Distance: 1,261 km
Location: Germany, Luxembourg
Date: 2-10 Aug 2024
Up front: The leather seats and leather-wrapped control surfaces feel luxurious. The digital dashboard has minimal glare at a comfortable brightness, but the centre information screen is too short for useful navigation and wireless Apple CarPlay is unavailable. The gear shift annoyingly doesn’t stay in place after a gear shift so it’s hard to tell what gear the car is in without looking.
Although Dodge and Chrysler cars have signal turning stalks that stay in place until a manoeuvre is complete, Alfa Romeo decides that the stalks should return to the neural position even with the indicator activated just to make it harder to cancel. There were several times I thought I had indicated when I did not.
Both front seats are powered and the driver’s side has three memory settings, but there’s no bolstering adjustment unlike in the BMW 5-series. The driver’s seat wrapped around my body, but it may not be comfortable if you’re not average sized.
In the back: Rear passengers get two air conditioning vents and two USB charging slots. The rear windows are nice and large as Alfa Romeo has kept the belt line level for both rows of windows. The boot can fit three medium-sized suitcases and still close the load cover.
Driving: The diesel four-cylinder only produces around 170 horsepower, but it has enough grunt in sport mode to get up to 210km/h on the Autobahn and maintain that speed on straight stretches. The high centre of gravity hurt its maneuverability and it’s only confident at 160km/h around curves. The steering is precise enough for mountainous driving and light enough for maneuvering into tight parking spots in the city.
Visibility is poor in both the front and rear with giant A and C pillars. This is a car that needs a rear quarter window and surround view parking cameras, but has neither of those things.
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