discreet and you’ll likely find yourself shutting it off completely.

A full set of airbags, ABS with EBD, traction control (that can’t be turned off), tire pressure monitor, seatbelt reminders for the front occupants, and ISOFIX child seat anchors – those are the standard safety features that the Alfa Romeo Giulia Super variant has.

To go with this standard set, the Giulia also has autonomous braking to avoid collisions. It’s partnered with a pre-collision warning with adjustable sensitivity and pedestrian detection. Trust me, keeping it at its sensitive setting is just right and could save you a lot. That goes the same with the lane keep assist system that employs a worry-free highway cruise. There are no blind spot monitors but I didn't feel the need for it when I had the demo unit, which is a good thing.