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Used test: Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio vs BMW M3 costs
Buy either of these two great four-year-old performance cars and you're in for treat, but which one should you put on your driveway? Read on to find out...
Buying and owning
Costs, equipment, reliability, safety
New, the BMW M3 had a higher list price than the Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio by around £2000, although you might have been able to negotiate more money off, making it potentially the cheaper car. Now, at two years old, the M3 is cheaper by around £2000. However you view it, both of these cars are highly desirable on the used market and values are holding up well, with very little to choose between them in terms of depreciation.
These cars are a little too rare to feature in our annual What Car? Reliability Survey but the models they're based on are included. The Giulia did poorly, coming 16th out of 17 cars in the executive car category, while the 3 Series (in diesel form) ranked a little higher in 11th. Alfa Romeo as a brand came 26th out of 30 manufacturers featured – BMW placed 13th.
Both cars will cost a lot to run but the M3 will cost more in fuel and servicing, while the Giulia will be more expensive to insure. They attract the same annual fee for VED car tax. Being registered after April 2017 means both will cost you £155 a year in road tax and an additional £335 a year in the luxury tax supplement, which is charged from years two to five. To find out more about current road tax costs, click here.
Each car came as standard with climate control, leather seats, a DAB radio, cruise control, Bluetooth, sat-nav, automatic lights and wipers, and front and rear parking sensors. Alfa Romeo added a reversing camera, while BMW added heated electric front seats, a more powerful sound system, LED headlights (the Giulia’s are xenons) and eight free choices of paint colour against the Giulia’s one (red).
That said, if you were buying a Giulia new in 2017, spending a total of £1375 on two optional packs would have added heated electric front seats, a heated steering wheel and keyless entry, all without pushing its price past the M3’s.
Euro NCAP awarded both cars a five-star safety rating, with the BMW M3 scoring slightly higher marks for child and pedestrian protection and the Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio doing better for adult safety. However, Alfa Romeo included automatic emergency braking (AEB) as standard, whereas BMW charged extra for it.
Both cars come with an alarm and immobiliser, and security expert Thatcham rates them equally highly for their resistance to being broken into and driven away.
