Alfa Romeo Stelvio

It’s not all that surprising that when the updated Alfa Romeo Stelvio range rolled out in mid-2021, the newly four-strong range structure would mirror that of the Giulia sedan with which the SUV shares much of its solid architecture and oily motivation.

New was the Veloce, known as the Veloce Ti overseas, a guise originally not slated for local consumption but made the trip across the big pond anyway. And given on-paper credentials and all stylistic appearances, favourably so.

Here was a variant that aped the mighty biturbo V6 Quadrifoglio’s sporting pitch, if without quite the high-performance intent or expense. And, suitably, the Veloce would fit between the exotic and handsomely priced flagship and regular turbo four-pot Sport as a penultimate version pegged at the palatable price point where premium mid-sized SUVs start to get, well, interesting.

The obvious question is: how much of Veloce brims with bonafide delivery and how much is merely showboating?

There are certainly rich credentials in some fundamentals. The Giorgio platform that Stelvio shares with Giulia, a rumoured five-billion-dollar development, underpins both models’ renown for segment-dominating dynamic alacrity and, indeed, the Veloce ‘Q’ is considered by many as the friskiest mid-sized family hauler good money can buy. But with the rumour mill abuzz about Alfa Romeo’s hard shift to an electrified future, whatever credo the marque has carved for purist driving machinery in the present is here for a good time if not necessarily for a long time.

However purple Alfa Romeo’s patch might appear in tomorrow’s hindsight, it hasn’t enjoyed quite the buyer appreciation of its key rivals today. And there are reasons for that, warranted or not. One is reputation for reliability. Another is that, fair or foul, the marque continues to fully embrace its Italian-ness in almost everything formal and functional, and much of it swims against what is a popular German rip.

That Alfas woo – and want to be judged – on the sumptuousness of their leather rather than the resolution of their digital eye candy, for example, marks its machinery as outliers and alternatives that buck the conformity in premium European trends. That’s not necessarily a focus of the sort that builds showroom popularity.

Be it from fifty paces or nestled into its impossibly bolstered front bucket seats, the Stelvio Veloce, built at Alfa’s Cassino factory in Italy, embraces sportscar-like romance. But that doesn’t necessarily make for a sound, quality-laden family hauler.

Fair or foul, the marque continues to embrace its Italian-ness in almost everything formal and functional, swimming against what is a popular German rip.

Pricing and Features

At $79,450 before on-road costs, the Alfa Romeo Stelvio Veloce plugs a fiscal tier occupied by the Audi Q5 45 TFSI Sport wagon ($77,600 + ORC) if undercutting logical Teutonic rivals in the BMW X3 xDrive 30i ($87,900 + ORC) and Mercedes-Benz GLC 300 wagon ($86,676 + ORC).

In its own stable, the Veloce is priced nine grand up on the Sport variant ($69,950 + ORC). You’ll need a big lunge to clamber into the Quadrifoglio ($147,950 + ORC), an outlay that’ll land you both a Veloce and a Sport combined.

No surprise, then, that the Veloce fits a high-power version of the range’s 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol four – producing 206kW/400Nm, a fair hike on the Sport’s 147kW/330Nm tune – rather than a downgraded version of the Q’s Ferrari-related 2.9-litre biturbo V6.

It’s paired with a ZF-sourced eight-speed torque-converter automatic and all-wheel drive. The system is rear-biased and on-demand, capable of shuffling up to 50 per cent of available torque to the front axle via an active transfer case and fits a self-lock mechanical rear limited-slip differential. Wheels are 20-inchers.

A fair chunk of Veloce’s nine-grand splurge over the Sport is in underpinned fitness, though it also sprinkles the equipment list with eight-way-electric sports seats, leather seat, dash and door trimming, ambient lighting, a hands-free powered tailgate, 10-speaker sound and rear outboard seat heating to match the fronts.

Common with the lower grade Stelvio are bi-xenon headlights, auto high beam, rain-sensing wipers, power-folding and auto-dimming mirrors, front and rear parking sensors, rear privacy glass and a reversing camera.

Elsewhere, the Veloce features a 7.0 TFT driver’s screen, aluminium brightwork, dual-zone climate control, heated steering wheel, column-mounted paddleshifters, 8.8-inch touchscreen infotainment, DAB+ digital radio, sat-nav, 400-watt 10-speaker audio, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto smartphone mirroring and adaptive cruise control.

The Stelvio fits a solid suite of safety assistance that includes autonomous emergency braking, forward collision warning, lane-keep assist, active blind-spot assist, rear cross-traffic alert, traffic sign recognition and intelligent speed control. No idea what the curiously named ‘driver behaviour warning’ does: perhaps it shouts encouragement to push on harder in Italian?

