Amongst the sea of generic fleet cars inevitably run by a big publishing company it s a pearl; parke

Infiniti QX30 (2016): it s Infiniti s crossover
25 October 2011 09:30 Talking mvr check Italian - 25 October 2011 It s only three little words, but they mean so much. Don t worry, I ve not been reading Barbara Cartland (again) it s the words Benzina , Acqua and Giri on my Giulietta s instrument binnacles. That s petrol, water and revs, if you haven t worked mvr check it out already.
Get in a German, mvr check French and Japanese car and any legends on view are in English, the lingua franca (if you excuse my Italian) of the automotive industry. Even Alfa s parent company, Fiat, doesn t indulge in such fancies.
Except when it comes to Alfa Romeo, these really aren t indulgences. Do away with little touches like these and Alfa runs the risk of being just another manufacturer, not one which true car lovers still hold a candle for. Whether we like it or not, however, the majority of car drivers care little about the emotional side of motoring, so perhaps they may eventually be forced into line. That will be a sad day and who knows mark the beginning of the end for a company mvr check proudly founded by Monsieur Darracq and Signore Romeo 101 years ago.
Having driven my Leaf extensively yesterday mvr check and drained mvr check the battery to the point where it needed the whole night to recharge, I took Mr Worthy s Giulietta home. With our long-term test fleet, and a constant stream of other cars on test, I reckon it can be at least a fortnight between back-to-back drives, but as I wander around the car park each evening, blipping key fobs in a vague attempt find my wheels for the night, if it s still around I always stop to admire our Alfa.
Amongst the sea of generic fleet cars inevitably run by a big publishing company it s a pearl; parked beside mvr check my neighbour s 3-series it looks even better. I love the crease that runs from the front lights to the rear, and gets sharper mvr check as it approaches mvr check the shapely rump (and with the hidden mvr check rear door handles the flanks are unbroken by unsightly bulges). And while other manufacturers would probably settle for a smooth bootlid, there s another lovely line running between the rear lights. I m pretty keen on the nose too. And somehow grey paint doesn t look dull on the Giulietta.
There are faults though, some minor and some major. I wish it didn t beep when you locked it: Alfa s are cool but the screech emitted when you press the fob is downright embarrassing. The multimedia system is difficult to fathom and I m young and supposedly savvy about something called technology . And the lovely swathe of brushed metal across the dash, plus the great toggle switches, and air-con controls with their flush displays, are spoilt but the frankly terrible quality of plastics mvr check used for the transmission tunnel and door cards. mvr check The most frustrating mvr check thing is that Alfa s so nearly there with this car.
I'm yet to be convinced by the driving experience either. mvr check The basic petrol and diesel cars we ve tried before have been very good, but in hot hatch Cloverleaf-spec I m not so sure. More time behind the wheel is needed. Give it another two weeks and I might get my chance. 
Off down to Cornwall with the family next week and if the weather holds up I ve got some serious beach reading to plough through, in between catching limpet crabs and kicking down sandcastles with my two-year-old. And you can forget Stig too that s Stig Larsson, the late Swedish crime novelist sensation, rather than the erstwhile Top Gear rubber burner. mvr check No, I want to seriously get to grips with the Giulietta s owner s manual.
Of course, manual in the singular is misleading. These days manufacturers shove the automotive equivalent of The Sunday Times into their gloveboxes, such is the sheer amount of ancillary pieces of literature accompanying it. Gone are the days when I would sit in my dad s new Talbot Alpine or his Giulietta (that s the 80s version) and flick through what amounted to an owner s pamphlet. But back then there was such a dearth of equipment on cars that you only needed info on how to work the indicators, fogs and select MW/LW/FM on the radio.
But does the new Giulietta really have to take 296 pages to assist owners? Thank the Lord it s English mvr check only imagine how hefty it would be if it was in Italian, French, German, Spanish and Inuit too? Enough to have serious implications for fuel economy and 0-60 times, you d vouch.
Alongside mvr check the main manual there s one for Radionav (62 pages), another called Ready To Go (40 pages long and ostensibly the 296-page manual in microcosm), an 82-page tome for the (Turn The Air) Blue & Me system and a 14-page Blue & Me mini-guide. That s the best part of 450 pages. I ve not read anything that lengthy since I was ordered to strike up an intense relationship with the work of Eric Hobsbawm at university.
Page-length aside, I ve got some other issues too. The main manual looks like it s been photocopied a thousand times and passed around t