The Clarkson Review: 2017 Renault Scénic

IN THE olden days, cars were made from steel, and that’s only right and proper. Steel is as manly as Tarzan’s scrotum. Horny-handed sons of toil mine the iron ore using dynamite and huge excavators, and then this is turned into steel in giant foundries that are hot, dangerous and noisy. A steel foundry is the exact opposite of Jane Austen.

Today we live in different times. Cars can no longer be manly, because it is now offensive to be in possession of a penis. Or to let it do your thinking. This means cars must be kind to the environment and economical and cheap and safe, and that means they must be made from plastic.

There was a time when we laughed at plastic cars. The Reliant Robin was plastic, and so was its big sister, the Scimitar, which was driven by Princess Anne. It is obligatory to mention this, in the same way as when someone sees a swan, he must point out it can break a man’s arm.

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The British firm TVR never really made it into the big league because, while its cars were fast and pretty and gruntsomely male, we all knew that behind the bellow and the leather the bodies were made from GRP. Which is plastic. Like a canoe. Or a lavatory seat.

Today, however, you will find plastic panels on almost every car made. And it’s easy to see why. It’s light, which means less fuel is needed to cart it around, and that means fewer emissions. What’s more, it’s cheaper than steel, which means greater profits for the car manufacturer, which means your pension fund is healthier. And on top of that, you never hear of plastics companies going on strike and throwing stuff at policemen, whereas steelworkers are always outside the plant, round a brazier, shouting. Which is bad for the just-in-time production techniques used at every car factory in the world.

The trouble is that you can always tell when a panel on a car is plastic. And I don’t mean when you tap it; I mean when you look at it. There’s something about the way it’s curved or creased, and there’s something too about the way it looks when painted. All of this stirs your limbic system, which says, “That’s crap.”

There was a white Toyota hybrid of some kind outside the office yesterday and its back end was a futuristic blend of shapes and creases that could never have been achieved if it had been made from steel. It put me in mind of a Star Wars Stormtrooper, and those Stormtrooper suits, you just know, are made from plastic and could therefore not withstand a pebble from David’s sling, let alone a blast of green from a space laser gun. And that’s Toyota’s problem. Your eyes tell you it looks great. But your soul is saying, “It’s rubbish.”

And that brings me on to the snappily named Renault Scénic Dynamique S Nav dCi 110. Pop into your dealership, and within about five minutes, no matter how gormless and cheaply suited the salesman might be, you are going to be slack-jawed in amazement and ready to sell your children for the chance to own such a thing.

It’s got a head-up display, for crying out loud. And I don’t mean a system like those you find in high-end BMWs and the F/A-18 Hornet, where the information you need is projected onto the windscreen. I mean a system where a panel rises electrically from the top of the dash. You’re going to be seriously excited when you first see this in operation.

“The new Scénic is like one of those Korean music centres you could buy for £25.99 in the 1980s”

Then there’s a massive glass sunroof with an electric blind, an 8.7in touchscreen, DAB radio, leather upholstery, cruise control and a system that wakes you up if you’re getting drowsy, along with more systems that keep you in the correct lane and ensure your lights dip automatically when a car is coming the other way. It can even recognise road signs.

You can change the colour of the interior lighting, and you get blacked-out windows in the back in case you need to give Puff Snoop a lift to a gig. And all this stuff is provided as standard for £25,445. Which, on the face of it, makes this car the bargain of the century.

Then you’re going to step out of the cabin to take in the exterior styling, and you’re going to like that too. As a general rule I loathe cars of this type and I’ve loathed the Scénic more than all the others. But this … this is very, very attractive.

Obviously, it isn’t a racing car. Yes, it has racy 20in wheels, but there’s a perfectly ordinary 1.5-litre diesel engine that turns fuel into a dribble of performance; 0-62mph takes 12.4 seconds, which would have been considered woeful 30 years ago. But which today, in health-and-safety Britain, is par for the course.

