Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio review

Prices start from £78,315. In fairness to Alfa Romeo, that's good value next to an M3's starting price of over £85,000, and a C63’s starting price of £97.5k. The BMW will offer stronger residuals, but it's also less scarce.

On lease, you’re looking at around £750 a month, on a four-year agreement and 6,000-mile yearly limit with an £18k down payment. 

Is anything amiss from the standard kit list?

Not really, but if you do miss it it's probably not available here, whereas a Mercedes-AMG would give you far more opportunities to have seconds and thirds at the options buffet table.

Still there are few options: top of the list is the paintwork, with the standard colour Alfa red. Metallic blue and grey are an extra £200, and ‘Etna’ (seemingly bright red) and green are an extra £2.5k.

‘Lightweight’ alloy wheels cost £750, red brake calipers £450, carbon ceramic brakes £6k, the louder Akrapovic exhaust £3.5k. Brake calipers aside, we probably wouldn't bother with any of that.

It’s a similar story inside, with everything from the 8.8in touchscreen, 14-speaker Harman Kardon sound system, and wireless charger standard. There are optional carbon sports seats, but at £3.25k, again probably not worth it.

Should I buy one?

We ran one – an early one mind – as a long-term test car and things went wrong. Yes, it broke down. It required recovery. It flashed up more error codes than Windows Vista. Alfa insists later cars have the gremlins expunged. So the bigger question is, are you brave enough to spend £78,315 finding out?

If so, absolutely – if nothing goes wrong, you absolutely won’t regret it. And for extra added peace of mind, warranty is three years, with extensions optional, and you can add service packs to keep on top of any mechanical gremlins.