Review: Alfa Romeo Stelvio

There are a brace of new safety features for the updated Stelvio, and indeed in the 2020 model-year Giulia, including the so-called ‘Level 2 autonomy’ and Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), designed to ensure the safest and most comfortable of rides. The technology includes the now-standard cruise control, blind spot assist and lane keep assist, and the ability to adjust the vehicle’s position on the road according to obstacles ahead or to the side. But as with many modern cars, it can tell if your hands aren’t on the wheel so don’t get any ideas...

Under the bonnet nothing has changed, although CO2 levels have reportedly been aligned with the competition. The Stelvio will still be offered with a selection of engines, namely a 2.0-litre, 200PS petrol and a 2.2-litre, 190PS diesel in the rear-wheel-drive Super, Sprint and Lusso Ti trims. In the Range-topping, all-wheel-drive Veloce you can have a 280PS petrol or a 210 horsepower diesel.

We were driving the most potent engine on offer, the 2.0-litre turbo petrol, putting out a mighty 400Nm of torque, and promising 0-62mph acceleration in 5.7 seconds and a top speed of 143mph. Power is substantial, but not overwhelming, allowing you to comfortably put your foot down without fear of booting the car to kingdom come.

Alfa Romeo claims a perfect 50-50 front/rear weight distribution for the Stelvio, but the car does feel tall. While the attractive 20-inch alloy wheels are only ever glued to the ground, there’s a feeling of top-heaviness that’s impossible to escape compared to the Giulia – it’s the nature of the SUV beast. That being said, compared to other SUVs the Stelvio hides its height very well. There are plenty of wobbly SUVs around. This isn’t one of them.

As before there’s a DNA dial on the centre console, with ‘D’ standing for ‘Dynamic’, ‘N’ standing for ‘Natural’ and ‘A’ standing for ‘Advanced Efficiency’. At the centre of the dial you’ll find a central damper button, too.

The functionality of the dial remains the same, with each twist affecting the steering weight and throttle and gearbox response. Dynamic remains the ideal mode for fast driving while Natural is ideal for cruising around at a more subdued pace. Advanced Efficient, however, slows down the car’s responses far too much, and surely part of the point of buying an Alfa is because you enjoy driving?

The separate damper button, however, remains a blessing, as firmer suspension for fast driving on the Continent might work brilliantly, but it isn’t always what you need in the UK.

On the performance trims, Alfa Romeo has ditched the silver ‘V’ grille outline, and the resulting look is a powerful one. New hues are included in the four colour categories – the basic, sporty, metal and heritage. My personal favourites are the pre-existing Visconti green (think a metallic British racing green) and the new Anodizzato blue. Bi-Xenon headlights feature as standard and Alfa claims LEDs will be added for the next generation Stelvio.

Climbing into the cabin, the revisions are immediately obvious. Even compared to our long-term Stelvio Quadrifoglio, the improvement in interior build quality is tangible, with tactile materials and soft close catches on the glovebox and centre console.

Sitting behind the steering wheel is a new 7-inch instrument cluster, while in the middle of the dash is the new, now-standard 8.8-inch TFT multi-touch display. The screen is not only larger but also more accessible, with the standard list graphics replaced by interactive widgets, more similar to those of a smart phone. Equally, the maps are no longer vertically stunted by menu bars along the bottom of the screen, allowing for a more comprehensive view of the landscape. The touchscreen is certainly useful at a stop, but for on the move, Alfa has retained the centre console mounted dial, which offers a soft but discernible click as you scroll through the options.

As well as a reversing camera, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, you now get Alfa Romeo’s ‘Connected Services’. Included in this suite is the ‘my assistant’ emergency function, which automatically contacts the emergency services in case of accident, the ‘my remote’ app, allowing drivers to unlock their car or activate the lights from a distance, and the ‘my Wi-Fi’ service, allowing the onboard Wi-Fi to be shared with eight devices. Joining these functions in 2020 will be ‘my theft assistance’, which alerts the owner of any attempt to steal the car, and ‘my navigation’, which will search for and navigate to a destination, using real-time traffic, weather and speed camera alerts.

Alcantara leather with contrast stitching adorns the seats, dash and automatic gear shift – all variants of the Stelvio are mated to a smooth eight-speed automatic gearbox, controlled by a centralised shift and flappy paddles behind the wheel. While the auto box does a marvellous job left to its own devices right, the paddles offer an immediate and engaging shift – you can’t help but use them.

Concurrent with the launch of the updated Stelvio and Giulia, Alfa Romeo has announced a new app-based car-sharing service. Named ‘I-Link by Leasys’ – Leasys being the manufacturer’s leasing service, financed though the FCA Bank – it allows Alfa owners to conveniently share their car and the cost with friends and family.

A calendar on the app will show the car’s availability and allow your chosen friends and family to ‘book’ it. When they go to collect it, the app will allow them to unlock and start the car. At the end of each month they will be invoiced for the time that they have used it. An innovative idea, and certainly an interesting one, I-Link is designed to make owning and borrowing a luxury car more achievable via a shared cost.

With the future of urban mobility in its sights, the 2020 Stelvio and Giulia are statements of intent from Alfa Romeo, as it embraces the future of ‘sharing mobility’. Some of the exterior updates are small and the car feels more or less the same to drive, the Italian manufacturer seems to have succeeded in bringing its cars into the ‘connected era’, subtly polishing the interior  and making it cleverer than ever before.

Alfa Romeo Stelvio Specifications

Price: TBA

Engine: 2.0-litre, turbocharged four-cylinder petrol

Power/torque: 280bhp @ 5,250rpm/400Nm (296lb ft) @ 2,250rpm

Transmission: Eight-speed automatic, all-wheel-drive

0-62mph: 5.7 seconds

Top speed: 143mph

Kerb weight: 1,660kg

Combined economy: TBA