What we do see is added complexity on an Italian car. That makes us nervous. We happily awarded the Giulia first place, experiencing no reliability issues at all with the two test cars we abused. Then, a few weeks later, a different Giulia died in traffic, leaving one of our senior staffers blocking the road until the flatbed arrived. And then yet another test car showed off its Italian heritage by stalling randomly during a photo shoot.

Apparently this Giulia might live up to Alfa’s love-it-but-don’t-trust-it reputation after all. Or it could just be early-build teething problems from an all-new platform. We still think it’s the best compact sport sedan you can buy, even if it winds up breaking your heart. Better to have loved and been towed home than to have never loved at all.

Maybe I'm getting old but the term over engineered keeps coming to mind. You're paying $65,000 - $89,000 for a car and yet the maintenance you're to expect is not only outrageously expensive but frequent. Like I said, maybe it's me, but how does Honda, Toyota and Nissan do it on their high performance vehicles with so much less required maintenance?