Some people buy a new car, some buy a used car. Nicholas Gallman buys an interim car. That’s what Gallman called the Audi S4 he picked up two years ago. It was just a $50,000 placeholder until he could get his hands on the Alfa Romeo Giulia that hit U.S. dealers a few months ago. “From the first time I saw the concept, I just fell in love with it,” he explained. “It didn’t matter what the state of the final car ended up being—I was going to buy one anyway just because of how it looked.”

Gallman, an IT specialist in Columbia, S.C., finally found his Giulia—a souped up Quadrifoglio version—at a dealership in Georgia on a summer Friday last month. On Monday, he showed up with an $81,000 check. “I said ‘Give me the keys, my test drive will be the 235 miles home,’” he explained.