| By Neil Briscoe.
Being a fan of Alfa Romeo, as so many of us car nuts and even us motoring writers are, is a bit like being a priest. It helps to have a calm disposition, a sense of serenity and you'll certainly be spending a lot of your time forgiving a multitude of sins.
Alfas have, over the 100 years of the firm's history, always been wonderful, idiosyncratic and exciting. Frequently, they have been utterly beautiful, excitingly rapid and gloriously loud.
The problem is that, all too often, under the shiny paint and the curvaceous bodywork, they've been a bit shonky. A tad under-developed. Occasionally even downright rubbish. In more recent years, they have at least been getting better and better on all fronts, but for every moment of pure joy, when zinging a high note scream past the redline in third, there's another where'll you'll need that calm, zen-like, priestly demeanour.
Take the new Mito MultiAir for example. Following in a century of Alfa tradition, it's sporty, sexy to behold both inside and out, uses cutting-edge technology (Alfa has always been an innovator) and looks every inch the junior Ferrari or mini-Maserati. It's Italian passion and soul, shrunk on a boil wash.
Under that curved and flowing bonnet is a new 1.4-litre turbocharged petrol engine that's representative of everything that's great about Italian engineering. Pumping out 170bhp, it uses Fiat and Alfa's new MultiAir technology. Without going all Stephen Hawking on you, that simply means that it's got the next generation of variable valve timing, so that the engine can breathe much more efficiently at low speeds without sacrificing performance at high rpm. It's complicated in principle but simple in execution and, like all truly great technology, you don't have to think about it, you just get the benefits. Which, specifically, are all that power (and a diesel-like 250Nm of torque) but just 139g/km of Co2 emissions and 6.0-litres per 100km fuel consumption. That's not technology, that's witchcraft.
And, because this is an Alfa, it sounds good too. Not as crisp or delicious as the old 2.0-litre Twin Spark motor from the long-dead 156, but roary and throaty all the same. Thanks to that torque it lugs manfully from low revs, and the slick-shifting six-speed transmission means you never really have to worry about turbo lag.
You do need to keep the Mito's DNA switch kept firmly in D though. It's a sexy-looking toggle switch next to the gear lever that allows you to choose between Dynamic, Normal and All-weather modes, and either heats up or cools down the engine appropriately. Trouble is, in N or A modes, the throttle feels like it's been given a dose of Nytol, so D is really the only place to be.
When it comes to driving though, the Mito, in classic Alfa tradition, makes you reach for the patience pills. It's not bad, in fact some of the time it's very, very good. But it is frustratingly short of where it needs to be. The steering, which is well-weighted and quick, is also irritatingly numb, never really telling you what's happening under the tyres. The suspension, while it gives the Mito terrific grip and excellent agility, also bumps and thumps too much, and too often, to feel comfortable on exaclty the kind of bumpy, twisty roads that a sporty hatch like this should dominate.
At least the cabin makes up for some of this frustration though. It all looks good, the seats are fab, there's decent space in the back seats and boot (pay attention Mini) and the build quality, bar one or two panels of cut-price plastic, is little short of excellent.
But you just know that the handling and chassis could be excellent too, to go with that cabin and that brilliant engine. And that's what makes the enjoyable, gorgeous, fabulous Mito frustrating in equal measure.
Which, I guess, just makes it a classic Alfa Romeo. And perhaps there's nothing wrong with that, as long as you're patient with it.
Facts & Figures
Alfa Romeo Mito 1.4 MultiAir Cloverleaf
Price: POA
Capacity: 1,368cc
Power: 170bhp
Torque: 250Nm
Top speed: 219kmh
0-100kmh: 7.5sec
Economy: 6.0l-100km (47.0mpg)
CO2 emissions: 139g/km
VRT Band: B 16% VRT. €154 road tax
Euro NCAP rating: 5-star adult, 3-star child, 2-star pedestrian
|
