► It’s an Alfa Romeo but also a crossover
► Read month 2 here
► Can the Tonale *really* be both? Digital editor Curtis Moldrich finds out
The Alfa Romeo badge conjures up the most romantic notions of car ownership, and for good reason; regardless of decade, Turin has been responsible for some iconic, beautiful designs such as the Giulia GTA, 164 and SZ – and that’s no different now. Right now, the Alfa Romeo line-up consists of three cars: the surprisingly agile Stelvio, the low-slung Giulia and this, the striking-looking Tonale crossover.
The Stelvio is one of the most engaging SUVs on sale, and somehow combines all the space of a normal SUV with the fleetness of foot of something more hatchback-sized. Then there’s the Giulia saloon, which fuses class-leading looks with performance that should worry the engineers at Munich.
The Tonale finds itself in a family of over-achievers and it has the hardest task, too.
Squarely aimed at the increasingly popular crossover market, the Tonale must capture the essence of Alfa and bottle it into a practical hybrid. Alfas have always been cars you buy with your heart but this one – more than any other – must appeal to your head.
First impressions are good, because Alfa’s designers have conjured up one of the very best-looking cars on the road – crossover or otherwise. The Alfa Scudetto shield is striking without being obnoxious (are you listening, Munich?), the headlights stacked either side intricate without being fussy.
The result is a car that seems to lean forward just enough – but isn’t embarrassingly aggressive. ‘It’s a car that you will discover little by little. When you see the hood, it looks very simple,’ Alfa’s design director Alejandro Mesonero-Romanos told CAR back in 2022. ‘But at the same time, when you start looking at the lines, the surfaces, it has a certain level of complexity, which makes it really nice.’
And those details look even better in the Montreal Green I opted for. In fact, it’s already garnered more attention than any other long-term test car I’ve run – and that includes the mecha-esque stylings of the Honda Civic Type R. Some comes from onlookers interested in the colour, some from those unsure about what it is – and the rest from diehard Alfa fans keen to know about the new addition to the family.
My impressions of the Tonale change once on board, though not necessarily in a good way. Time with the Stelvio and Giulia has spoilt me; the steering wheel is identical to the smaller and larger cars, but everything else in the Tonale feels cheaper and clunkier. The gearshifter doesn’t feel as precise as on the other Alfas, the switchgear round the infotainment is no more than adequate, and the touchpoints feel a class lower.
You need to consider the pricing: the Tonale starts at £38,620 in the UK, compared to the Giulia at £43,259 and the Stelvio at £47,355. It’d be nice if you didn’t feel like you were saving money, though. And in fact our Tonale weighs in at £51,595.
The additional cost comes from the fact it’s the faster Q4 hybrid and the Veloce spec, which gets it up to £48,495, and then on top of that we have three options. The Montreal Green metallic paint is £1500. The charging cable is £350. And there’s a bunch of driver assistance electronics adding a further £1250.
The Q4 designation means it’s a plug-in with 276bhp and 374lb ft of torque. Veloce spec brings trinkets such as privacy glass and red-painted calipers. Real-world benefits include shift paddles and a dual-stage valve suspension.
Thoughts of cost-cutting are quickly banished once you chuck it into a corner: the Tonale slots directly between the Stelvio and the Giulia when it comes to agility. Easy to place and swift to obey, the quick rack on the Tonale makes it darty and rewarding regardless of speed or driving mode. It may be based on a heavily modified version of the Jeep Compass chassis, but it appears to be pure Alfa on the road.
And the powertrain? Right now, it feels like the weakest point in the car. The six-speed ’box takes a while to decide what to do with your throttle inputs, and its dithering can eat into your enjoyment of the chassis. It sounds bad too; sometimes like you’re in the wrong gear, other times like a kettle boiling without water.
It’s frustrating, because now and again it feels every bit as brisk as its published 0-62mph time of 6.2 seconds. Over the coming months, I plan to tinker with the various DNA modes and the paddles to see if I can get more out of the car.
So I’m officially a member of the Alfa Romeo club, but I’ll do my best not to be bewitched by the badge or its Italian charm. Instead, over the next few months I’ll dig into the Tonale experience and assess it in the cold light of day – from economy all the way to reliability.
Alla prossima!
Logbook: Alfa Romeo Tonale 1.3 PHEV Veloce (Month 1)
Price £48,495 (£51,595 as tested)
Performance 15.5kWh battery plus 1332cc four-cylinder, PHEV, 276bhp, 199lb ft, 6.2sec 0-62mph, 128mph
Efficiency 217mpg (official), 41.1mpg (tested) 29g/km CO2
Energy cost 23.0p per mile
Miles this month 296
Total miles 3189