Then the salesman is going to tell you it’s capable of 72.4mpg. I don’t doubt for a moment that this is true. In the same way as I’m capable of running the 100-metre sprint in roughly the same time as Usain Bolt. In normal use you won’t get anything like 70mpg out of it, but it’s still very economical.

And practical. The rear seats, I admit, are a bit of a squash if you are burly or long, but the boot’s huge and the floor moves about to make it versatile as well. You can even buy a longer version that has seven seats.

So here we have a good-looking, well-equipped, practical and economical car that is exceptional value for money. Lovely.

Except it isn’t. Because the more you look at it, the more you realise there’s something wrong. And what’s wrong is: a lot of this car is made from plastic. And somehow you know. Which means you know it’s crap.

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And I’m sorry, but all that equipment provided as standard? For 25 grand? It sounds tremendous, but it does make you wonder about the quality of it all.

And the more you wonder, the more you start to think that maybe the new Scénic is like one of those Korean music centres you could buy for £25.99 in the 1980s. They had the flashing lights and twin tape decks and graphic equalisers. But they were in no way a substitute for the mix’n’match alternatives from Garrard, Marsden Hall, Akai, Teleton and so on.

There’s another problem too. Look up now and say to your family, “I’m thinking of buying a Renault Scénic Dynamique S Nav dCi 110”, and see if anyone is the slightest bit interested . . .

Thought not.

 

Head to head: Scénic v C4 Picasso

	Renault Scénic Dynamique S Nav dCi 110	Citroën C4 Picasso Flair BluHDI 120 S&S
Price	£25,445	£25,650
Fuel economy	72.4mpg	74.3mpg
CO2	100g/km	100g/km
Boot space	506 litres	537 litres

 

Write to us at driving@sunday-times.co.uk, or Driving, The Sunday Times, 1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF

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source https://www.driving.co.uk/car-reviews/clarkson/the-clarkson-review-2017-renault-scenic/

Abarth 595 Turismo review (2017 on)

THE Fiat executive who came up with the idea for the Abarth 595 must have a wicked sense of humour. Preposterous in many ways, it begins life as the little Fiat 500, which, even with the turbocharged version of the company’s 0.9-litre two-cylinder motor, could be described as having the get-up-and-go of a snail. Then Abarth, Fiat’s in-house tuning company, shoehorns in a 1.4-litre T-Jet turbo engine, and all hell breaks loose.

The engine comes from bigger Fiats, such as the Tipo, and is usually tuned to produce 118bhp. But that wouldn’t do for Abarth’s engineers; they turn up the wick and furnish the diminutive 595 with 143bhp. Sounds better, doesn’t it? Well, that’s just the base version …

There’s also the 595 Turismo, the variant we tested, which has an extra 20bhp, and the range-topping 595 Competizione, which goes up to 11, or rather 177bhp. It’s not quite the craziest 500-based Abarth – that title belongs to the 187bhp 695 Biposto – but on the bonkers scale the 595 sits between “mildly unhinged” and “approach with caution”.

It’s not just the power that’s hare-brained, or even the power-to-weight ratio (the 595 Turismo tips the scales at a fraction over a ton), but the power to size. It has similar dimensions to Michael Jordan’s left training shoe, and it’s a similar shape, too. Its closest rival is the Mini Cooper S, but in comparison the Mini looks like a giant.

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Other touches too give you a sense that the guys at Abarth were having a bit of a laugh with the 595 Turismo. Hit the Sport button and the handsome, fully digital instrument panel switches to show, most prominently, a G-meter. Yes, a G-meter, which records the sideways force generated as you go round bends. It’s the sort of gadget made famous by the monstrous Nissan Skyline and more commonly seen in supercars. When it pops up in front of you in the Abarth 595, it’s hard to keep a straight face.

The 595 moves with comical speed – through its native environment of narrow city streets, it goes like a demonic rat through a laboratory maze. Best of all, it feels fast at any speed, especially the convertible 595C version, roof down. It’s easy to have fun without breaking any speed limits.

