Alfas Win Awards in Italy and Germany

The Giulietta was awarded two prizes; in Italy, it received the “Newcomer of the year 2011” awarded by “Quattroruote” heading the list of the ten most interesting cars launched in 2010, selected by the monthly Italian magazine and evaluated by the readership. The new Giulietta obtained almost 44% out of the over 103,000 votes expressed through postcards, SMS messages and on the Internet. This is a remarkable result when considering the gap between the Giulietta and the second and third prize winners: Audi A1 and Citroën DS3, which received respectively 12.46% and 8.9% of the vote. The prize was collected by Harald J. Wester, CEO of Alfa Romeo Automobiles on January 27th during the award ceremony that took place at Palazzo Mezzanotte, the headquarters of the Milan Stock Exchange.

In Germany, the Giulietta – as first-time nominee to the prestigious “Die Besten Autos” prize awarded by the specialist magazine “Auto Motor und Sport” – immediately won in the “compact” category. As in the previous case, the award was assigned by the magazine’s readers. “Auto Motor und Sport” readership also awarded the MiTo, in the “mini” category, for the third consecutive year. Both cars also dominated the import cars ranking, thus adding new acknowledgments to the history of successes in the “Die Besten Autos” award: since 1976 (the first year the prize was awarded), Alfa Romeo cars have been declared the best performers in their respective categories no less than 29 times. The prize was collected by Manfred Kantner, CEO of Fiat Group Automobiles Germany AG.

These prizes are additions to the already long list of recognitions that the Giulietta and the MiTo have received in recent months. Awarded the title of “Auto Europa 2011” by UIGA (the Italian Automotive Specialized Press Association) and the second prize in “Car of the Year 2011”, but the first prize in the conventional engine category (to name only the most significant examples), the Alfa Romeo Giulietta is a powerful blend of performance, comfort and safety. The Giulietta offers top passenger room and comfort with its 5 comfortable seats and is the safest ever hatchback saloon according to Euro NCAP. All this becomes even more interesting when you consider the excellence of Alfa Romeo Giulietta engines as shown by the newest enhancements: the new 140 HP 2.0 JTDM power unit and “Alfa TCT”, the next-generation twin dry clutch transmission by Alfa, in addition to the 1.4 MultiAir Turbo petrol.

The Alfa Romeo MiTo has received a considerable amount of awards as well. After being awarded the title of “Auto Europa 2009” in 2008, it received more than 20 international acknowledgments, spanning from Italy to Germany, from Poland to France and even Uruguay. This shows that the car appeals to and is appreciated by the specialized press and by the public alike.