Six airbags and rear-seat ISOFIX anchor points are fitted to what’s a five-star ANCAP rated proposition (from 2017 Euro NCAP assessment).

A fair chunk of Veloce’s nine-grand splurge over the Sport is in underpinned fitness.

Comfort and Space

The Stelvio Veloce elicits diverse reactions depending on the user’s tastes, not because it’s wild or leftfield but because it is, in its overall theme, staid.

Little about it is ostentatious or in-your-face and, in some eyes, not much visual edification for a premium SUV splurge. Analogue instruments, modest infotainment, toned-down brightwork and a general air of subtlety.

Some find it plain or, more critically, boring.

Through another lens – an indicatively Italian lens – it’s classically flavoured, a big nod to tradition that, in execution, demands a measured touch when it comes to glitz and modernisms. In an era where premium carmakers – specifically those which are German – attempt to one-up each other with a schizophrenic attack of window dressing, for fair or foul, Alfa Romeo has stuck fairly true to a quite conventional lane in the Stelvio Veloce.

It’s rich in ambience, its leather utterly sumptuous, its aluminium garnish somewhat refreshing because it’s real, not fakery. Material use, from the paddleshifters to the pedals, looks and feels first class. And Alfa Romeo has clearly made a concerted effort to up its game in integration and solidity, particularly in controls and switchgear, areas that were long a bugbear of the brand.

There are still plenty of hints-of-Chrysler in some details, but there’s a solid and uncomplicated vibe that crept into the execution that rings with a sense of quality and avoids much in the way of conspicuous cost-consciousness.

The steering wheel is lovely, the instruments are effective, and it oozes effortless sportiness without resorting to plying heavy-handed carbonfibre and the like.

The column-mounted elephant-ear shifters mightn’t be to all tastes – wheel mounting remains the more useable route – but they remain a touch that is, above anything else, oh-so Italian.

The front seats, with their caricatural side bolsters, are an acquired taste, combat fit for the most intense corner-carving if lacking much in the way of long-haul comfort because they’re so snug. They’re centrepieces to the cabin, lovely to touch and beautifully stitched if stiffly padded, and will rank with some more generously sized prospective buyers as a real deal-breaker.

Less impressive in stature and purpose is the 8.8-inch infotainment system, ironically a key highlight to the Stelvio’s (and Guilia’s) most recent updates if coming off exactly what is it: a half-baked attempted at keeping in step with rival German tech.

Its screen is small and the fitment looks like an afterthought. And while its resolution is sharp and it features remote rotary-type console control in the face of touchscreen-only trends, its content is basic and it is clumsy and not terribly intuitive to use.

Nor is all that smart, particularly the radio volume assault you’ll experience if you happened to have Bluetooth-streamed an audio source at a prior shutdown.

Roominess-wise, it’s more cosy than airy, particularly in the second row, which is only moderately spacious and saved to a large degree by the lovely leather seats. Rear passengers get dual USB ports, air vents and seat heating controls in a fit-out that befits the Veloce’s sport-luxury positioning.

Similarly, the luggage area features a lot of nice touches, such as the cargo net, grocery bag hooks and remote seat folding levers. It offers a practical 525 litres of space standard (or a more compact 499L if you option a space-saver spare wheel) that expands to around 1600L with the 40:20:40 rear split-fold seatbacks stowed.

The front seats are an acquired taste, combat fit for intense corner-carving if lacking in the way of long-haul comfort because they’re so snug.

On the Road

The Veloce form guide makes for positive reading: a decent and somewhat fitting 206kW/400Nm swing to the turbo four, a genuinely brisk 5.7 seconds for the sprint to triple figures – wiping a significant 2.5sec from lower-grade 147kW variant claims – and a 230km/h V-max if you find a suitable enough venue.

That said, its 7.0L/100km combined consumption claim is no thirstier than the 147kW gear, making for a compelling set of numbers, even if the Veloce is more realistically closer to a nine-litre-per-hundred real-world prospect.

Problem is, while outright performance and peak economy present optimistic duality, the 206kW powertrain drops the ball in the middle ground most used for the lion’s share of the on-road experience.

The positive spin is that Veloce covers the sport-performance theme it clearly peddles. Its lean construction bestows a lean 1660kg weighbridge ticket and, better yet, an ideally balanced 50:50 fore-aft weight distribution.

Add the rear-focused on-demand all-wheel drive, rear LSD trickery, and aluminum-rich double-wishbone front and multilink rear suspension with SDC Active (Alfa-speak for electronically controlled adaptive damping) and the boxes for fine dynamic alacrity are firmly ticked.

