Red Hot!

Drive Magazine, December ’09

Alfa Romeo as a brand can hardly be classed as a volume seller in South Africa. An Alfa has always been seen as a car that you buy with your heart not your head. Alfa is the defacto Italian car that puts style ahead of practicality, driving experience ahead of outright performance figures.

The Mito is no exception in terms of styling – love it or hate it, you have to admit that it has character. You certainly won’t be driving through a city without being noticed. So many cars these days look as though they were carved from a cube of butter and the butter has started to melt so that you can’t tell one from another. Not so with the Mito

Styling

Styling divides opinion, there are those that love the Mito and those that hate it. There are very few fence sitters although several initial doubters have crossed over into the love-it camp. Taking its styling cues from the 8C Competizione, the Mito doesn’t have the instant family feel of its larger siblings. Nevertheless, it is still very obviously an Alfa.

Facts n Figures

For the asking price you get a car that is certainly not light on equipment but neither is it what you would call fully loaded. Have a look at the options list though. Once specced up, the MiTo is much better value than the base model. Spec up a german hatch and you’ll spend months convalescing from open wallet surgery. Not so with the MiTo, add some extras like Bluetooth, climate control, auto lights and Bose sound and the list price goes up to just R265000. Compared with say a 1.4 TSI Golf it starts to look like a bargain.

Performance

The MiTo uses the 1.4 turbo mill borrowed from Fiat. An engine that has been around since the old Uno Turbo but obviously significantly refined over the years. The performance isn’t mind blowing but it does feel spritely and the turbo ensures solid torque right through the rev range. Turbo engines suffer from that old phenomenan, turbo lag. The MiTo does of course have the same problem but it manages the lag well and it is hardly noticable on the daily commute. Racing starts away from the lights are really the only time that it bogs down a little.

Most surprising for a small car is the ride which is exceptional. The car cruises along without a hint of road or wind noise. Our test car had no rattles and really gave you the impression of sitting in an expensive car. Clearly recruiting a quality control expert from BMW is starting to pay dividends.

Uncommon for a car in this class is the Alfa D.N.A system, which changes the dynamics of the car at the fick of a switch. D.N.A is really just an abbreviation of the modes available, Dynamic, Normal or All Weather. Dynamic mode stiffens up the susspension and the steering response whilst remapping the engine management for performance dricing. In Dynamic mode the throttle response is quicker but the steering can get a little unsettled by rough road surfaces. The trottle response is a bit too urgent when you are stuck in traffic but then you can just switch it back to Normal – even on the move. Dynamic does really come into it’s own on roads like mountain passes though.

Normal mode works well for day-to-day driving. You don’t lose any power, it’s just that throttle response is a bit more lazy. The suspension and steering are far more suited to a comfortable ride. The All Weather mode doesn’t seem to feel any different from the Normal mode and since it didn’t rain much while we had the car, we simply ignored it.

Desirability

The MiTo is desirable, make no mistake. It amazes me how many people keep saying that they want one, particularly the younger generation. The MiTo is certainly the king of cool compared with it’s rivals and is without doubt the car to be seen in on a University Campus.Small Alfas have always been appealing particularly to the wannabe Ferrari drivers – and there are a lot of them.

Economy

Italians have never really been too concerned about fuel consumption, and they pay more for petrol that just about any other nation. The old theory was that you can extract extra power from a small engine by allowing it to drink fuel. Nevertheless, the MiTo is not too thirsty, returing an average of 8 litres per 100 kilmeters. Even in lead foot mode it stayed under the 10 l/100 mark. The tank does unfortunately hold a mere 45 litres so you will be visiting the pumps fairly regularly.

Emotional value

As I mentioned earlier, an Alfa is generally a purchase made with the heart. You really need to appreciate the italian design philosophy. There are very few Alfa owners that bought their cars because it just looked like the reasonable car. Alfa owners tend to be passionate about the brand and are often seen wearing branded jackets and caps. I remember someone asking me if he should buy an Alfa, influenced by my enthuisiasm. I told him to ask himself a couple of questions. “Do you ever walk away after parking your car and then stop, turn round just to have another look at it?” “Do you ever go home the long way just to spend more time driving, preferably on a twisty road?” If the answer is no, an Alfa may not be the car for you.

Interior ambience

Sitting in a MiTo is a pleasant experience even when you are not actually moving. The dual-clock instrument binnacle harks back to the old Alfasud. The carbon fibre effect dash is actually colour coded to the exterior. You just don’t get that on run of the mill small cars. The little MiTo makes you feel special every time you slide into the driver’s seat. Interestingly enough, I loaded four adults into the car and the back seat passengers commented on how much legroom and headroom they had. The MiTo does have a Tardis like quality.

The MiTo is not only cool and fun to drive but it seems that Alfa have addressed their build quality issues of old. Now here is an Alfa that you can buy with your head as well as your heart.

-Steve Allison

MiTo second opinion

Ah the little MiTo. Had a lot to try and live up to.

Thing is, the latest crop of Alfas, and I’m still fairly young so I’ve only really driven stuff from the 147, even a couple of 155s type of era. Had a whole string of Q4 3.2 models – Brera, Spider, 159. All dreadful cars suffering identical catastrophic foibles. Five-seven rev-limiter in first, safety electronics that all run and hide when you start driving hard, things like that. Sort of made the lovely raspy engine note, velvety but alert ride and old-school classy cabins a bit pointless to me, although my old publisher who is let’s say less hardcore than I admitted a few weeks ago the Brera was one of his favourites of his association with Drive magazine.

So the MiTo has quite a lot of heritage, passion, and raw expectation to make up for then.

At first it wasn’t doing it. The base-spec isn’t exactly overflowing with goodies for the price, although the be fair a generously-specced example wouldn’t actually cost that much more (circa R40K fully-equipped), so that’s nice. But at first its looks gave me no more shivers than the latest Fiesta, and that’s bad.

It’s a bit of a grower though, the MiTo. After my allotted three days in it, before faithfully turning it over to genuine, lo0ng-term Alfisti Steve, I didn’t want to give it back. The good stuff I found:

It didn’t break, even trawling the back-streets of JHB after dark behind the over-portly rump of the 308CC, everything remained working. Even when, gasp, driven rather enthusiastically it all hung together.

But it wasn’t boring and characterless either. After a hard thrash the night before for instance, the cockpit did fill with the heady brew of unburnt petrol being cleared from the throaty exhaust. The headlights are atroscious. And under severe duress the Q2 differential does sound like it’s about to come off. But it doesn’t.

And it gives you such a plucky drive every time… All right in the Normal mode the steering was way too light and the throttle not sharp enough, but just use the lovely ally selector by your knee to go up into Dynamic mode and you get meatier steering, tauter responses (sometimes a touch too taut), a more positive throttle response and even a thick wodge of bonus torque. For a total of 230Nm. From a 1.4.

It’s brilliant. Who needs clever but expensive twincharging when you can achieve this much with “just” a turbo?

And once you’ve connected with the MiTo, it starts to look sensational. And nothing like other cars in its class. Even at R241 000 (plus R1800 for paint, apparently optional), it’s worth it. And it’s a new, modern car which actually delivers that Alfa magic motoring wordsmiths spin of the days of yore while bowing to the environmentalist leanings as much as is necessary.

-Russell Bennett

Drive Vitals: Vehicle Name

Engine: In line 4 cylinder

Induction: Turbo

Capacity 1400cc

Power 114kW

Torque 230 Nm

Kerb weight 1145 kg

Driven wheels: Front

0-100km/h: 8 Seconds

Price: R 245 200

For more information, check out Alfa SA. Or follow Alfa SA on Twitter!

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