Alfa Romeo Tonale Review (2022-present)

What is the Alfa Romeo Tonale?

The Alfa Romeo Tonale is a small family SUV, and incidentally, was the first new Alfa Romeo to be launched under the stewardship of Stellantis, the parent company formed when the Fiat Group (Alfa’s previous long-time owner) and PSA (previously parent company of Peugeot, Citroen and more) merged to form a giant new global manufacturer.

However, the Alfa Romeo Tonale was virtually signed off when the merger finalised, so while this is the beginning of a new era for the Italian brand – and representative of its ambitions to move further upmarket and cement a new reputation for reliability and quality – the Tonale hasn’t benefitted from parts-sharing with its many sister brands, as future Alfa Romeo models will.

The Tonale is offered in the UK with a mild hybrid powertrain delivering 158bhp from a turbocharged 1.5-litre turbo petrol engine with a 48-volt electric motor and 0.8kWh lithium-ion battery, which combines to deliver short periods of pure electric running at low speeds while boosting performance in faster driving. The other powertrain option on offer is a ‘Q4’ all-wheel drive, plug-in hybrid with a 1.3-litre petrol engine and official WLTP pure-electric range of 37 miles.

Being a fair bit smaller than the Alfa Romeo Stelvio, the Tonale is known as a ‘C-segment’ family SUV, which means that it’s actually not much bigger than family hatchbacks like the VW Golf. Rivals include the Jaguar E-Pace, Audi Q3, BMW X2, Mercedes GLA and Volvo XC40, among many others.

How practical is it?

The Tonale is practical enough, with room in the back seats for a couple of average-sized adults, a central armrest and rear air vents for additional comfort. Six-footers might feel a touch hemmed-in, though, especially if there are tall people up front. If rear passenger space is a priority, you’d be wise to look to roomier alternatives such as the Hyundai Tucson, Kia Sportage and Audi Q3.

The Alfa Tonale mild hybrid gets a 500-litre boot, which is a good size even by class standards. The load lip is a touch higher off the ground than on some rivals, so it’ll take a bit of effort to lug a big buggy into the boot or persuade a dog to jump up. Even so, with the boot floor flush with the load lip it’s a decent sized boot with a deep underfloor storage area, or you can drop the variable floor to give a bigger overall load space. The rear seats also fold flat in a 60/40 split, and there’s a ski hatch for through-loading slim items. The PHEV version loses a large portion of that underfloor storage, however, and overall luggage capacity drops to 385 litres as a result, but there's still a small underfloor compartment that's big enough for storing your charging cable.

Up front, it’s a really comfortable and classy space, with electric seat adjustment and a dashboard design that features straightforward air-con switches (praise be!), a dashboard architecture that’s slightly canted towards the driver, a domed driver’s binnacle and a raised centre console that also emphasises the sporty, driver-focussed ‘cockpit’ feel. Added to the lovely, slim steering wheel, subtle trim inserts and neat touches including an Italian flag set around the gearshifter, it all feels smart and there's a reasonable air of premium quality to it. Look closely, however, and there are a few scratchy, brittle-feeling plastics around, something that isn't the case in, say, a BMW X1 or a Volvo XC40.

And yet a perception of quality, according to Alfa Romeo’s CEO, Jean-Philippe Imparato, is key to the company's aspirations over the next few years, with the brand aiming to prove that the old years of unreliability are gone: “Now we must become more premium, with only good quality and excellent reliability. This is what we will prove before 2025.” Well, time's up, and to be honest, we're yet to detect any significant change on either score. More on the reliability aspect of that in a moment.

What's it like to drive?

The entry-level powertrain choice in the Tonale is a 1.5-litre petrol engine with a very small amount of 48-volt mild-hybrid assistance. The teeny 0.8kWh battery won't let you travel any significant distance without the petrol engine kicking in, and it’ll only move under electric power alone at the very lowest parking speeds. It will, however, let you coast to a stop without the engine running, which will save you a small amount of petrol.

And with such a limited amount of assistance and a petrol engine that only sends a modest 158bhp to the front wheels, performance is rather disappointing, especially given that Alfa bills the Tonale as a sporty option in the class. Official figures say that this version of the Tonale will do 0-62mph in 8.8 seconds, but in reality, it feels significantly slower than that.

