Louth Motors: When beauty and engineering merge you get a Tonale

The Tonale is Alfa Romeo’s offering in the compact SUV sector. It’s a premium product and sees itself competing against the likes of the Volvo XC40, Mercedes-Benz GLA, BMW X1 and Audi Q3.

That’s tough competition and it has its work cut out to win back customers that have gone awol in recent years.

Looks wise, from the front and rear, it shows its Alfa Romeo DNA with distinctive triple lights and that prized badge. The Italian flag colours are used to leave you in no doubt of its heritage.

From the side it CBA – could be anything - and I see signs of lots of other cars in this sector. There’s a formula and Alfa Romeo are following it as well, alas.

Being Alfa Romeo’s second SUV after the bigger Stelvio, it has a bit of a trick in that it now has a PHEV platform to sate the environmentally conscious buyer.

I’ll get the all-electric range out of the way now with Alfa Romeo claiming a range of 80 km in the city cycle and over 60 km in the combined cycle.

A full battery re-charge takes 2.5 hours when using the 7.4 kW fast charger, no fast DC charging is possible and in this ever-angrier world, PHEV’s using chargers are looked down on by all-electric drivers. Aren’t there so many social mistakes you can make these days?

The PHEV version has a premium price as well costing just over €58k. For that you get 275hp from a 1.3l MultiAir petrol engine and an electric motor powered from its 15.5kWh battery that drives the rear wheels, so it’s a 4WD.

That arrangement allows a 0-100 km/h time of 6.2 seconds. That’s fast and feels it and produces more head scratching in wondering how they get so much power from a seemingly small petrol engine and electric motor.

Out on the road I was pleased that Alfa Romeo sportiness is still delivered as they transition to becoming an all-electric brand by 2027 – and they haven’t even released an all-electric car yet.

That’s ambitious. That sportiness is best delivered in Dynamic mode which greatly improves the immediacy of power delivery.

In Normal mode I found the car choosing a higher-than-expected gear which made it feel like it was labouring whereas in Dynamic mode I felt the opposite with it holding on too long to a lower gear.

I felt it should change sooner and my passenger looked at me as if I was over-revving the car, which of course I wasn’t. Another engine observation was the sound.

It lacks a good old Alfa Romeo sound with the 1.3l multi-Air’s tone not very pleasing to the ear and in an Alfa Romeo I feel that is sacrilege. In Dynamic you get a much stiffer ride as expected but in Normal mode it was much more compliant and dare I say it my preferred suspension setup.

The good thing is you can soften the ride in Dynamic. Behind the steering wheel are the best paddle shifters around being big and solid metal. They simply must be used, and I did. Sometimes it just nice to do the work yourself.

Handling is as you’d expect in an Alfa Romeo with the steering being perfectly sharp. When a car’s front wheels feel like an extension of your arms you know you are driving a driver’s car.

The 19inch wheels on my model produced a little bit too much road noise for my liking though as I prefer quietness more and more.

The inside gets a premium feel as well with some hiccups. The seats in the Veloce trim version are covered in Alcantara and are incredibly supportive.

There’s no heads-up display which is very usual these days, but you do get excellent central and drivers displays with all the expected features.

Below the central screen is a welcome selection of buttons for frequently used driving functions that I fully endorse.

The must always be connected passengers are well served with lots o0066 USB’s and a handy 12V socket in the rear that is electrically operated.

Space in the back is quite good as well. I’d happily sit behind my seat setting with plenty of legroom. Even the middle passenger is better than averagely catered for. I would appreciate a bit more visibility and watch your head when getting in and out of the back space wise.

The materials are generally good, but the central storage area could have used better plastics as it feels a bit low-rent and hard and the storage compartment is too small and too far back.

Let’s face it Alfa Romeo’s are bought by people with a love of cars and a love of beauty.

The Tonale is possibly the best-looking SUV in its sector and is very SaUVe. You’ll stand out and attract the eyeballs if my time driving it is anything to go by.

But Irish buyers are still wary of parting with their cash for an Alfa Romeo.

That’s changing for two reasons. Alfa Romeo is now under the Stellantis behemoth worldwide but more importantly here under the Gowan group of brands.

Gowan are serious about growing the Alfa Romeo brand and from my experience they usually deliver.

The Tonale is a model that will help that goal and as a nailed-on Alfa Romeo fan I’d choose this SUV over all the others for the name and the difference.