Electric cars, a fad and its own demise?

CNET UK
Reviews
Car Tech
Cars


Alfa Romeo MiTo review




Reviewed by Rory Reid on 26 July 2010





























Verdict


The MiTo leaves most other superminis in its dust. It's infinitely more desirable than established vehicles in its class -- including the highly rated Mini.


Typical price

£11,935
Search for latest Alfa Romeo M





Good
Great fun to drive
Blue&Me entertainment system


Bad
Lacks steering feedback
Harsh ride




In this review
1.The Good
2.The Bad
3.The Tech
4.The Cost
5. The Verdict

Remember the Alfa Romeo 8C supercar? We've just spent a week testing its little brother, a cute supermini called the MiTo. How can a supermini be related to a supercar, you ask? According to Alfa, it's all about having the right DNA. We have no idea what that means. But is it fast enough to terrify passengers? Does it have tech befitting a £170,000 motor? Let's sort this out.




The Good

The 8C is a stunning car, so it's no surprise the MiTo borrows a few of its party tricks. Everything from the bulbous snout to the teardrop-shaped windows to the concentric LED lights at the rear, has been lifted, in some shape or form, from the 8C. The slightly squashed front end has a rather sad expression, as if it knows it's the runt of a pedigree litter, but overall, we think it looks gorgeous -- expect plenty of admiring glances from pedestrians and fellow drivers.




The MiTo offers three driving modes, selectable via a 'DNA' (dynamic, normal and all-weather) switch -- aha! -- by the gear stick. The all-weather mode gives you extra grip in icy or wet conditions, the default mode gives you super-light steering and a generally easy ride, while the third, dynamic mode, transforms the car completely. It revs more eagerly, pulls harder and, despite only having a 1.4-litre turbocharged engine, does 0-60mph in a brisk 8 seconds.

An overboost feature, available only in dynamic mode, gives you an extra kick of turbo power under heavy acceleration. This facilitates overtaking, and is accompanied by Gran Turismo-style graphics on the instrument panel showing you what level of boost you're using. Tres cool.




Handling is generally very good. The ride is harsher than we'd like, and the steering could provide a touch more feedback to warn us when the front wheels are about to lose grip during cornering, but these are quibbles we can live with.



The Bad

Alfa Romeos have a reputation of breaking down, falling apart and generally doing things that aren't conducive to stress-free motoring. The only sign of trouble on our test car was the passenger airbag warning light refusing to turn off, but that didn't bother us -- we didn't plan on crashing, and even if we did, we'd be in the driving seat, where the airbag works just fine.

It is slightly worrying, however, that the first 18 pages of the MiTo's user manual are dedicated to things that might go wrong. Either Alfa Romeo is taking reliability very seriously, or it expects you to make use of those 18 pages on a regular basis.

The Tech

The MiTo has a wealth of switches, dials and buttons, the most interesting of which is a Microsoft Windows Start button located on the steering wheel. This activates the Blue&Me information and entertainment system, co-developed by Microsoft and Fiat, Alfa Romeo's parent company. It allows playback of digital music via the car's USB port as well as hands-free use of mobile phones that have been paired via Bluetooth -- all via voice control.



The media player is exceptionally easy to use – simply connect a USB mass-storage device, an iPod filled with unprotected MP3 or WMA files, and the MiTo plays those files over the car's speakers, while displaying track information on the dashboard's central display. Dialling a contact in your phone book is achieved by pressing Start, saying the word 'dial' aloud, followed by the name of the contact. Text-to-speech technology means SMS text messages can be read aloud over the car's speakers at the driver's request. To see the system in action on the Fiat 500, click here.


One other feature we were particularly keen on was Hill Hold. This system detects when the car is stopped on a hill with an incline of 5 per cent or more, and applies the brakes to prevent you rolling backwards into parked traffic. The brakes are only applied for approximately 1 second, but in practice that's long enough to move your foot from the brake to the accelerator pedal, find your clutch's biting point, and pull away.

The MiTo has several optional technologies, including heated windscreens, an alcohol test kit, satellite navigation and a Bose hi-fi with eight speakers, a subwoofer and digital amplifier. The latter was unavailable on our test car, but we imagine it's better than the rubbish Blaupunkt radio that comes as standard.




The Cost

The MiTo comes in three trim levels. The entry-level Turismo retails for £10,995, our 155bhp Lusso costs £14,045, while the top of the range Veloce will set you back £14,995. Emissions on the entry-level car are mediocre at 138g/km, but the combined fuel economy of 43.5mpg is pretty respectable.



The Verdict

The MiTo may forever live in the shadow of the 8C, but it leaves most other superminis in its dust. It's infinitely more desirable than established vehicles in its class -- including the highly rated Mini. It's also relatively affordable -- just over £10k is a pretty reasonable cost of entry into the Alfa Romeo owners' club. Get one if you can

Whoever wrote that is full of **** and so are you.

Get one if you can

...gunga skims over everything. he was pissed that
i highlighted alfas reputation for self destruction....

