Alfa Romeo’s Giulia has proven a capable, beautiful, and frustratingly mercurial car. And, as evidenced by today’s 2.0 it’s also now quite affordable. Let’s see if it’s cheap enough to overlook its temperament.

A small flaw can oftentimes ruin an in all other ways appealing endeavor. It might be a curly hair discovered on your plate half-way through an otherwise delicious meal, or finding out that your engaging blind date is really just there to sell Amway.

In the case of yesterday’s , the small flaw was actually kind of a big one—its $13,750 price. That seemed to spoil what was, on paper at least, a pretty compelling package. Nope, not even its being a V8 and rocking a stick could overcome that major malady and it fell in a substantial 89 percent Crack Pipe loss.

Hey, when I say dominatrix, what image first pops to mind? It’s a women in thigh-high stilettos, carrying a cat-o-nine-tails and maintaining a seriously angry attitude, amiright? Well, how about if we change that mental image from Betty the Bruiser to that of this . What do you say?

It makes total sense since bothDominatrix and the Alfa are of Latin origin, both are intended to be sexy as hell, and they each have a reputation for causing pleasure and pain in equal amounts. The biggest difference however, is that you won’t be ashamed of bringing the Alfa home to meet mom and dad. Unless that is, they’re Lancia people.

The Giulia represents Alfa’s first really serious attempt at re-entry into the U.S. market. It, along with the Stelvio crossover and 4C Spider sports car represent the Italian marque’s current lineup. The Giulia itself is fully representative of Alfa’s sporting heritage, and with enough cash on hand can be had with an amazingly balanced AWD chassis and Ferrari-derived 505 horsepower V6 in Quadrifoglio form.

This one is not one of those, but it does have a 280 horse turbocharged 2-litre four behind its iconic grille. That’s supported by a standard ZF 8-speed automatic, and that sends the ponies to the back end only. This combo is competitive with, but does not exceed the capabilities of its direct competitors from Audi and BMW.

The car is just two model years old and at 6,355 miles it’s done far less than average distance even for that. The color combination of Alfa White over a black and red interior may not be as audacious as you might desire, but the Giulia’s elegant design looks pretty good no matter what color it wears. The 18-inch dark turbine wheels seem unmarred and after just 6K of use the tires should hold plenty of tread.

In fact, with that low of mileage, everything on the car should look good, and from the photos it does. The interior has held up without issue and there’s no apparent damage outside to give pause. The title is said to be clear and the car comes fairly well loaded with power windows, keyless entry, folding mirrors, and a full-width moonroof up top.

If you were to option a Giulia out on Alfa’s site right now, you’d find a similarly spec’d edition would come in at around $39,400 plus tics and tax. I think we can all agree, that’s a lot of Lira. At $22,950, this Giulia comes in at a little more than half that, and it probably still has some warranty left too.

That’s a good thing since one of the major issues with Alfa Romeo’s products is their reliability. The Giulia has only been on the market for a couple of years and it already has a rep for finicky electrics and recalcitrant subsystems.

That’s obviously suppressing demand and hence driving down market values. It’s also what lets those hearty souls who can overlook the Alfa’s foibles the chance to buy one like this on the cheap. The question is, for $22,950, should they?

What do you think, is this entry-level Alfa cheap enough to enter into a relationship with? Or, is this Giulia still too half baked to pay that much bread?

You decide!

Dearborn, MI , or go if the ad disappears.

H/T to Doug Nale for the hookup!

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