This is my first post here. Normally I just lurk, but I really wanted to answer this question. I bought my Giulia in February, and the short answer for me is "Fate". Long answer: In early 2001 I went to the LA Auto Show with a couple of friends. I was looking for a new car, specifically a sports-sedan, and my research had led me to the Nissan Maxima. At the show, one of my friends said, "You should look at one of these.", and pointed to a 2001 Lexus IS-300. I liked the interior, went out the next day and test drove it, fell in love with the handling and acceleration and forgot all about a Maxima. I drove that car for nearly 21 years. It was like a best friend. Super reliable, and it just seemed like it wanted to go everywhere I was going. I totaled it in January, and was very sad to see it go.
I did my research, and compiled a list of cars that I thought would be a worthy successor, factoring in that in this near post-pandemic world I no longer have a daily commute, and my driving needs are grocery runs and usually a trip once or twice a month either up or down the coast. I tried a Tesla first, and couldn't understand why anyone would buy a tablet with wheels. I looked at all of the electrics, then the hybrids, then decided a fuel efficient gas car might be my best option. One of those same friends from before offered to drive me to some dealers for test drives, and we went up to the Valley. I looked at Honda, Mazda, Infiniti, Genesis, Nissan, etc. (but not Lexus because the Lexus dealership near me is crooked and I didn't want to deal with them), checking off all the cars on my list. At one point I said, "You know, the last time I did this, I ended up not buying any of the cars I researched, and stumbled across my dream car. Maybe we just pull into the next dealership and see what they have?" So we ended up pulling into the Ferrari dealership, and my friend said "You have to see what they have." They had the Giulia, which I had never heard of before. I drove it, and was hooked. But it does not have a spare tire, nor a place to put one, which was a deal breaker for me (most of my miles are outside of the city), so I kept looking. But everything else paled against the Giulia. After two more weeks of looking at other cars, I decided to throw caution to the wind and buy the sexy sports sedan that handles like a dream and gets good mileage, but doesn't have a spare tire, complains constantly about my lane changes and that I'm going to crash into the car in front of me, and has self driving features that turn themselves off when you need them the most. Oh, and sends me an email when it's low on gas. Basically the Giulia is more like a "girlfriend" than a "best friend", which is fine, but I've never had one of those relationships last longer than 2 years. Fingers crossed though.
What has surprised me? So many awesome little details that the 3 dealers I talked to didn't tell me about: The trunk carpeting is velcro loop material, so I can easily strap stuff to the walls. The lights that come on when turning, the grocery bag hook (50% of what I needed a new car for, right there), and the extra glove box. And again, it emails me about any complaint it has. Seriously, in addition to all of the questions I ask when buying a new car, I never thought, "Will it try to slide into my DMs?" would be something I'd have to ask, but I'm expecting it in a future OTA update.