Kwech’s racing success in 1965 came to the attention of Alfa Romeo’s head of USA racing, and Knauz Motors was offered a chance to purchase an Autodelta-prepared GTA to campaign in the newly established SCCA Trans-Am Series, with Kwech as the lead driver. In 1966 the privateer team of Horst Kwech and Gaston Andrey was the most successful in the Trans-Am, accumulating 39 of the 57 manufacturers' points for Alfa Romeo and clinching Alfa’s Under 2 Liter Trans-Am Manufacturers' Championship.[1] Horst Kwech and Gaston Andrey also scored more points than any other drivers. Horst used the same GTA to qualify for the 1966 SCCA ARRC runoffs at Riverside. He went on to win the first ARRC B-Sedan National Championship in a famous race with 25 lead changes, against the Lotus Cortina of another young Aussie (but Canadian born) Allan Moffat, and was presented with the SCCA President's Cup for his outstanding drive.

In 1967 Kwech formed Ausca with Ron Neal and Bill Knauz in Libertyville, Illinois. This company developed Alfa Romeo performance parts and prepared and raced Alfas in various series. In that year, he prepared and raced the Tri-Color Alfa GTA’s with Monty Winkler, and Alfa Romeo gained second place in the 1967 Under 2 Liter Trans-Am Series.

In 1968 he raced for Shelby and won the Riverside Trans-Am race in a Shelby-prepared Mustang. This was one of three wins for the Shelby team in Trans-Am in 1968.

Kwech competed in the Under 2 liter Trans-Am Championship again in 1970, in an Alfa Romeo GTA.[2] In 1971, he ran an Alfa Romeo GTV against a strong Datsun team led by John Morton in a BRE Datsun 510....

Can you buy an Alfa Romeo for £1000 or less without it completely ruining your life all the time challenge





The presenters' Alfas when the challenge ended. From left to right, Hammond's Spider, Clarkson's 75 and May's GTV.
The presenters were challenged with proving to the show's producers that in order to be a true "petrolhead," you need to have owned an Alfa Romeo. So, they were each given £1,000 to buy an Alfa Romeo. Clarkson bought an Alfa Romeo 75 3.0 V6 (for £450), Hammond bought an Alfa Romeo Spider 2.0 (for £1,000), and May bought an Alfa Romeo GTV 2.0 TwinSpark (for £995). The cars were put to a series of tests, which included participating in a track day at Rockingham Circuit, featuring their cars on a calendar which they must sell at a newsstand, and then lastly entering a Concours event for Alfas, traveling as far as 50 miles to get to the event area.

At the race circuit, the presenters were to gain a point for every car they overtook and lose a point each time they were overtaken. Optimistic about their chances on the track, the presenters were distraught to find out that their opponents were driving high-end sports cars and supercars. The challenge began "descending into a farce" as the crew were consistently overtaken dozens of times per lap. Alfa Romeo's reputation for poor reliability was reinforced as each car constantly broke down and fell apart. Jeremy's Alfa 75 was the least reliable of all the cars. Its flywheel bearings broke within minutes on the track, it quickly lost power steering, the seats collapsed, the exhaust fell off the car, and his brakes suffered severe fade. James' clutch barely worked in the first place and failed numerous times throughout the day. Hammond's Spider ran on three cylinders for the longest time before his water pump shattered, rendering his car useless. In the end, with both the Spider and the GTV out of commission, Clarkson attempted to overtake a Ford Focus (successfully) and careened off the course, landing on its side

Can you buy an Alfa Romeo for £1000 or less without it completely ruining your life all the time challenge





The presenters' Alfas when the challenge ended. From left to right, Hammond's Spider, Clarkson's 75 and May's GTV.
The presenters were challenged with proving to the show's producers that in order to be a true "petrolhead," you need to have owned an Alfa Romeo. So, they were each given £1,000 to buy an Alfa Romeo. Clarkson bought an Alfa Romeo 75 3.0 V6 (for £450), Hammond bought an Alfa Romeo Spider 2.0 (for £1,000), and May bought an Alfa Romeo GTV 2.0 TwinSpark (for £995). The cars were put to a series of tests, which included participating in a track day at Rockingham Circuit, featuring their cars on a calendar which they must sell at a newsstand, and then lastly entering a Concours event for Alfas, traveling as far as 50 miles to get to the event area.

At the race circuit, the presenters were to gain a point for every car they overtook and lose a point each time they were overtaken. Optimistic about their chances on the track, the presenters were distraught to find out that their opponents were driving high-end sports cars and supercars. The challenge began "descending into a farce" as the crew were consistently overtaken dozens of times per lap. Alfa Romeo's reputation for poor reliability was reinforced as each car constantly broke down and fell apart. Jeremy's Alfa 75 was the least reliable of all the cars. Its flywheel bearings broke within minutes on the track, it quickly lost power steering, the seats collapsed, the exhaust fell off the car, and his brakes suffered severe fade. James' clutch barely worked in the first place and failed numerous times throughout the day. Hammond's Spider ran on three cylinders for the longest time before his water pump shattered, rendering his car useless. In the end, with both the Spider and the GTV out of commission, Clarkson attempted to overtake a Ford Focus (successfully) and careened off the course, landing on its side

Academic dead wood wouldn't have been able to afford it at the time, but I'm not aware of it having any other problems.

Alfa was considered the equal of Mercedes or porsche in quality at the time and was more fun to drive.

However, these are NOT available now. So its the"If I had bacon, I could make you bacon and eggs,if I had eggs" rationale.