Alfa Romeo MiTo 1.4 TB 155bhp Veloce

by David Finlay (21 April 2009)

At the time of writing there are 13 models in the MiTo range, and this is the one that the other twelve are pointing at. With its 155bhp 1.4-litre turbocharged petrol engine and top-line Veloce trim it's the one most likely to attract second glances from potential customers of the MINI (stated by Alfa as being the MiTo's principal rival), though at £14,995 it's either cheaper than the more powerful MINIs or faster than the less expensive ones, whichever way you like to look at it.
As mentioned in our launch review, the MiTo's true chances of competing with the MINI depend on reactions to how it looks and the way it drives. There is no particular tradition behind the design (at least by comparison), and I think it's fair to say that this not the most elegant car Alfa Romeo has ever produced, but it does look amusingly quirky, if you're in that sort of mood, and perhaps that aspect won't hurt sales.
The MINI remains the class leader in terms of handling, though it doesn't have the DNA system common to all MiTos. DNA stands for Dynamic, Normal and All Weather, and those are the three modes which can be selected using a small lever on the centre console and which relate to the throttle and steering responses and the stiffness of the damping. In Normal, which the system reverts to every time the engine is switched off, the MiTo feels as if someone has put a mattress under the throttle pedal (you can still get full power but the pedal is much less sensitive to small movements), though for normal driving, especially in town, it feels quite appropriate.
The action is a lot hotter in Dynamic, as it's meant to be, though even then the MiTo is no MINI: it has none of the British/German car's amazingly rapid reaction to steering inputs, and the springing and damping really have to be more closely aligned before the MiTo can ever feel like the hot hatch it's meant to be. Still, it's very well balanced and feels wonderful when you're accelerating across the apex of a corner, as long as the road surface is halfway decent.
Historically, Alfas have tended to have strange quirks in their design which might charitably be described as "characterful", and the MiTo is certainly not short of those. For example, the tailgate opening is very narrow, the rear sill is incredibly high (about six inches above the boot floor, I'd guess, though I must admit I didn't measure it) and the rear visibility is completely and utterly awful.
And then there are the sidelights, or "day lights" as Alfa calls them. The process for switching these on is frankly bizarre. You can't do this by turning the light stalk on the left of the steering wheel, since that gives you a choice only of dipped beam or no lights at all. No, the sidelights are activated through the trip computer, and from a standing start this requires no fewer than seven button presses. You can only do this when the car is stationary, which in the circumstances is quite reasonable, but the whole business seems to be about as crazy as having to fold down the rear seat every time you want to switch the windscreen wipers to intermittent (which, for the avoidance of doubt, you don't, or at least not yet).
Do we agree that this is quaint to the point of barminess? As far as I know there are no surviving members of the pre-Surrealist Dada art - or anti-art - movement, which was largely devoted to creating nonsense, but perhaps a new group of neo-Dadaists has been formed in Turin.
Or someone is having a giraffe. Or the Alfa designers really think this is the best way of switching on sidelights, which is probably the most likely but at the same time the weirdest possibility.
So, as I say, there's no shortage of tradition Alfa Romeo "character" here. For the rest, the MiTo is good fun, slightly odd-looking, amusingly quick, rather impractical and somewhat short on obvious build quality. There is also nothing quite like it for the price, and in that respect it has to be worth a look if you want to show the world that you are far from being a conventional motorist.

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