[danielous]

Hello everyone! I will be picking up my white QV with white and green stitchings tomorrow. I opted for the carbon ceramic brakes, sparco seats, and HK audio upgrades. The QV will be my first alfa romeo car and I am very excited to join the family. I have some questions regarding the maintenance of the vehicle:

Should I wrap/coat the car? - I will be driving in upstate NY on country roads. I've heard of Xpel films and Quartz coatings and can they protect my car from the winter weather conditions?

When should I have the oil change? - I've heard different answers from 1000 miles, 1000km to nothing at all

Should I have a spare set of tires? - I read somewhere that the stock performance tires are easily worn out

Do I have to run the car in natural? - A friend of mine told me it's best to keep new engine revs under 4000 for the first ~1000 miles

Thanks everyone and I would appreciate any advice

 

[Cassino]

Hello everyone! I will be picking up my white QV with white and green stitchings tomorrow. I opted for the carbon ceramic brakes, sparco seats, and HK audio upgrades. The QV will be my first alfa romeo car and I am very excited to join the family. I have some questions regarding the maintenance of the vehicle:

Should I wrap/coat the car? - I will be driving in upstate NY on country roads. I've heard of Xpel films and Quartz coatings and can they protect my car from the winter weather conditions?

When should I have the oil change? - I've heard different answers from 1000 miles, 1000km to nothing at all

Should I have a spare set of tires? - I read somewhere that the stock performance tires are easily worn out

Do I have to run the car in natural? - A friend of mine told me it's best to keep new engine revs under 4000 for the first ~1000 miles

Thanks everyone and I would appreciate any advice

Having done 4000 miles in my car, the part that gets the most gravel rash is the lower part behind the rear wheel. I would consider protecting that area more than the front. Also consider leather protectant on the seat bolsters.

Oil, official Alfa line is not until service. Anything other than official is preference or special use case.

Tyres, they wear extremely well for a performance tyre, I'm predicting at least 8-10,000 driving normally. You might want a spare set for winter use or track days, but I wouldn't bother for basic road use.

Run-in, official Alfa line is the car does not need a run-in period. My process: avoid lugging the engine, keep varying revs, use the full rev range and all gears, avoid sitting at a constant speed/gear on the highway. If I load/boost the engine, ensure a cool-down period of light load afterwards. I ran my car in Dynamic mode (to disable cylinder deactivation), Start-Stop off, manual gear selection. Other people have different processes and opinions, just do what you think is right for you.

 

[Cassino]

Oh, and congratulations, you are going to have so much fun!!

 

[MDriver]

one more thing

what ^^^^^said is about right....not much direction from Alfa themselves....just common sense with FI cars...
most important however is that you take pictures IMMEDIATELY!....I have not heard of that color/spec combo....sounds great!

 

[inikkor]

Does the car come with plastic panel wrappers? If so you should ask to leave them in place and more importantly not to wash now wax it. This should be your first task after taking delivery. Hopefully the weather will be on you side. Also ask them not to do any drilling to install the plates. There are alternative approaches that don't require damaging the panels.

Good luck!

 

[Vailoce]

Congrats, sounds like an awesome build!
It would be a good idea to consider getting some "steelies" (inexpensive, plain black rims) with winter tires mounted for your winter driving up there. Much better grip on cold/icey/snow covered roads AND, depending on what your hiway dept puts on the icey roads, you won't ruin those gorgeous factory rims.
But if you are going to do it, try to do it soon when you may luck out and get the setup on spring clearance price.

And like MDriver said: PHOTOS!! - I doubt such an amazing beast truely exists....

 

[MDriver]

Does the car come with plastic panel wrappers? If so you should ask to leave them in place and more importantly not to wash now wax it. This should be your first task after taking delivery. Hopefully the weather will be on you side. Also ask them not to do any drilling to install the plates. There are alternative approaches that don't require damaging the panels.

Good luck!

they actually (Quads) come wrapped in almost a blanket/tarp. it is white in color, which has a felt like substance on the inside of the cover. they are secured under the fenders/wheel wells/front/rear bumpers with a tab like end that folds up and under the car....
they were off loading 4 Quads when I was in for service last week....the prep guy was bitching that he did not like these types of covers as they can sometimes damage the paint if you are not super careful in their removal...