Even at a modest clip, the Veloce feels lithe and crisply responsive the instant you point the wheel off centre. Its front end isn’t too darty yet it points confidently, returning keen cooperation to driver inputs and weight transfer mid-corner. There are clear sporting genes in its step, leaning on its rear for poise and allowing adjustment on the throttle with deft aplomb.

Push on and its limits are impressively high, nothing strange or spooky, with the predictable breakaway of a thoroughbred. No, it doesn’t reward to quite the degree of attack of a Giulia Veloce and the extra SUV inertia is apparent, but it talks the sort of dynamic talk that convinces you that, should one rob a bank, this Italian Job is perhaps your best getaway bet against similarly priced European nemeses.

Dial up ‘D for Dynamic’ on the DNA drive selector and there’s a nice synergy between the most alert powertrain setting and the more enthusiastic chassis tune. The turbo four does work hard for its keep but, thus set, it equally plies the best from the torque-shuffling smarts that really make the Stevlio’s handling come alive.

The novel by-wire brakes, which have a terribly wooden and abrupt pedal during leisurely driving, provide the requisite power and focus in the heat of battle.

You’ll want to grab the Veloce’s scruff during the occasional fair-weather back-road punt, because in more mundane driving situations the big Alfa isn’t quite so compelling, complete or resolved.

In its regular N (Natural) or A (Advanced Efficiency, strangely), the powertrain’s cooperation clocks off in fairly dramatic terms. Response becomes lazy, its shove becomes inert, it suddenly loses much in the way of spark or character, clearly opting to favour as frugal running as possible regardless of negative side effects.

Similarly, the eight-speed torque-converter auto, a ZF unit, becomes grumpier and more unpleasant the less energy it receives and the slower you happen to travel.

Around town, the technically clever by-wire brakes tend to annoy, bitey and tricky to modulate, unnaturally numb in feedback through the driver’s foot and, if you let them sit a few days after rain, granular in feel from pad/disc residue.

One area Alfa Romeo has garnered praise of late is in ride comfort, its shining pillar the Giulia in most variant specs, with impressively pliant comfort settings. The Stelvio Veloce, though, with its adaptive smarts, isn’t quite so resolved.

In more leisurely N or A modes, the ride is quite flaccid, which is good for smothering bumps, if excessively wallowy, which isn’t so great for body control or settling its uneasily floaty state.

You sense it lacks some beef in the compression stroke, though even in its soft settings the chassis tends to slap sharply across square-edge road imperfections one suspects is primarily caused by the broad 20-inch rolling stock

Not that the Stelvio is lost for a comfortable state. Hit the open road, where powertrain and ride nuances aren’t thoroughly tasked, and the Italian SUV reveals itself as a quiet and dignified cruiser. Noise suppression is good and it feels solid, planted and downright relaxing as a grand tourer.

Also marking the on-road experience is the sheer absence of active assistance, particularly in the lane departure and lane centring departments. It’s more than happy to wander out of its lane in that key 60-80km/h band where usually the clumsiest pilots tend to need such systems to intervene.

You’ll want to grab the Veloce’s scruff during the occasional back-road punt, because in mundane driving the big Alfa isn’t quite so compelling, complete or resolved.

Ownership

The Stelvio is covered by a three-year warranty capped at 150,000km. That’s not exactly reassuring.

Capped-priced servicing extends through five years, with typical intervals of 12 months or 15,000 kilometres, whichever comes first.

Intervals are at $345, 645, $465, $1065 and $345, averaging out to $573 per year for the first five years.

VERDICT

The Veloce presents Stelvio in that not-too-heavy, not-too-light, just right mid-tier, at a favourable price point that starts to appear properly seductive if you’re after a genuinely sport-infused flavour with plenty of dynamic and performance ability to back it up. It’s not merely wicked-up potential, either, with plenty of geeky goodness woven through its dynamic DNA and a spec that really looks well worth the walk-up from lower-grade models.

Most polarizing is the cut of its indelibly Italian jib. You’ll most likely be drawn or deterred by its particular approach to premium-tinged style and execution and the Veloce doesn’t elicit much lukewarm, fence-sitting reaction. Those with even slight Alfisti leanings are given much to be drawn to.

Critically, its singular focus brings too much black and white to the broader, family-centric SUV pitch, sport-tinged or not. It’s not as polished and resolved where it perhaps needs to be most, in the everyday middle ground between fiery and nice.

Foibles apart, the Alfa Romeo Stelvio Veloce is an inspired and somewhat compelling alternative to the more popular German choices.

2021 Alfa Romeo Stelvio Veloce specifications