Selecting Sport mode also triggers an increase in throttle response and adds weight to the steering. The latter is lively but not jittery, with decent feedback about the front tyres’ grip. Despite the 595’s high sides, compared with its length, body roll is kept under control in the Turismo – “frequency selective” dampers are fitted to the rear suspension to increase roadholding and stability. The setup results in very little understeer, too, with plenty of grip at the front, even when you’re pulling hard out of corners.

It’s not all good news, though. As with a Smart ForTwo, the short wheelbase means bumps in the roads are pronounced, and every sleeping policeman feels like Everest. The suspension deals with this shortcoming well, though, and the 595 Turismo isn’t a tooth-rattler.

The Turismo’s exhaust note is not over the top — it’s not a popping and crackling fire-breather — but it makes a rorty and eager noise reminiscent of a lion growling through a didgeridoo.

Inside, the sound is sufficiently deadened even in the soft-top; at 70mph, more noise comes in through the windows than the canvas above your head. Being subjected to a constant din on a long journey can be exhausting; not a bit of it with the little Abarth 595.

It has what Clarkson might describe as the classic problem associated with Italian cars, namely it is designed for gorillas

It’s also not short of kit. Our test car came with rear parking sensors, electric roof, sat nav (albeit with a small screen, but then this is a small car), climate control, DAB and Bluetooth, and the infotainment system was easy to use. It also included apps, although it was unclear how useful they were.

A few other neat touches are evident. The edges of the 12V (what used to be called the cigarette lighter) and USB sockets are illuminated with LEDs, and the circular instrument binnacle is fully digital and really quite cool.

It’s not all good news, though. Annoyingly, the infotainment system froze when the map updated, forcing us to switch it off and on. The 595 also has what Jeremy Clarkson might describe as the classic problem associated with Italian cars: it appears to have been designed for gorillas, with the pedals too close and the wheel too far away (there’s height adjustment on the steering wheel, but it can’t be brought closer to you). At least the seats in the Turismo are wonderfully supportive.

The aluminium gearlever is surprisingly long, appearing to have the same stalk as the plain old Fiat 500 – sports car enthusiasts might expect a short-throw lever. It’s not the most satisfying box with which to shift through the gears as you have to row, rather than flick up and down.

Also, the electric window buttons are in the centre, next to the gearlever, rather than on the door, which takes a lot of getting used to.

The driver’s seat goes forward and back, and can be pumped up to adjust the height, but the lever, on the left of the seat squab, is a similar shape and length to the handbrake, which sits right next to it in this narrow car. More than once we went to pump up the seat and found ourselves about to perform a handbrake turn. Still, almost locking the back wheels while doing 50mph on a dual carriageway is rather exciting.

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There’s little space in the rear, of course, but you could get two children in there, assuming they’re not in rear-facing child seats, and the boot is adequate for a supermarket run, as long as you’re not feeding the 5,000.

Final grumble: putting the 595C’s roof all the way down blocks the rear view over the back seats.

The thing is, all the niggles become rather endearing. It’s imperfect in the same way your children are imperfect, and you wouldn’t try to sell them off every time they wound you up. Would you?

The sheer silliness of the thing lends it charm. The Abarth 595 is great fun, a car with character and verve, and not many can claim that these days.

The post Abarth 595 Turismo review (2017 on) appeared first on Sunday Times Driving.

source https://www.driving.co.uk/car-reviews/abarth-595-turismo-review-2012/

Mini Countryman review (2017 on)

FROM a car maker once known for making some of the smallest and cheekiest runarounds on the road comes the Countryman, the not-so-mini Mini.

From 1959 to 2000 Minis were perfect for nipping through traffic and slotting first time into a parking space. Yet here’s a Mini that towers over traffic and does the parking for you.

This second-generation Countryman has grown over its immediate predecessor too. Not just a little bit; it’s positively ballooned.

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There’s a reason, of course. Drivers have been telling the company, now owned by BMW: “We love our Mini … but it would be great if it was a bit more spacious, like our friends’ Nissan Qashqai.” The 2010 Countryman felt like a Mini first and a family car a very distant second.

So the Countryman now offers “five full-sized seats”, according to Mini. That’s as long as your definition of “full-sized” is two adults in the front and three children in the back. Three adults on the rear seats would be a squash and a squeeze, but three children sit comfortably, even with one in a high-backed child seat.

