This suv is made like a fine watch. Everything works like its supposed to. Great power, comfortable, and it uses regular gas, not premium. Great power together with economy of operation equals one fine ride.Very reliable as well. I haven't had a single problem with this Alfa!…
5.0
Great car
by Marc | on 3/21/2024 8:44:13 AM
Have had for about 10 months and we love this car even more than when we picked it up. Have a Subaru Outback and have driven them since 2006. The Alfa quality is amazing and no issues at all. Just a joy to drive and outstanding performance. Will buy another Alfa!…
5.0
All around solid car. Nimble yet comfortable fun.
by 3 Alfa Family | on 12/9/2023 4:44:56 PM
Bought for my wife, but I usually drive it whenever we're in the car together. Around town the Tonale is comfortable and quiet, with a surprisingly large amount of interior space compared to the compact exterior size. We'll soon see how it fits a car seat. It soaks up less than perfect city roads comfortably without leaving the driver feeling numb to what's happening outside, and electric torque to the rear wheels means it feels nice accelerating around a corner, occasionally stepping the rear out a tiny bit, and the near perfect weight distribution really helps keep it feeling far more nimble than the weight would make you expect.
We drove over 2k miles for Thanksgiving, and on the highway the Tonale feels planted and stable, albeit with a bit more body roll during lane changes than you might expect if you're coming from a Stelvio. Power is more than enough for safe passing and merging, though the little 4 cyl does get a bit raspy sounding at times. The active assist features made the long road trip very easy, almost relaxing.
The back roads/ country roads were the most fun, and the powertrain & chassis definitely punches above it's class here, handling more like a well balanced sedan than a SUV.
Highway driving with traffic or hilly roads we found the best use of the hybrid system was to start the drive in N and use up most of the battery, once down to <10% charge switch to D and let the high regen handle most of the braking & hill descent speed control and recapture that energy until the battery is over 80%, then switch back to N, and repeat until you arrive. Over the course of 500miles in a single day of driving we logged about 60 kWh (almost 4x the battery total capacity) of charge captured from regen, and traveled over 60 miles on the highway in pure electric, finishing the day with almost 80% charge. However if you are doing long steady speed highway driving with no traffic or hills, turning on E-Save once you get to about 40% battery is the better long distance drive mode. Our largest fill-up at any gas station was 9.3 gallons.
Overall we're very happy with the vehicle so far, materials and comfort are equal or better than anything else we looked at in the segment, and the power & handling were significantly better than anything else in it's category we found. I initially had low expectations from the hybrid system, but it's growing on me. It is a jack of all trades master of none situation where it overall does very well in all conditions and use cases, though it's not the best powertrain for any specific case. For a vehicle that needs to be luxury, sporty, eco, quiet, compact, spacious, powerful, electric, gas, and inclement weather capable, it seems to do everything to about 90-95% of what you might hope for. There is nothing else (besides the Hornet rebadge) that can do as much as well, though several that do individual things better.
Final note about the Hornet, at the time we were purchasing the Hornet was not available at any dealer with comparable options. It seems they realized the two models are not actually differentiated in style or interior, so they have artificially segmented the two with limiting the options they are putting on the dealer lots. For example, not a single Hornet R/T on any dealer lot had the front parking sensor & 360 camera "tech package" when we were shopping. Optioned the same the vehicles are nearly the same price with a very small premium on the Alfa, but you cannot (could not?) find any Hornet that has the same options as the Tonale. I would suggest anyone looking to buy, and not wanting to custom order one, identify the options you want then find figure out if the Hornet or Tonale availability matches that. After extensive test driving of both, they really are the same vehicle and we would have been equally happy with the Hornet, if we could have found one with the correct options. IMO the Alfa badge is the more desirable one, but that doesn't translate to much of a $ difference when it's the near identical vehicle, and I also have to admit the Hornet hood looks nicer with the vents.…
5.0