That in itself isn’t too much of a problem, but the incredibly lazy throttle response can be. There’s simply too much of a delay between you pressing the go pedal and anything tangible happening. It never stops being frustrating, and it can occasionally put you in some fairly hairy-feeling situations when pulling out into traffic at junctions. The lazy throttle response manifests itself the other way around, too: you often find the engine holding onto its revs when you come off the pedal, which contributes to the powertrain’s rather unpolished feel.

The slow responses also mean that you often find yourself being quite heavy on the throttle in an effort to counteract them, and this means that when the powertrain finally does respond to a prod of the pedal, the seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox kicks down and sends the engine revs sky-high. This causes a rather inelegant mooing sound to emanate from under the bonnet, and a noticeable amount of engine vibration to come through into the cabin. This can be remedied to a certain extent if you go for a car with gearshift paddles behind the steering wheel that give you greater control over the transmission, but you only get these on Veloce cars.

The plug-in hybrid version of the Tonale is a lot more powerful than the mild hybrid, despite using a smaller 1.3-litre petrol engine. This sends 178bhp to the front wheels, while a much more potent electric motor - fed by a much larger 15.5kWh lithium-ion battery - sends up to 120bhp to the rear wheels, meaning you get all-wheel drive. Overall, the maximum power output is given at 276bhp (you don’t simply add the two power figures together, because that’s not how most hybrids work).

According to official figures, the Tonale PHEV will run for up to 38 miles on electric-only power, at speeds of up to 84mph. The same figures say it’ll cover the 0-62mph dash in just 6.2 seconds.

Now, all those numbers sound very impressive, but again, the PHEV doesn’t feel anywhere near as quick as they suggest. Granted, the powertrain is capable of delivering a fairly strong surge of acceleration when both the power sources hook up to deliver their maximums, but this only ever happens if you absolutely pin the accelerator pedal to the floor. And again, there’s that lazy throttle response (although it’s not quite as bad as in the MHEV) that means there’s an irritatingly long pause between your pedal input and the powertrain reacting. Push the pedal any more gently than described, which you will the vast majority of the time, and the level of acceleration you feel is surprisingly gentle, and nowhere near what you’d expect given the 276bhp power output figure.

The PHEV is a generally more refined car than the MHEV, though. Predictably, it’s very quiet when rolling around on electric-only power, and when the petrol engine does cut in and out, it usually does so smoothly and quietly, if not absolutely imperceptibly. When you need to go faster and the engine needs to work harder, it stays quiet enough if you keep the revs below the 3,500rpm mark or thereabouts. It can sound a little thrashy if it's made to work any harder than that, though.

Stick your Tonale into e-Save mode, and something interesting happens: your power comes mainly from the petrol engine - still with the occasional bit of help from the electric motor - and another 1,000- to 2,000rpm is added to the rev counter on top of what’s needed to maintain your current level of progress. That’s in order to help put some energy back into the battery as you drive, on top of what you’re getting from the car's regenerative braking system. That’s not a problem when you're pottering around gently because the engine stays below that 3,500rpm mark. If you need to go faster, though, then the e-Save mode’s higher baseline on the rev counter makes it easier to bust the 3,500rpm threshold, whereupon the engine starts making itself heard.

With both powertrains, the throttle response and gearbox operation can be sharpened up a smidgen by twisting the DNA drive mode selector round from N (Natural) to D (Dynamic). It is only a smidgen, though, and never completely eradicates the issue.

The DNA selector also has an effect on the steering. In N mode, it feels decidedly odd. Alfas usually have quite quick steering and the Tonale does, too, but only after you’ve turned the wheel quite some distance away from the straight-ahead position. The initial responses before that are quite slow, so your steering reactions go from slow to quick, all of a sudden, and this inconsistency means you don’t always know which type of reaction to expect. Selecting Dynamic mode alleviates this a little bit, with slightly keener initial responses, which in turn, slightly improve the level of consistency. In both modes, though, the steering feels quite light which, when combined with that speed and inconsistency, can make the Tonale feel a wee bit twitchy.

Despite those steering foibles, though, the Alfa still manages to be quite a sweet-handling car. There’s strong grip from both front-wheel-drive and four-wheel-drive models, and there’s tighter control over body roll than you’ll find in many rivals. This generally feels like a light and pointy car that doesn’t mind the odd fast direction-change. And despite that pointiness, the Tonale delivers a decent level of ride comfort. Okay, so there’s a distinctly firm edge, but that suits the sporty nature of the car, and the suspension still does a reasonable job of smoothing over the worst bumps and cracks. Considering that the Tonale shares its underpinnings with the Jeep Compass - which if we’re honest, isn’t a great starting point - Alfa’s engineers have done an impressive job in polishing up the Tonale’s road manners.

