When I first ventured into the office and complained that my weekend away was hampered by a “faulty ‘knob”, I will admit that it was one of those moments where you wished that life had a rewind button and you could revisit the situation with a mite more dignity and better phrasing.
But, no … I said it, and my pleas that the knob in question was in fact the Giulietta’s gearknob, were drowned out by derisive hoots of laughter from the CAR team – bless ‘em…
Double entendres dispensed with, what happened was that the Giuletta’s gearknob cover – a rather fetching metal-effect item – had developed some play over the last few weeks and eventually popped of when selecting reverse during a supply foray into Vredendal. Given that the car had only around 13 000 km on its clock and had not been treated to any ham-fisted driving, such a part failure was somewhat unexpected.
With the cover off, I noticed that it was held in place by three plastic teeth that clicked into holes in the gearknob – teeth that now sat in the holes bereft of the gearknob that they once held in place (see picture).
It’s an odd arrangement, especially when you consider the gearknob’s rounded shape and the torsional forces that would be applied to it during gearshifts. It was a point that I brought up with the service shop manager at Imperial Fiat-Alfa Romeo in Kuilsrivier, who, despite having not encountered such a part failure on a Giulietta before, agreed that a fixture utilising a more effective – if not as visually appealing – grub or Allen screw set-up would probably avoid such a problem. The service shop manager, who sourced the replacement item swiftly and was courteous and professional regarding its fitment, also reported the problem to Alfa Romeo South Africa. The replacement part cost R230 – quite a bit of money for an admittedly very nice piece of plastic – but was replaced under warranty on this occasion.
Other than the faulty ‘knob (again, clumsy), the Alfa continues to impress with its good looks and punchy performance. Hopefully this trim mishap will be the only black mark against the Giulietta’s name…
Mileage now: 13 678 km
Fuel consumption: 8,81 litres/100 km
We like: Still looks as eye-soothing as ever.
We don’t like: Just the one trim mishap and the associated embarrassment borne of clumsily explaining it to the team…
