Alfa Romeo Tonale is charming and compact, however does it do justice to the badge?

We’re on the stage within the historical past of the auto the place it’s solely doable to coast on a picture that was created many many years earlier than. With so many manufacturers and nameplates artfully resurrected with little greater than a badge and an ethos, what hope is there for long-established manufacturers which have been in for the long term?

Alfa Romeo is one such model. Based in Milan in 1910, for many years it represented the quintessential Italian car firm, creating automobiles that had been as lovely as they had been highly effective and arguably laid the foundations of the nation’s enduring picture because the progenitor of the sports activities automotive.

Regardless of creating a few of the most lovely manufacturing automobiles of the Nineteen Fifties, Sixties and Seventies, Alfa discovered itself punted between cash-strapped house owners, along with a mutinous workforce and infamous quality-control points. There was a considerable revival within the Nineteen Nineties, when the celebrities aligned as soon as extra and Fiat possession oversaw a rediscovery of the unique Alfa mojo. Little automobiles just like the Giulietta (together with the continuation of the Cloverleaf efficiency badge) and the riotous Alfa Romeo 4C Spider blended attractiveness and dynamics with simply the correct amount of idiosyncrasy.

Minimize to 2021 and the creation of Stellantis, the behemoth auto group that spans the globe. Alfa Romeo is now on this multinational steady, an outfit that depends on platform sharing and cautious model stewardship. Alfa went into this new association with a powerful line-up, together with the sensible Giulia Quadrifoglio and the Stelvio SUV. 

Alfa Romeo Tonale

Now meet the Alfa Romeo Tonale, the Stelvio’s ‘child’ sibling. Tapping into the seemingly limitless want for smaller SUV-type fashions. At first look, the essence of the corporate seems to be current and proper, from the pitched-forward stance to the acquainted central grille, to the acquainted five-hole ‘pepperpot’ fashion wheel designs.

Nevertheless, the Tonale shares its underpinnings with a Jeep, a reality that might not merely have been unthinkable a few many years in the past, however unconscionable, given the theoretical gulf that exists between the 2 corporations. Just like the Jeep Compass, the Tonale is a hybrid, albeit a light one for now. With only a 1.5-litre engine readily available and 158bhp, it’s no easy performer. Actually, it’s distinctly missing within the marque’s trademark zest and the distinguished wheel-mounted paddles for the auto gearbox look woefully over-optimistic.

The extra passionate alfisti will probably be ready for the extra highly effective plug-in hybrid mannequin, due subsequent 12 months, to get their repair (in addition to a correct EV-only vary of round 50 miles). The Tonale’s inside makes a stronger exhibiting, with the dual binnacle instrument panel reminiscent of Alfas previous, snug seats, and acquainted ergonomics with an excellent mixture of screens and switches.

The Tonale retains Alfa’s barely complicated ‘DNA’ drive system, which switches between Dynamic, Regular and All-Climate. To get any form of vivid response from the engine, you’ll have to hold it in D, however the regular setting delivers good, if not startling financial system. 

Alfa should be doing one thing proper, for it’s now not thought-about the gorgeous however sickly baby of the European motor trade, having not too long ago reached impartial monetary solvency. Nevertheless, the darkish artwork of staying within the black has been achieved by the one approach many automotive corporations know the way: constructing SUVs. To say this goes towards the grain of the Alfa ethos is one thing of an understatement. Here is hoping that an electrified future offers this much-loved model a jolt. 

Alfa Romeo Tonale Veloce, from £42,495