2024 Alfa Romeo Tonale First Drive Review: Alfa Female

Maybe the wrong editor was sent to cover this launch. The chromosomes are wrong, and the birthdate is two-plus decades early, because the 2024 Alfa Romeo Tonale luxury compact SUV is being pitched to women and millennials. We have staffers fitting these demographics but were not forewarned to send them. Of course, Alfa Romeo has as little recent experience catering to these demographics—at least in North America—as your reporter has at being a young lady, so bear with us all as we travel to Alfa's homeland of Milan to assess this latest little luxe-ute's chances of luring the young and the fairer sex.

As noted in our First Look review, the Tonale is based on Stellantis' latest Small Wide 4×4 LWB architecture, which first appeared as the 2017 Jeep Compass. Now wearing bodywork that's largely shared with the Dodge Hornet, it gets major revisions, including an available plug-in hybrid electric all-wheel-drive system that will serve as the Tonale's sole powertrain (the Hornet's base 2.0T offering had been expected). It powers the front wheels via a mild hybrid 1.3-liter turbo four-cylinder good for 180 hp and 199 lb-ft, while a 121-hp/184-lb-ft electric motor spins the rear wheels, drawing energy from a 15.5-kWh battery pack. Altogether, they deliver 285 hp and 347 lb-ft of torque. Among its competitors (Audi Q3, BMW X1, Mercedes GLA, and Volvo XC40), only the priciest Mercedes AMG variants and the fully electric Volvo offer higher output numbers.

Driving a new Alfa Romeo around fashion-capital Milan on streets jammed with Alfas and Fiats and patrolled almost exclusively by Alfa Romeo cop cars, the 113-year-old brand seems much less niche than it does at home. Hearing the chassis technology described in the Italian accent of Domenico Bagnasco (who tuned both the 8C Competizione and 4C) elevates one's expectations. Alessandro Maccolini described how the original Giulia GT inspired Tonale's shoulder "GT" line, while the daylight openings pay homage to the 8C, and the SZ Zagato and Proteo concepts gave the Tonale its 3+3 front and rear lighting elements. Having just admired these cars in Alfa Romeo's Museo Storico helps establish Tonale's context in the brand's 113-year history. Yanks may need some brushing up on Alfa's back story, as the brand has only been sold stateside for 37 of those years.

Fully acclimated and indoctrinated, we buckle in and head north out of Alfa's historic Balocco Proving Ground into the foothills of the Italian Alps, starting out in the d-n-a drive selector's Advanced efficiency, or EV mode. The configurable screens adapt by swapping the tachometer for a requested-power dial scaled from 0 to 100. With the '60s-vintage gauge design selected, a traditional gas gauge occupies the bottom of the speedometer along with gasoline range displayed like an old odometer, while a similar gauge and "odometer" indicate electric charge level and range under the power-percentage meter.

In this mode the engine won't turn on unless you actuate the kick-down switch, and its detent is stronger than those in Volvo T8 PHEVs—a plus for hypermilers. One big minus for folks hoping to save money on gas (a strong consideration for women) or cut CO2 usage to save the planet (a millennial priority): There is no way to vary or maximize regenerative braking. We strongly suggest Alfa reprogram the lovely aluminum shift paddles for such use, as so many other automakers do (pulling either paddle engages hybrid mode and fires the engine).

EV mode is perfectly adequate for quietly driving on dull commutes, but with the weight-to-power ratio of a heavy-duty Sprinter or Transit van, there's not much Italian "brio" on offer in this rear-drive mode. (Lucky thing brio is more of a mainstream dude-buyer jam.) But at least we can attest that such commuting can occur at speeds as fast as 84 mph (while proving this, we burned the last 5.6 miles of predicted range in just 2.3 miles).

By default the Tonale starts in hybrid mode, and there's no setting for an EV default like the Volvo T8 offers. Driving in and out of the many small towns, we were impressed by how seldom the engine starts while scooting smartly out of roundabouts. The powertrain "sails" when you lift the throttle, and the only way to boost regenerative braking is to press "e-save."

