And the car we are speaking about – is Alfa Romeo Giulietta produced from 1977 to 1985. And its glorious story wasn’t sad at all.
It was the second Alfa Romeo car named “Giulietta”. The first one, very nice one, was made from 1954 to 65.
And Alfa used this name once again in 2010 for a car produced up to 2020.
But these three cars are absolutely not related to each other, except for the name. So, don’t be confused. The one, I’m telling you about today, is known as Giulietta 1977 or Giulietta Tipo 116 according to its internal project name.
The design was completely new but mechanically the car was based on the Alfa Romeo Alfetta chassis. All Giulliettas were made only in a 4-door sedan body. But there were several station wagon aftermarket conversions made.
In general, the appearance of the car looks standard for a mid-sized European sedan of the 80-s. But the design of this car was born actually in the middle of the 70-s. And we can say with confidence that this car was one of those who decided the main trends of automotive design for the whole next decade.
The Giulietta had two facelifts, in 1981 and in 1983, but they didn’t change the look of the car dramatically. Just some light updates.
Technically, the Giulietta wasn’t something incredible or super-fast but it was very fun to drive because of the perfectly balanced suspension and steering.
It never had power steering but it never needed one. The steering in this car was always sharp, very responsive, and easy.
All Giuliettas were made with 5-speed manual transmissions only. The gearbox was moved to the back and combined with the rear axle in one body of “transaxle”, the same for Alfetta. This gave the car the perfect weight distribution between front and rear parts, and, therefore, the perfect handling, particularly in corners.
At the same time, I can’t say that the engines available for Giulietta were very thrilling. But for that time, they were not bad. At the start, only two 4-cylinder engines were available: 1.3-liter with 94 hp and 1.6 with 107 hp.
Two years later, a 1.8-liter engine was added with 120 hp. And the year later, in May of 1980, Alfa Romeo started production of Giulietta Super with a 2-liter engine making 128 hp and 178 N⋅m (131 lb⋅ft) of torque. These cars could make 0-60 mph in 9.4 seconds, and the maximal speed was 185 km/h (115 mph). Not that impressive now but more than competitive in the early 80-s.
And actually, this is the version you should probably look for if you’d like to buy the Giulietta 116. All engines were carbureted and naturally aspirated.
But there was also an ultimate performance version of Giulietta made by Autodelta, a racing department of Alfa Romeo. By the way, it was the last car of Autodelta before Alfa Romeo merged with Fiat and Autodelta was decommissioned in favor of Fiat’s racing division Abarth.
So, the turbocharged 2-liter Giulietta Turbo Autodelta (also known as Turbodelta) was introduced in 1982. The turbocharger coupled with two double-barrel carburetors increased the power of the engine up to 170 PS and the torque up to 283 N⋅m (209 lb⋅ft). The max speed was 206 km/h (128 mph) with 0-60 miles in 7.5 seconds.
It is a very rare version of Giulietta because only 361 were produced, all of them painted black with red interior. Because of the small production numbers and the age of the cars, it is difficult to find and buy one of them now. But we probably can help you if you are really interested because we have very strong connections in Italy.
All versions had some bizarre decisions in the interior design. Say, the tachometer with an arrow going counter-clockwise while the speedometer’s arrow went clockwise. It is a distinctive feature but I’m not sure that it was very easy to read.
Also, the design of the whole dashboard with the instrumental cluster floating above it. The glove box that opened not downside but right to you as a cabinet drawer.
And let’s say, you’d like to open your window. Where are you expecting to see the button for it? At the door handle? No. On the dashboard? No. Maybe on the center console, between the seats? No again! They put the buttons on the ceiling, right above your head! A strange decision but distinctive.
And don’t forget about rather weird headlight wipers, but they are somewhat cute, in my opinion.
The driving experience of Giulietta was a reflection of the Italian soul. You don’t want to drive it nice and slow because it is very boring.
The real fun starts above 3000 RPM and there, Giulietta becomes a real Italian girl – loud, a little hysterical but hot-blooded, extremely passionate, hot, beautiful, sexy, and perfectly dancing.
No wonder that this energy attracted those who needed fast cars by the nature of their profession, And no, I don’t mean racers. I’m speaking about the police. And in case of Italy, also about carabinieri – the Italian national police. They traditionally used, and still use, Alfa Romeo cars. And Giulietta was not an exception.
I grew up in Europe, and as a child of the 80-s, I watched a lot of Italian detective movies. Like La Piovra (meaning – The Octopus) about the Police Commissioner Corrado Cattani, played by Michele Placido, fighting Sicilian Mafia Cosa Nostra. That actually was the first time when I got to know about the existence of Alfa Romeo cars. And now, I understand that most of them were Giuliettas. So, I feel some kind of a personal connection between this car and my childhood memories.
In fact, Giulietta was a great car of its era.
But everything comes to its end, and after 380,000 Giuliettas were built in total, it was replaced by Alfa Romeo 75 in 1985.
Now, the most common ones available in the market now are with 1.6 engines. However it is possible to find a good 2-liter version and even Turbodelta but the latter is significantly more expensive.
I haven’t found any info about importing Giuliettas into the United States. I know that Alfa exported some of them to South Africa, but I don’t know about the US. If you have this info, I appreciate you telling me in the comments.
But you still can buy Giulietta in Europe and legally import it to the United States because all of them are older than 25 years now. It’s absolutely not difficult with professional help and not that expensive.
Most of them are in Italy, so in most cases, you don’t need to worry about the rust.
The pricing, however, is surprisingly high.
Most common 1.6-liter versions and not-that-common but available interesting 2-liter versions are both listed about 7-15 thousand euros in Europe, depending on the condition of the car.
But most of them are in Italy and, considering the national specifics, I assume that the price may be very negotiable.
The very rare and very desirable Turbodelta versions are listed for 45-55 thousand euros in good condition with relatively low mileage. Again, I recommend to consider this price only as a starting point for negotiations.