There’s masses of legroom in the back, thanks in part to the car’s much-increased wheelbase (the distance between the front and rear axles), and the bench seating, which can slide backwards and forwards.

The boot’s bigger too. The original Countryman carried 350 litres of gear; this one packs in 450 litres, enough even for those with “an insatiable hunger for adventure”, says Mini. Perhaps, if loading up the weekly Waitrose shop counts.

Despite all this growing-up, Mini hasn’t lost its sense of fun. One option on the new Countryman is a padded seat that folds out from the underside of the boot’s false floor to cover the back bumper; it’s described as a picnic bench but is more use as a comfortable place to park your bottom while you pull off muddy wellies.

The cabin is pure Mini. The dashboard lights up like a Wurlitzer jukebox, the glowing-red engine start switch looks as though it was pinched from Nasa, there’s selectable mood lighting (which you’ll probably never change) and you can alter the way the car responds, using the mode switch at the base of the gearstick.

Some of the main instrument dials look small and cheap, but the stowage space is excellent, with big door bins in the front and back and cupholders galore. Rear passengers even get their own air vents.

What lets the new Countryman down is the driving position. With the manual gearbox, you have to sit much closer to the steering wheel than you’d like, because if you don’t you can’t depress the clutch pedal properly. It’s an uncomfortable arrangement — and the eight-speed automatic gearbox will add £1,595 to your bill.

The engine range is the same as in the rest of the Mini family. The Cooper has a 134bhp three-cylinder turbocharged petrol, and the Cooper S has a 189bhp 2-litre four-cylinder turbo. For the barmy, there’s a 228bhp John Cooper Works version.

The backbone of the diesel range is the Cooper D, which is a four-cylinder with 148bhp. The power jumps to 187bhp with the Cooper SD, but the Cooper D — tested here — is all most people will need. Priced from £24,425, it officially returns up to 65mpg and emits 113g/km of CO2. In our hands it averaged 45mpg, but in long-distance 50mpg should be feasible. There’s also a plug-in petrol-electric hybrid, which, at £27,085 after the government grant is taken into account, could come into its own if diesels faces punitive tax rises and other charges.

The Cooper D engine is well insulated and smooth-sounding, and the car surged forwards confidently from low in the rev range, with a big helping of torque from 1500rpm. You could change up a gear at 2000rpm and never venture further round the revs dial. But given a full head of steam it will nip from 0 to 62mph in under nine seconds.

There’s a bit of wind noise from the car’s boxy body, but the refinement is otherwise impressive. What’s a surprise is the firm ride; despite our test car wearing petite 17in wheels with medium-profile (and therefore reasonably pliant) tyres, every lump, bump and pothole made its presence known in the cabin.

The Countryman’s trump card is its handling. Many SUVs in this price range seem designed by committee, whereas the Mini feels as though someone who enjoys driving invested time and energy in making the Clubman keen and responsive in most conditions. You can throw it about and it doesn’t go to pieces.

We didn’t get to try an ALL4 four-wheel-drive version. It’s a good system in other Minis, but unless you know you’ll need the added traction it affords, you’d be better off saving the money — £1,600 — or spending it on the seemingly endless options Mini offers drivers.

The not-so-mini Mini has grown up, and we think it’s all the better for it. The Countryman II doesn’t force compromise on families as its predecessor did, but it’s still fun to drive and fun to be around.

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source https://www.driving.co.uk/car-reviews/mini-countryman-review-2017/

McLaren Creates Coolest Dashboard

McLaren Creates Coolest Dashboard Ever for the 720S

The upcoming McLaren 720S just keeps on getting better with each tease. For this week, McLaren has decided to tease us with the car’s new dashboard setup, which is quite genius.

This new “Folding Driver Display” includes aluminum switches that allow it to rotate. In the Full Display Mode, the display will give the driver all of the usual information you’d expect from an instrument cluster. If the driver changes the mode (Comfort, Sport or Track), the layout of the display appropriately. In the Slim Display Mode, the display will slide down and back, showing only the essential information in a slim strip. McLaren says this is perfect for drivers who want limited distraction and their information in the simplest form possible.