This button can be programmed to prioritize recharging the battery or simply to refrain from depleting it. In either case, you lose the aft motor's 121 horses and 184 torques and get a lot more regen braking, but in recharge mode it also feels a little like you're dragging an anchor under acceleration. This can be minimized by setting a lower target battery-charge level (choices are 40, 60, and 80 percent).

In both modes the electronically adjustable frequency-selective dampers (standard on Veloce) provide a surprisingly supple ride on the optional 20-inch wheels. That's because they're programmed not to sweat the small (-amplitude, high-frequency, chatter-bumpy) stuff while firming up to prevent bottoming out on the less frequent big bumps. Comfort apparently counts big with the fairer sex.

For the mountain-roads section of our drive we selected "d" for Dynamic, which noticeably tenses up the steering, chassis, and powertrain programming (mercifully, pressing the shock button in the middle of the selector softens straight-ahead ride). Bagnasco claims the Tonale Veloce bests the X1 by 8 percent in both lateral grip and reduced body roll. There's no genuine torque vectoring, but calling for full rear-axle torque exiting a turn provides a noticeable rear-torque bias, and the chassis controller occasionally orders some brake bite on the inside wheels to induce virtual torque-vectoring.

Of course, this feature (along with our car's 2-plus-ton mass) had the brakes smelling hot by the bottom of the mountain road. Sure, we were driving like male Boomer speed-freak Alfa Quadrifoglio fans, but the standard Brembo four-piston front brakes got so hot, adaptive cruise control was disallowed until they cooled.

This part of the drive was big fun, though we scribbled down a few criticisms. The six-speed automatic occasionally seemed to be in too high a gear on corner exit (fixable by tugging on a metal shift paddle). We felt less road feel through the column-mounted electric power steering assist than in some competitors. And by the time sounds escape this wee 1.3-liter, via its turbo, catalysts, and mufflers to reach the ears, they sound neither thrilling nor Italian.

We ended the day letting Bagnasco show us a few hot laps of his home circuit at Balocco, during which he worked around the understeer we'd experienced by pitching the chassis surprisingly sideways through the tighter corners, thereby demonstrating the chassis' full potential—on the summer Bridgestone Turanza T005 tires Europe will get. North American Veloces will get Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 4s, which will probably understeer even more, heightening our sense that this is among the heaviest of the compact luxury SUVs. The base Sprint and mid Ti series come standard on narrower, taller 18-inch all-seasons .

We expect MotorTrend's audience demographic—which skews slightly more male, enthusiast, and Gen-X/Boomer—may find the 400-pounds-lighter, $10,000-cheaper Hornet GT more attractive, especially if fitted with Direct Connection GLH bits that help shave a pound or more off the burden each of its (268) horses must bear relative to this Alfa.

First, it is unmistakably an Alfa. Everything you see, touch, or smell pays a faithful homage to 113 years of Alfa history. That said, it certainly responds to caning less enthusiastically than the Giulia and Stelvio. As for hitting the target demographics, tech-savvy millennials should love all the screens and connectivity built into Uconnect 5, and the PHEV fuel consumption and 30-ish mile EV range will appeal. Update: Alfa Romeo has confirmed an official EPA electric range of 33 miles and 77 MPGe, with a combined fuel economy of 29 MPG for the Tonale.

Women and millennials both value reliability and durability, neither of which is a legacy strong suit of Italian brands generally. But Alfa has recently roared to the top half of the J.D. Power customer satisfaction index—with two five-plus-year-old, fully sorted models. Both target audiences are price sensitive, so the fact that Dodge packages most of the Tonale's best attributes at a big discount is concerning, but with leases qualifying for the $7,500 federal tax credit, the Tonale stands to undercut its ICE-powered competitors by a bunch. And if Alfa's industry-first blockchain NFT (sort of a built-in, cloud-based CarFax) boosts residual value as foreseen, the lease deal could end up attracting all demographics.

After the drive, we cheated off the paper of genuine XX-chromosome colleague Scotty Reiss, founder of @AGirlsGuide2Cars, by asking whether she thought the Tonale would connect with her readership and if so, why? Her best answer may be Alfa's ace in the hole: rarity and beauty. "Women don't like to show up at a party in the same dress as someone else." Now let's see if that advantage persists once partygoers start showing up in knock-off Hornet frocks or if lease bargains on both oversaturate the market …