That’s in the entry-level Ti or Sprint trim levels: upgrade to the Veloce or Tributo Italiano trims, and your Tonale comes with something called Alfa Dual Stage Valve suspension (DSV). This uses twin-chamber dampers that are electronically actuated to give a firmer or softer ride according to which driving mode is selected.

Select Natural mode, and the car’s ride quality feels very similar to that of a non-DSV-equipped car: the suspension has that same firm-but-fair edge, and delivers more-than-acceptable levels of everyday comfort. Dial in Dynamic mode, however, and that edge increases: things become a little more jiggly as a result, but not uncomfortably so. You’ll also notice that the body control improves though, which makes the car feel a little neater when changing direction.

Technology, equipment & infotainment

The Alfa Romeo Tonale was initially offered in two highly specced trims – Ti and Veloce - and there was also a launch edition known as the Speciale. Even the cheaper of the two trims in the line-up, the Ti, came with full matrix LED headlights and keyless entry (often pricey options on many rivals), dual-zone climate control, 18-inch alloy wheels, semi-autonomous driving mode including adaptive cruise control, lane-keep assist and other driver assistance features.

Veloce upped the ante with bigger 19-inch wheels, privacy glass, gearshift paddles, DSV suspension, alcantara interior and gloss black exterior style highlights. The limited-run Speciale trim added 20-inch wheels, Speciale badging and various style tweaks.

Later on, the Ti trim was renamed Sprint, while the Veloce remained, and a new higher-end edition mirroring the previous Speciale edition was introduced, called the Tributo Italiano. Despite the name changes, equipment levels remained broadly similar.

The infotainment system in the Tonale is all-new to Alfa Romeo and a drastic improvement on anything that the Italian brand has offered previously. The 10.25-inch touchscreen is logically arranged and fairly easy to use once you've got used to the tabbed-style arrangement of the various menus and submenus. The system also reacts quickly and consistently to taps and swipes, and there are configurable widgets that you can customise as shortcuts to your most-used functions. However, some of the onscreen icons are very small, too small to hit at a glance, and the sheer amount of them on the screen at any one time makes the one you're after hard to pick out from the crowd, such is the clutter.

In terms of functionality, you get a very decent in-built satnav system, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity, over-the-air updates and even Amazon Alexa voice control. You also get a 12.3-inch digital driver’s display behind the steering wheel that has clear, sharp graphics, complete with a variety of display layouts.

Alfa Romeo Tonale running costs

The Alfa Romeo Tonale MHEV Hybrid costs from around £36,000, while the Plug-in Hybrid starts at more like £43,000. That means that the Tonale is a similar price to an automatic Audi Q3, but the Alfa gets better standard equipment and also more efficient, electrified powertrain hardware, making it more competitive in terms of purchase costs.

The electrification also promises to make it cheaper to run. The mild hybrid version manages emissions of around 130g/km, and economy of around 49 mpg, on the official combined WLTP cycle. That's usefully better than the roughly 40mpg and 160g/km that most non-electrified alternatives manage, so the Alfa promises to be very competitive on purchase and running costs in the context of premium family SUVs. The same tests state that the PHEV version will do up to 217 mpg, but those tests are unrealistically flattering to plug-in hybrids, so take that figure with a pinch - nay, a barrel - of salt. It has the potential to be very efficient if you keep it topped up with electricity by charging regular, but if you don't, it'll be very thirsty indeed.

It’s also worth considering that less premium rivals such as the Kia Sportage, Hyundai Tucson, Ford Kuga and Nissan Qashqai typically offer better rear passenger space and various electrified powertrains with comparable efficiency and fuel costs to the Alfa Romeo Tonale, despite costing a bit less to buy.

Alfa Romeo Tonale reliability

Alfa Romeo doesn't exactly have the best of reputations in this area, and in the hope of addressing this, the firm stated when the Tonale was first launched that the car would be offered with a five-year warranty rather than the three-year one that covers most of its cars. Well, not in the UK, it would seem, because the car has a three-year, unlimited-mileage arrangement over here.

That might be just as well in terms of the company's coffers if the latest 2024 What Car? Reliability Survey is anything to go by. The brand placed 30th out of 31 manufacturers for reliability, with only MG performing worse. In fairness, though, the Tonale didn't contribute to that result as the sample size of owner feedback wasn't large enough for the model to figure. Let's hope for improvement once it is.