2017 Alfa Romeo Stelvio Hits All the Right Marks, but…
New SUV is Italian nameplate’s hottest package yet…but it leaves you yearning for 2018.
It’s clear that Alfa Romeo is pulling out all the stops to increase its fan base with American consumers. The carmaker understands that, even though Alfa Romeo has some nostalgic appeal here in the United States, it’s going to take more than a sedan like the Giulia and a buzzworthy TV spot (as hot as they are) to be truly competitive in the luxury sport segment in the U.S.
Why? Because these days practically rules regardless of how many of us see ourselves living out the rest of our days whipping some high-revving sedan or coupe around town.
Enter, the Alfa Romeo Stelvio, the first-ever SUV to be sold bearing the iconic Italian nameplate.
Love at First Sight
First, full disclosure: Ever since first seeing the Stelvio in person last year at the Los Angeles Auto Show, it’s been one of my most anticipated test drives for 2017. The SUV’s look alone conjures up visions of whipping it through the breathtaking twisty turns of Italy’s Stelvio Pass, the famous road in the Northern Alps from which the new Alfa Romeo draws its name.
Though, that kind of allure coupled with all the thrills that came with test driving the 505-horsepower Giulia Quadrifoglio last year does set some pretty high expectations for the Stelvio.
The Stelvio is aimed directly at those who put driving as a number one priority when choosing an SUV. It’s a theme carried out in every facet of the vehicle’s design.
That said, the essential question becomes: Does the new Alfa Romeo SUV live up to all the hype? The short answer is, “yes” — with one reservation that I’ll get to later. The thing to know upfront is that the Stelvio pretty much delivers on everything Alfa Romeo said it would. And despite the fact that my time behind the wheel of a Stelvio on a rainy, gloomy Nashville day proved to be quite the opposite of how I envisioned my first drive, it still gave me a good sense of why Alfa Romeo is so high on the vehicle.
Driver First
The Stelvio, which carries a base sticker price of $41,995, is essentially a Giulia recrafted as a race-inspired SUV that sits about eight to nine inches taller than the sports sedan and two inches longer than its Alfa Romeo stablemate.
In fact, the two vehicles share the same basic bone structure (most notably the Giorgio rear-wheel drive architecture), which you really get a sense of when cornering the Stelvio through some of the more twisty rural backroads in Tennessee. It’s in more spirited driving situations like these — when the Stelvio is really pressed to perform — that you get a true sense of the kind of work that’s gone into crafting the SUV to ensure that it lives up the Alfa Romeo namesake.
Then again, we are talking about a vehicle birthed out of the same engineering ideas that drive Ferrari, a nameplate that has come to represent the epitome of automobile performance.
Helping to enhance the Stelvio’s performance capabilities
is its 50/50 weight distribution.
Inside, the Stelvio is pretty much what we’ve come to expect from Alfa Romeo, more race-inspired than luxury, unless you opt for the walnut wood accents that add a nice contrast to some of the sportier design cues that make up the cockpit.
Yep, be clear, the Stelvio is aimed directly at those who put driving as a number one priority when choosing an SUV. It’s a theme carried out in every facet of the vehicle’s design. Take for example, the Alfa Romeo SUV’s Active Transfer Case (also featured in the Giulia) that features an AWD system that enables the Alfa Romeo SUV’s Active Transfer Case (also featured in the Giulia) to transfer 60 percent of the power to the front axle when needed (for wet road conditions like I had during my test drive) and run on 100 percent RWD mode for a more spirited driving experience.
Helping to enhance the Stelvio’s performance capabilities is its 50/50 weight distribution. The SUV also features three selectable drive modes: Advanced Efficiency, Natural, and Dynamic, which ups the ante on key performance attributes of the SUV, like throttle response.
Can’t Wait to Drive the Quadrifoglio
Powertrain-wise, our test model featured Alfa’s 2.0-liter turbocharged engine that puts out 280-horspeower and 306-lb.-ft. of torque, currently offered in one of two models in the U.S.: Stelvio and Stelvio Ti with the option of a Sport Package, and Lusso on the Ti variant. The engine equipped in the models is punchy enough to satisfy the average buyer but will likely leave diehard performance enthusiasts wanting a little bit more out of a vehicle badged as an Alfa Romeo.
The more 505-horsepower Stelvio Quadrifoglio variant (which I was hoping would be available for my test drive) won’t be sold in the U.S. until 2018. Testing that model will provide a truer measure of the full breath of the SUV’s appeal. Hence, my earlier statement about that “one reservation” as to how well the new Alfa Romeo lives up to my expectations.
The engine is punchy enough to satisfy the average buyer but will leave performance enthusiasts wanting a little bit more out of a vehicle badged as an Alfa Romeo.
Of course, the higher performance variant has already proven its worth with a 0-60 mph time of 3.9 seconds, making it the fastest SUV in the world. So, I guess you could argue that the Stelvio Quadrifoglio doesn’t really need the approval of some overzealous auto critic like myself.
Still, you can’t blame a guy for trying to counter that argument (as silly as it might make me seem) just to push Alfa Romeo for some wheel time in the 505-horsepower Stelvio when it finally makes its way stateside.
You’ll get no apologies from me for that one.
