This is the car Alfa Romeo needed, if not the car its most hardcore fans wanted.
2023 Alfa Romeo Tonale Hybrid Veloce Credit: CarExpert
As much as we love the way they drive, the Giulia and Stelvio haven’t exactly been flying out of Alfa Romeo showrooms. What the brand needed was a crossover with a more accessible price point.
For more Motoring related news and videos check out Motoring >>Enter the Tonale, which serves as the brand’s new entry-level model. It’s more expensive than the defunct Giulietta hatchback, but considerably cheaper than the most affordable Giulia and Stelvio.
Unlike those models, it doesn’t ride on a bespoke Alfa Romeo rear/all-wheel drive architecture. Instead, the Tonale is underpinned by a version of the Jeep Compass’ platform.
Alfa Romeo has an exalted reputation that doesn’t seem to translate to strong sales in Australia, and while it’s seen as a premium brand it has offered plenty of vehicles – the Alfasud and MiTo, to name a few – that blur the lines between mass-market and premium.
2023 Alfa Romeo Tonale Hybrid Veloce Credit: CarExpert
With the Tonale, it has a sharply priced rival to luxury-brand small SUVs, and can once again boast a base price that could tempt people out of more humble Toyotas and the like.
Does it have the requisite charm to attract people to Alfa Romeo showrooms?
How much does the Alfa Romeo Tonale Hybrid Veloce cost?
The Alfa Romeo Tonale range opens at $49,900 before on-road costs, with the Hybrid Veloce tested here retailing for $56,400 before on-roads and the Plug-in Hybrid Q4 Veloce – appropriately enough, due in the fourth quarter of this year – priced at $77,500 before on-roads.
2023 Alfa Romeo Tonale Hybrid Veloce Credit: CarExpert
2023 Alfa Romeo Tonale Hybrid Veloce Credit: CarExpert
2023 Alfa Romeo Tonale Hybrid Veloce Credit: CarExpert
2023 Alfa Romeo Tonale Hybrid Veloce Credit: CarExpert
2023 Alfa Romeo Tonale Hybrid Veloce Credit: CarExpert
2023 Alfa Romeo Tonale Hybrid Veloce Credit: CarExpert
2023 Alfa Romeo Tonale Hybrid Veloce Credit: CarExpert
There’s a range of premium paint finishes if you don’t want boring white. These comprise Alfa Red, Alfa Black, Vesuvio Grey, and our tester’s lovely Misano Blue, with each costing $1600. You can also opt for the stunning Montreal Green, which will set you back $2500.
A panoramic sunroof costs $2500, Veloce-exclusive 20-inch grey-finish alloy wheels cost $1500, and the comprehensive Lusso Pack adds $4500 to the sticker. All our tester was missing was the pano roof, which put its before on-roads price at $62,400.
While the Jeep Compass it shares its underpinnings with is overpriced relative to mass-market rivals, the Tonale stacks up a lot better compared with other luxury-brand competitors.
2023 Alfa Romeo Tonale Hybrid Veloce Credit: CarExpert
Even the cheapest BMW X1, the sDrive18i, is priced at $60,400 before on-roads, while a base Mercedes-Benz GLA 200 is priced at $63,200 list.
The Tonale’s price tag does, however, put it up against the mid-range Audi Q3 40 TFSI quattro ($58,400), which includes all-wheel drive. It’s also undercut by the base-grade but more powerful Volvo XC40 Plus B4 ($53,490) and Lexus UX250h Luxury ($54,320).
Then there’s a raft of SUVs from mass-market brands which stack up extremely well against the Tonale, like the Cupra Formentor VZ ($56,990) and Mazda CX-5 G35 Akera AWD ($54,600).
What is the Alfa Romeo Tonale Hybrid Veloce like on the inside?
The Tonale has an interior that’s at once instantly recognisable as belonging to an Alfa Romeo, while also proving fairly user-friendly.
2023 Alfa Romeo Tonale Hybrid Veloce Credit: CarExpert
The prominent humps over the digital instrument cluster, stitching details, and round air vents all lend a level of distinctiveness and elegance to the cabin.
Alfa Romeo makes the best paddle shifters of any vehicle under $100,000, and they’re pure industrial art. You need only tap them to discover they’re actually metal, and this sound belongs in an ASMR video.
The interior can only be had in black, but distinctively patterned metal-look trim provides some contrast and separates the pebbly soft-touch trim of the dash top from the leather-look trim further down. And while there’s no colour-adjustable ambient lighting, there’s elegant backlighting for the footwells, door handles and pockets.
Is the cabin nice? Yes. Is the material quality noticeably better than, say, a Mazda CX-5? No, and in some aspects the mass-market SUV is nicer inside – the Tonale, for example, doesn’t have leatherette padding on the sides of its centre console.
2023 Alfa Romeo Tonale Hybrid Veloce Credit: CarExpert
2023 Alfa Romeo Tonale Hybrid Veloce Credit: CarExpert
Build quality appeared solid in our tester, apart from a slight rattle in the B-pillar on both sides of the vehicle across unsealed roads. There’s an acceptable amount of physical switchgear, including redundant buttons for the climate control and an easily accessible drive mode selector.
There are some odd elements, though. Why is there a slide wheel for skipping tracks, but individual buttons for volume control? Also, the rubber wheel selector for the cruise control reminds me of the one in my Hyundai Genesis, and seems almost certain to degrade with time.
We also wish there were actual switches for the heated/ventilated seats and heated steering wheel, which don’t remember your settings and must be activated via the touchscreen each time. On a couple of occasions, I also accidentally changed the air-conditioning temperature while adjusting the heated seats.
Fortunately, the Uconnect 5 infotainment system is generally laid out in an intuitive manner – just ignore the heated steering wheel control being on the passenger side – and features Alfa-specific graphics.
2023 Alfa Romeo Tonale Hybrid Veloce Credit: CarExpert
2023 Alfa Romeo Tonale Hybrid Veloce Credit: CarExpert
There are shortcut buttons always present on the sides of the screen, even if you have smartphone mirroring active, which allows you to jump between different applications.
There’s also a configurable shortcuts menu, allowing you to add functions like the surround-view camera as a shortcut – though that’s another thing we wish there was a button for. The camera view has somewhat laggy frame rates and can appear washed out a bit by light, but it’s far from low-res.
There’s no head-up display, but there is a lovely 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster that offers a choice between an analogue instrument view, another instrument configuration, and a full-screen map view. Said map graphics aren’t as detailed as Audi’s, but we commend Alfa Romeo for including such a display nonetheless.
There are USB-A and USB-C outlets in the front and in the rear, while up front there’s also a 12V outlet and a wireless charging pad. The latter can be somewhat awkward to access if you have a larger phone.
2023 Alfa Romeo Tonale Hybrid Veloce Credit: CarExpert
The air-conditioning is adequate, no more. I’d love to try the Tonale again in the Brisbane summer to see how it copes with the heat.
There are rear air vents, while second-row space is quite good overall. The floor is relatively flat, with the driveline hump being quite low and wide.
Passengers commented on the amount of space in every direction, more than enough for those 180cm tall sitting behind similarly sized drivers, while the seat base was also praised for offering good thigh support.
That echoes feedback about the front seats which, while firm, prove supportive.
2023 Alfa Romeo Tonale Hybrid Veloce Credit: CarExpert
2023 Alfa Romeo Tonale Hybrid Veloce Credit: CarExpert
Both front and rear, there are bottle holders that can fit 1L bottles. In the rear, there’s a fold-down centre armrest with two cup