“The new McLaren Driver Interface is a matchless example of advanced driver engagement built around two separate high-definition screens; a Folding Driver Display and a Central Infotainment Touchscreen,” explained Mark Vinnels, Executive Director – Product Development at McLaren Automotive. “The Folding Driver Display is revolutionary in offering both a choice of information shown and physical position, seamlessly complementing driver preferences while at the same time furnishing a glorious piece of engineering theater.”

McLaren Creates Coolest Dashboard Ever for the 720S

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Lamborghini Huracan Destroys Nurburgring Record

Lamborghini Huracan

One of the true tests that every supercar must face is a Nurburgring Nordschleife lap. For years, automakers have been testing their cars on this track, tuning them along the way with the hopes to set new lap time records.

Lamborghini has been hard at work testing their upcoming Huracan Performante at the “Green Hell,” and it looks like their hard work has paid off.

In a new video from the Italian automaker, they show, from start to finish, the new supercar’s Nurburgring Nordschleife lap in its entirety. It took the Huracan Performante only 6:52.01 to make it from the starting line to the finish line. TO put this into perspective, the Porsche 918 Spyder’s lap time was 6:57 and the Aventador SV did it in 6:59.71. That’s a HUGE difference in time.

Lamborghini Huracan Performante Destroys Nurburgring Record

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Lamborghini Huracan For Sale

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Mercedes-Benz GLC Coupé review (2016-on)

AT TIMES, deciphering the names of models within a car maker’s range can feel as daunting as your first lesson in Latin, all those years ago at school. The GLC Coupé reviewed here is based on the GLC, which in turn is based on the C-class (GL means SUV these days, with the following letter indicating on which hatchback/saloon it’s based).

Whereas Mercedes’s GLC promises a sure-footed SUV option when the going gets soft or craggy, taking aim at the Land Rover Discovery Sport more than the likes of the BMW X3 and Audi Q5, the GLC Coupé is designed to be much more of a corporate cruiser; albeit a heavy duty one.

But Mercedes has done more to it than simply chop off a section of roof at the rear to make it look sportier. It’s almost 8cm longer and 4cm lower than the GLC, and so is more car-like in appearance.

Despite this, it’s more cramped in the rear and comes with a loftier pricetag. This style and exclusivity over practicality approach says everything you need to know about at whom this car is aimed. Its owners (or leasees) will no doubt favour pin-stripe suits and its natural hunting ground is most likely the City of London.

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Does that mean it’s a slick, honed beast of the road, then? Unfortunately not. All versions come as standard with Dynamic Select drive modes including Eco, Comfort, Sport, Sport+ and Individual, although even in Sport+ mode our test car (fitted with the optional £1,495 air suspension package) felt very soft on-road. The GLC Coupé tended to roll noticeably through corners and dip its nose under braking, and you couldn’t call it agile, with changes of direction fully conveying the bus-like weight (around 1.8 tonnes) being lugged around.

It’s more of a lumbering pudding than a sports car, no matter how Mercedes spins it. This was despite it sitting on over-sized and less forgiving 20-inch wheels. BMW’s X3 feels more composed, let alone the sportier X4 that is more of a direct GLC Coupé rival. The Merc’s standard suspension is a steel spring set-up with variable damping, which may be a preferable to the air suspension set-up for everyday use.

The suppleness does lend itself to a comfortable ride, at least, and the Mercedes at excels as a pliant cruiser, ironing out road imperfections with ease, even with the thinner tyres that come with the 20-inch wheels.

It’s more of a lumbering pudding than a sports car, no matter how Mercedes spins it

The high driving position and comfortable, supportive seats are combined with a well-insulated cabin that shields passengers from tyre, engine and wind noise. There are four diesel and four petrol versions, including a plug-in hybrid and more powerful (and, no doubt, fun) Mercedes-AMG model. Our 250 d test car’s 2.1-litre, 204bhp diesel was a little rattly when standing next to the car at idle but from the inside, on the move, any harshness is superbly deadened.