 

[BostonDMD]

the prep guy was bitching that he did not like these types of covers as they can sometimes damage the paint if you are not super careful in their removal...

:surprise::surprise: Veramente?

OP, CONGRATS!......and pics please!

 

[inikkor]

Congrats, sounds like an awesome build!
It would be a good idea to consider getting some "steelies" (inexpensive, plain black rims) with winter tires mounted for your winter driving up there. Much better grip on cold/icey/snow covered roads AND, depending on what your hiway dept puts on the icey roads, you won't ruin those gorgeous factory rims.
But if you are going to do it, try to do it soon when you may luck out and get the setup on spring clearance price.

And like MDriver said: PHOTOS!! - I doubt such an amazing beast truely exists....

Good luck finding steelies that will clear the calipers.

 

[Chipshot]

Hello everyone! I will be picking up my white QV with white and green stitchings tomorrow. I opted for the carbon ceramic brakes, sparco seats, and HK audio upgrades. The QV will be my first alfa romeo car and I am very excited to join the family. I have some questions regarding the maintenance of the vehicle:

Should I wrap/coat the car? - I will be driving in upstate NY on country roads. I've heard of Xpel films and Quartz coatings and can they protect my car from the winter weather conditions?

Congratulations. Sounds like an awesome car. "Upstate NY" covers a lot of ground. Conditions and road treatments vary widely. If possible, I'd limit my QV driving to the nicer winter days (dry roads with a blanket of snow to the left and right can be a very nice experience) and have something else for those days where maximum traction, clearance, and having fewer worries pay dividends.

 

[John_K_348]

Defintely wrap the front bumper and hood at least a third to headlight level. Wrap the fender if you can and mirrors. Also do small sections on the fender well behind the wheels. Maybe side skits as well.

Get a cheap set of alloys for winter. I recommend Kosei or Enkei and winter tires for all four corners. Pirelli Sotto Zeros kick butt. Not sure if Alfa Base Sports will fit but they are heavy and simple enough to make a good winter wheel.

 

[inikkor]

searching for winter tires...

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[Vailoce]

"Good luck finding steelies that will clear the calipers."

-Good point. Looking at the 5-hole rims, it appeared that the rim barely clears the calipers, but didn't go to any great design effort to do so. But the Tecnico rims DO have a more concave look to the spokes. All of the steelies I have purchased in the past were for relatively "vanilla" cars: Mazdas, Acuras, Hondas.

 

[danielous]

Thanks for the advice guys, I've been driving around in the alfa and it's absolutely incredible. So much fun. I've already gotten nearly 600 miles on it in just two days.

 

[MarksGiuliaQV]

I'm also on the lookout for winter tires/wheels. There are none available on Tirerack right now, but I would imagine closer to Fall there will be at least a couple of options.

 

[Chipshot]

I'm also on the lookout for winter tires/wheels. There are none available on Tirerack right now, but I would imagine closer to Fall there will be at least a couple of options.

They suggested checking again in August. I'd rather have a set of inexpensive alloys than steelies. I was lucky to get some for my SVT Contour way back when and am hoping lightning strikes again.

 

[MarksGiuliaQV]

They suggested checking again in August. I'd rather have a set of inexpensive alloys than steelies. I was lucky to get some for my SVT Contour way back when and am hoping lightning strikes again.

Yeah, I figured so. Highly doubtful there will be steelies for this type of car; definitely alloys of some kind. Inexpensive? Errr.....most likely not.

I half thought about getting all seasons, but really want dedicated winters. I know some of the test QVs in Detroit had winters on them; Pirelli Sottozero I believe.

 

[Chipshot]

Yeah, I figured so. Highly doubtful there will be steelies for this type of car; definitely alloys of some kind. Inexpensive? Errr.....most likely not.

I half thought about getting all seasons, but really want dedicated winters. I know some of the test QVs in Detroit had winters on them; Pirelli Sottozero I believe.

All season = no season, IMO.
You're probably right about the QV. I think there will be more choices for base and Ti (unless pattern and/or offset are unusual). I wouldn't mind going -1.
I wonder how those test QVs did with Michigan's notorious potholes. Expensive wheels to replace, and wheel insurance usually has an annual limit.

 

[Sivocci_Guilia]

uh...dude...pics?

 

[kanundrum]

make sure to double check the headlight washer cover is attached correctly. Several folks including me and @MDriver has had theirs come off lol.