In N mode, at a steady 30mph, we hit the throttle and a stopwatch at the same time, and it wanted more than 3.5sec to gain just 10mph. For comparison we climbed into a diesel Citroen Berlingo van – not a rival, I know, but what we had to hand – and it was a full second quicker doing the same thing. You can select and hold gears yourself – even on the Ti, the gearlever has a manual mode – but it shouldn’t be this hard work. I doubt it saves much fuel over Dynamic mode, either, given you’ll be on the throttle that much harder. And either way, this isn’t much more than a 40mpg car.
Not entirely a rival but the new Honda Civic I drove last week, easily breezing past 60mpg with a much more responsive and predictable powertrain, shows how it can be done.
The handling is, though, very agile, so if that’s what Alfa was going for, it nailed that. It doesn’t roll too far – just enough to lean on – and I doubt there’s another car in the class that’s this willing to turn, yet it does it without the harshness of ride that you get in, say, the smaller Ford Puma ST. Even on these 20in wheels (and in left-hand drive, which often doesn’t help the perception of ride quality in the UK because it sits the driver on the worst bit of the road) while the Tonale is well-controlled, it’s far from harsh, breezing aside most town lumps and imperfections.
The steering is very quick, at around 2.2 turns between locks, and it’s really responsive even just off of straight ahead, and it’s extremely light. Which means that for all the agility, it does not feel very stable.
Combine that with the difficult drivetrain and, even though it comes across as quite a dynamic car, it’s a difficult one to drive smoothly, get into a rhythm with, or feel relaxedly comfortable with.
I’m reminded a little of the 2010-onwards Mini Countryman, which was given very rapid steering in an effort to make a tall car try to feel as nimble as a Mini hatch, rather than being given dynamics that suited its nature.
A seemingly similar ethos makes the Tonale a half-appealing car but one that’s harder to warm to than, say, the incredibly compelling Giulia saloon, or the maturely capable Stelvio SUV.