Yahoo Autos Alfa Romeo Giulia Won't Offer a Manual Transmission in the U.S.
The Alfa Romeo Giulia is chock full of promise: A beautiful body, a lightweight platform, and in Quadrifoglio Verde trim, a twin-turbo V6 sending 503 horsepower to the rear wheels.
But if you're buying it in the United States, you won't be able to get a manual transmission.
That's the word coming out of Sonoma, California, where Alfa Romeo is hosting a slew of U.S. automotive journalists for the first drive of the Giulia on these shores. Upon hearing this, Road & Track reached out to a Fiat-Chrysler spokesperson, who confirmed that the automaker has "no plans at this time" to offer a manual transmission in the U.S.-market Giulia.
The spokesperson explained that Fiat-Chrysler decided not to offer the stick shift to U.S. customers based on our market's general lack of enthusiasm for three-pedal offerings. Still, it's a strange turn of events-the Giulia show car that graced Alfa Romeo's booth at every major U.S. auto show featured a six-speed manual, and Alfa Romeo set its first Giulia Nurburgring lap record using a manual-transmission model.
When that record was felled by the new Porsche Panamera, however, Alfa Romeo brought a Giulia Quadrifoglio Verde with the optional-in-Europe eight-speed automatic to the track, regaining the current world record for fastest four-door sedan at the famed track. The automatic transmission shaved seven seconds off the stick-shift lap record, which now stands at 7:32.
While it's well known that manual transmissions aren't nearly as popular in the U.S. market as they are elsewhere, the Giulia seemed like the kind of car that justified offering the option. Among the Giulia's competition, both the Cadillac ATS-V and BMW M3/M4 offer the option of a manual transmission. Cadillac says 21 percent of ATS-V coupes, and 33 percent of ATS-V sedans are sold with manual transmissions; BMW would not provide numbers to Road & Track.
The Nurburgring lap times prove the superiority of the Giulia's eight-speed automatic for chasing the fastest-possible lap time. But we maintain that a car like this both needs and deserves a manual option. Early reports indicate that the Alfa sports sedan is a fantastic performer, offering the kind of feedback and communication enthusiasts crave in a sports sedan. Unfortunately, if you were hoping to pair those dynamics with a third pedal, and you live in the U.S., you're out of luck.
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