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Alfa Romeo's fast sports saloon receives minor updates but stays one of the most engaging and entertaining cars in the class

There was a time when you would have expected an Alfa Romeo to have an idiosyncratic driving position, partly due to the swap to right-hand drive and partly due to Alfa not thinking hard enough about such things.

No such dramas today. The Giulia’s seating position is straight and can be near or far and low or high. It has a perfectly sited steering wheel of brilliant size and girth, and which extends further than that of any rival. It’s even pretty round, by the standards of the class.

I’m happy enough to see carbonfibre trim inside a car like this, but better still is the fact that you can see the bonnet is made of it from inside the cabin

If you’re looking for the last word in infotainment and connectivity, you’ll not find it here, but as time goes on that bothers us less. There’s a modest-sized touchscreen with an additional tunnel-mounted rotary controller, which talks to smartphones, has navigation and messaging and handsfree calling and, honestly, what more do you need? The heating and ventilation dials are straightforward too.

There are fewer features and lower-quality graphics than in the latest (particularly German) opposition. Somehow, though, not too much of that matters.

Materials are fine. There’s carbonfibre in here that looks and feels like the real deal, with quality leather and stitching, but there are some retrograde plastics masquerading as metals, too, which gives the air of an interior from half a decade ago if you’re comparing it to the latest German solidity. A clichéd finding, perhaps, but still true.

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Rear accommodation is acceptable, and this is a Giulia Quadrifoglio, so you can live with the fact it’s not better.