People who worship Alfa Romeo (what other world would you use to describe this strange and sometimes obsessive love?) have always belonged to a special caste. They call themselves “romantic lunatics” or “strong-spirited but insane” and so on and so forth. They have club reunions, organise various driving trips and photo sessions, and even drive their cars worlds away to meet other people with the same obsession. They adore their Alfa Romeo cars even if they are almost 100 years old, don’t notice any drawbacks and are ready to praise their beauty each and every day. They visit only “their own” service stations, sell their cars only to similarly insane people and always greet each on the roads by a short honk or headlight flashing. Why do I know that? That’s because I’m one of them!
I have been the owner of Alfa Romeo Brera for 6 years already and this all led to the fact that I can’t come up with any replacement variants. It has graceful beauty and a face of a predator, low ride height and the aesthetics of “armoured haute couture car”, all-wheel drive, manual transmission, and 3.2-litre engine producing 260 hp — all these features set it beyond competition even in Moscow. But why am I saying all that? I just don’t want you to put faith in everything I’m going to tell you as my story will be dedicated to Alfa Romeo.
A phone call with an offer took me by surprise: next morning I needed to pack my bags, including the one for the camera, and set off for a test drive. That call had two magic details: destination — Italy, test object — Alfa Romeo.
The fairy Italian gold autumn with its 19°C was drastically different from the foggy weather left in Moscow. Local palazzos were taking my breath away by their décor and bright colours, and the new Alfa Romeo cars set out for your choice were pleasing the eye, regardless of the fact that I have always been a bit sceptical about both of the test objects — MiTo and Giulietta — and mostly about their appearance.
Brera and Alfa Romeo 159 set the standard of “Alvish” beauty for me. Though their six-lens headlights require hell of washer fluid but they give an astonishing impression, especially due to the fact that there is no external glass covering them. But here two cute cars were looking at me with their eyes popped out showing no character. How can you take seriously a car like that? How do you talk to it? Should it be addressed as “Ciao, silly!”?
However, a lot of clichés were reconsidered during the test drives, though the “eye” issue remained and some “childishness” of Giulietta’s front part might become the reason I would never purchase it.
Giulietta
The interior of these cars is stylish and beautiful. Giulietta’s two-coloured saloon is so refined that even the most luxurious premium cars could envy it. It has high-quality leather, neat feng shui stitches, bright colour scheme which is not eye-tiring. All in all, the red and black interior is the pitch of perfection. The Italians do have an eye for beauty. Instrument clusters look nifty and traditionally “Alvish” with distinct arrows; laconic, easily comprehensible and classy central console and dashboard. Nice Bose music system, high-quality touch screen with navigation, multimedia and other facilities.
I was ready to continue trilling if I were comfortable. But alas! Seat adjustment turned out to be rather poor and I could not find the right position to feel “in my proper place”. Instead of up and down height adjustment the seat moves somehow diagonally and in its lower position (and I like sitting low) the knees get too high. And this issue cannot be rectified. Basta! The platform for the left foot is also too narrow and has an inconvenient location.
Not a big deal, we’ll somehow manage it.
2-litre diesel engine producing 150 hp was tested first. And again I was puzzled. What had happened to the spirit and joy of an Alfa? It feels like I’m driving a German tractor — Audi A3 or Volkswagen Golf! Neither manual transmission, nor the possibility to switch the “brain box” into sport mode could solve that problem. It was more or less alright on a motorway but the mountain parts of the route made you play a gear guessing game: the second gear was too much and the third one was not enough. But maybe I’m being too picky; I’m not a big fan of diesel engines.
But the petrol turbocharged 1.4-litre engine producing 170 hp put my colleague and me on the mettle: it was fun driving it both on the motorway and on mountain serpentine roads. It turned out to be very cute and utterly responsive, almost foreseeing all our wishes and accelerating really fast.
Giulietta has quite a diverse engine range. They have a wide selection both in diesel and petrol motors. Moreover, a bi-fuel (LPG/petrol) 1.4-litre engine producing 120 hp is presented in the European market.
Diesel engines have the following alternatives: 1.6 JTDM 105 hp; 2.0 JTDM 170 hp; and the new 2014 2.0-litre engine producing 150 hp.
There are even more petrol variants: 1.4-litre 105 hp; 1.4-litre 120 hp, 1.75-litre 235 hp; and 1.4-litre 170 hp.
It would have been very interesting to test the one with 235 hp, but too bad that it is front drive only.
And I tell you, that really was a pleasure! If choosing between two models, my favour definitely went to the one I hadn’t even been looking at before. Harmony reigns here.
Unfortunately, we had a chance to drive one version of MiTo only — it had a diesel engine, the same type we had already tested with Giulietta the day before. But here it was sufficient enough and the behaviour of the small car was much better. It was active, nimble and fairly energetic both on the motorway and in the mountains. We had tested it in three dynamic driving modes (Sport, Eco and All-weather) and of course I gave my preference to the sport version. But one should also note that this engine pulls the car fairly decently in two other modes as well. I did not get to test the newest 0.9-litre TwinAir engine producing 70 hp and that was really a pity. But on the other hand, maybe it was for the better. I would have definitely given it bad evaluation really marring my impression of the small car.
All in all, despite my scolding, a pleasant journey was guaranteed and materialized. It’s a real pleasure that the brand returns to Russia after a few-years break, which certainly adds nice strokes to the positive image we had after the test drive. Starting from the next year both of these models will be sold in the Russian market. Each of them has a great number of trim levels, additional packages and other joys.
But! Nobody was able to tell me what exactly they were going to bring to our country. And there is no information regarding the prices either. We’ll put it in standby mode.
Another positive aspect lies in the fact that the company is coming back to life little by little. Three more models are getting ready and one of them is a crossover. And they also promise to bring their new small race supercar 4C to Russia.
So the new era starts for the Alfa Romeo fans. And it’s good. As the number of “strong-spirited but insane” people was getting smaller and smaller…
