Overrated: Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio

The Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio is a car that can do virtually no wrong in the eyes of the motoring press, and on the surface it’s not difficult to see why.

For here – at last – is an Alfa Romeo that not only looks great but which also goes hard (seriously hard), sounds lovely and has a rear-wheel drive chassis that isn’t even remotely rubbish. Believe all you’ve read about the Giulia Quad since its unveiling at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 2015 and you might be forgiven for concluding it’s the automotive equivalent of the second coming. It isn’t.

Indeed I suspect we might have gone a little bit OTT with our reactions to, and conclusions about, the Giulia Quadrifoglio. I think a lot of us motor noters wanted to like this car so much when it first appeared and got so excited about its credentials – 2.9-litre V6 twin-turbo with 503bhp, rear-drive, 190mph top speed, eight-speed automatic gearbox – we were prepared to forgive it almost anything.