2018 Alfa Romeo Stelvio- Quick Drive- Doubleclutch.ca
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00:00This car is important. It's important because it represents a potential big North American
00:09moneymaker for Alfa Romeo. We need them to make money so they can keep delivering us
00:14gems like the 4C and the insane Giulia Quadrifoglio. So this one, the Stelvio, is more or less
00:22a family car. It comes with all-wheel drive and lots of trunk space. And even though you
00:26can get a Quadrifoglio version of it, this is just the 2-liter turbo. But regardless,
00:31it still has one of the coolest badges in the industry. So recently, when I was down
00:36for a test day in New York with the DoubleClutch.ca crew, I grabbed fellow writer Louis Vaux and
00:41we went for a quick spin. We didn't have that much time with the car, so here's our thoughts.
00:47Hello. We are in the Alfa Romeo Stelvio. 2018. 2018 Alfa Romeo Stelvio at Monticello Circuit,
00:54but we're not going on Monticello Circuit. We are going to go drive around on the nice
00:56roads in New York. Okay. So right away when I got in this car, the interior isn't quite
01:02at the quality that I thought from the pictures. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. Like some of
01:06the plastics around the gauges and stuff. It's kind of matte plastics. Yeah. Matte plastics,
01:12which are okay. It's nice, but... The screen being integrated, kind of hard to see now,
01:17but the screen being integrated into kind of the same surface as the rest of the dash
01:22is kind of nice. That does look good, but like this kind of edge right here, it doesn't
01:26impress me. It's a big edge. Yeah. Otherwise the steering wheel looks fantastic. The paddles
01:31don't move. Oh yes, of course. That's the best. We have a what under the hood? This
01:36is a two liter turbocharged four cylinder. Two liter turbocharged four cylinder. 280
01:40horsepower. 280 horsepower. Pretty good. Okay. 306 pounds of torque. 306 pounds of torque.
01:45ZF eight speed automatic transmission. Ooh, okay. Yes. Good. I do like that. Everyone
01:49likes that. All wheel drive. We have a DNA dial here, which does things. So we're in
01:54D. D for dynamic. Dynamic. N for natural. Natural. What do I want? Dynamic. That sounds
02:00the most exciting. Yes. So right away the throttle is actually quite peppy. Right away
02:04it's just there. A little jumpy. Yeah. It's a little jumpy, but that's one of the things
02:06you can get used to. I don't want to complain about that at this point. Oh yeah. There we
02:11go. Steering is quite light, but there's a distinctive on center feel, surprisingly.
02:17Yeah. One thing we haven't noticed or haven't mentioned yet is the, where's the start stop
02:22button for this? It is on the steering wheel like a supercar. Yes. Because Italy. Yes.
02:28Um, okay. So this being kind of a midsize crossover competes with things like the Audi
02:33Q5. Yes. BMW X3. What's special about kind of this family in general is, um, you can
02:39get a Quadrifoglio. Quadrifoglio. This is not the Quadrifoglio. This is not the Quadrifoglio.
02:43Sadly. So this is kind of, yeah, this is the pedestrian model. But, uh, I'm actually
02:47very much liking the driving experience right now. It's very like, just, we're just puttering
02:51on a parking lot, but it's very direct actually. I'm going to go right. Yes. All right. So
02:55I wonder if I'm in manual mode. Oh, no, I'm going to go into manual now. All right. And
02:58I'm coming. That's nice. So a little bit of a delay on the shift. The shifter itself down
03:09in the bottom of the center console has the upshift and downshift in the correct direction.
03:13It does. Yes. You push forward for a downshift and you pull back for an upshift the way that
03:17it should be. However, we have big gigantic aluminum paddles, which really add to the
03:22whole shifting experience. The shift, the shifts are a little bit laggy. There's a little
03:27bit of, so here's a downshift click. You know what? Downshifts are better than upshifts
03:31actually. Immediate power delivery, to be perfectly honest. It's, it's a lot of power
03:36for a two liter turbo four. Yes. There's a distinctive click to the paddle too, which
03:41kind of, you hear that? Yeah. That tactile feedback. Yes. That's very important. Yeah.
03:46I hate when they put plastic paddles, like sheet feeling plastic paddles. It really,
03:51really does. Yeah. You've got the digital cluster in between the two analog gauges.
03:56Configurable. It doesn't look that nice though. Like these gauges, they don't, they don't
04:02look, you know, like a BMW kind of has almost like a Swiss watch quality to the dials. This
04:08really doesn't have that. The numbers are kind of fairly large. They're kind of large
04:13and the, uh, like the, the needle is really high up off the, yeah. Yeah. That's okay though.
04:22I shifted at the right time. Didn't like that. There's a kind of a weird delay in the shifts,
04:25eh? You feel that? Yeah. There's a bit of torque management in between gears. Yeah.
04:29It pauses and then it kicks you back in. Yeah. Interesting. Hmm. Although it is an
04:35Alfa Romeo, so like I can just gloss over many things like that. How is visibility?
04:40Like for me is not awesome. Actually. I have kind of a narrow slit to look through. Yeah.
04:46Yeah. Um, frontward visibility is excellent though. Great. I feel similar to like a Subaru
04:50Forester. There's a lot of window. Yeah. Right. Panoramic sunroof. Oh yes. It's quite big.
04:56This particular one starts at US dollars. US dollars. 40, just under $42,000. $42,000.
05:02So that comes in at what? 450,000 Canadian right now. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and this one as
05:08tested, it's got a lot of stuff. Uh, that wasn't the as tested price. No, no. That's
05:13the base price. What are we at? As tested, we are at just under $53,000. 53,000 US. Okay.
05:20That's important. You need that. Um, convenience package, uh, adaptive cruise control. What
05:25about the ride? The ride is sporty actually. It's a little bit stiff. Uh, do I have adaptive
05:30dampers or anything here? Possibly. I wonder. So let's just play with this DNA dial here.
05:33Yeah. So I'm in natural now. Did the steering lighten? Don't back out in front of me in
05:39my Stelvio. Oh, what was that? Well, to be honest, it sounded like the car farted. At
05:44first I thought I farted. Um, but no, that, that's not what happened. That was, that was
05:49me going over the line. I think vibrating or nothing vibrated, but the car, the car
05:54decided that the best way to get my attention of going over the line is to literally fart
05:57at me. Let's, we can attempt that again in a minute. So you folks at home can hear exactly
06:01what we're talking about right now. All right, everyone listen. All the lane departure warning
06:09sounds. It's interesting. Shall I turn around maybe and go? It was a little bit nicer back
06:14there before. Some fine German automobiles in this driveway. That Volkswagen has no front
06:21end. No, it does not. But I mean, so like assuming this is going to be a little bit
06:26reliable because it's, no, it's not as tough. I was joking. A little bit. Yeah. Whoa. Whoa.
06:30That's interesting. That is an aggressive, abrasive noise to let me know. Very interesting
06:35suite of sounds. It does. Definitely. So that was a school bus that was slowing down to
06:40turn. And I mean, I did nothing different than I would normally do. I mean, I did not
06:44touch the brakes and the car panicked and thought that I was going to crash and kill
06:46a bunch of children. School season is in, but that's an interesting sound. And it's
06:53loud enough that it tells all your passengers that you're a poor driver. It's kind of barren
06:59down here. There's not a whole lot going on. I agree. You know, but that's okay though.
07:02If these materials were a little bit nicer, this would be excellent. This would be an
07:06excellent thing to look at is it's very basic. Like if this was a little bit of a nicer plastic
07:11or like a machined aluminum, maybe like then, yeah, this is a really lovely. Otherwise it's
07:16kind of a lot of empty space. Yeah. There's some texture to it too. So, I mean, so far
07:21I like this car. It, uh, the quality of the interior is not at the level of the German
07:30rivals. No, right. It really is not kind of a good benchmark right now is the Mercedes-Benz
07:35GLC. Yeah. Um, complete with open port wood. Yeah. No, that's really good. Really good.
07:40I mean, like if you look at the Volvo lineup too, their interiors are sensational. Right.
07:45But this is not quite there. Um, but I think that I would personally still have this over
07:50a Mercedes just cause it's an Alfa Romeo. I would, I would have this just cause it's
07:54cooler. Yeah. It's got the, it's got a different kind of personality. You get to be a little
07:57bit different if you're driving your kids to a soccer and an Alfa Romeo. And it certainly
08:02is different because you'll see when you drive, drop your kids off at soccer practice, there'll
08:06be a sea of white, silver or black German crossovers. Exactly. Mercedes-Benz GLC, L5,
08:14BMW X3. And you, uh, and you show up in an Alfa Romeo. In bright red.
08:21So if you shift at 5,000 instead of near the red line, the shift is a little bit cleaner and
08:25quicker. Right. So you're not bumping into the red line. So you're not bumping into the
08:28rev limiter. And then the car has a chance to figure out what you just asked it for.
08:31Yeah. That's fourth gear. That's a lot of torque going up a hill. Yeah. That's a
08:35substantial amount. Yeah. That's fun. The eight-speed automatic should be,
08:40should do an okay job at managing turbo lag. Yeah. And it does. I don't put it in auto mode
08:45cause I feel like people need to know what that's like. Natural. Oh, it just downshifted. Now it
08:49upshifted. It's doing things. All right. So we are up higher in the gears. I was going to put
08:55my foot down and see how much response there is. It was okay. It was okay. It took a few seconds
09:01to figure out what gear it should be in. And then it, then off it went. This, this targets
09:06the meat of the market. Yeah, I think so. That's, that's where the money is. Yes. Yeah. I like it.
09:12The ride is a, it's a little bit louder in here than a German, uh, version of this. I would think
09:18it seems a little bit more hollow. I don't know. I don't know if you agree with me, but like,
09:22it seems just a little bit less refined in here. 20 inch wheels. I think that, yeah,
09:27that probably has something to do with it. The ride is, this is a fairly like bumpy road. We're
09:32getting some vibrations, but I'm not getting much, uh, huge body movements, right? Well,
09:38and the interfaces, which, which matter a lot. Yeah. That's, that's, yeah. This, this center
09:43part here looks good. This look, yeah. Like my driving position is good by the way. And
09:47like what I'm seeing looks pretty cool. Yeah. I'll be honest.
09:51There we go. I'm from El Stelvio. Good car. I like it.
10:18Oh, thank you.
10:30So your best is a 128.8. That's terrible. Thomas, you are very good on camera.