It’s a smooth power delivery, too, offering plenty of grunt from very low in the rev range, while the nine-speed automatic gearbox shifts through the cogs seamlessly.

The interior deserves praise, as it’s class-leading in terms of design as well as fit and finish. The quality of the materials, equally, is second-to-none, although we’re still not sold on the Halfords-esque infotainment screen protruding from the dashboard; the latest E-class and S-class integrated screens are much more in keeping with their surroundings.

Mercedes’ infotainment system isn’t the simplest to navigate, either, and we were especially bemused by the optional Air Balance package, with offers cabin fragrance diffusion with three levels of intensity. Surely on or off would do, if you really have to make the interior smell like a minicab? More usefully, it allows oxygen ionisation and improved filtering, which removes sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and aromatic hydrocarbons from the air entering the cabin. Good news for those negotiating traffic jams.

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There are so many safety features packed into the GLC Coupé — mostly with preposterous-sounding names such as ESP with Curve Dynamic Assist and Parktronic — that it’d send you to sleep if we were to list them here in detail. But they’re there, especially if you opt for the £1,695 Driving Assistance package, and it should all help keep you on the road and make the GLC Coupé a safe car to drive. Importantly, these assistance features don’t appear to interfere in normal driving conditions; it all happens in the background and doesn’t nanny as do the systems of some other cars.

It also has plenty of gadgets fitted as standard, including LED headlights, keyless entry and start, sat-nav, DAB radio, heated seats and a reversing camera, which neatly pops out of the three-pointed star badge on the tailgate when needed. Our test car came loaded with the 360-degree camera set-up (£335).

Overall, on balance it’s hard to recommend the GLC Coupé as it’s less practical and not as good off-road as the GLC and not much fun to drive on-road, either. However, if all you want from a car is a body that cuts a dash, and a comfortable and commanding perch, not to mention the Mercedes badge, there is some appeal.

The post Mercedes-Benz GLC Coupé review (2016-on) appeared first on Sunday Times Driving.

source https://www.driving.co.uk/car-reviews/mercedes-benz-glc-coupe-review-2016/

First Drive review: 2017 Alfa Romeo Stelvio Q4 SUV

“Goodie,” you were thinking, “a review of an Alfa Romeo; a nice new sports car from Alfa.” Then you looked at the pictures, and realised that the Stelvio was not what you’d hoped it would be: a new rival for the Porsche 911.

Alfa Romeo is meant to be the Jimmy Choo of the catwalk, isn’t it? Fans of the Italian car maker would probably argue that its cars should be pieces of art; beautiful and desirable enough to hang on a wall. That they should thrill and enthral a driver. And so what if they’re as highly strung as a sleep-deprived supermodel?

Then again, if you’re not a car enthusiast at heart, perhaps the Stelvio is exactly what you’d hoped for: a four-wheel drive SUV that’s Alfa’s answer to the Audi A5, BMW X3, Jaguar F-Pace and Porsche Macan.

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Ah yes, Porsche. You may remember how, 15 years ago, Porsche was accused of selling out. The German sports car maker announced it would sell a 4×4 or SUV and purists scoffed at such an idea. It was like Dr Martens trying its hand at making high heels, they said.

Today, the company’s best-selling model is the Macan SUV, chalking up 95,642 sales in 2016. By comparison, the most popular sports car in its range, the 911, managed just over 32,400 sales last year.

So Alfa needs this car to stay in business. Its new boss, tough-talking Reid Bigland, says it enters what will become “the largest premium segment in the world” this year.

It has put in place the building blocks, including the Giulia saloon, reviewed here. The Stelvio is built on that car’s platform and shares its engines, transmissions and four-wheel drive system.

A Ferrari-powered SUV? Now there’s a thing… it’s only taken 30-odd years to catch up with Lamborghini’s LM002.

Initially, two models will go on sale in the UK, in September. A 2-litre, four-cylinder, turbocharged petrol with 276bhp, and a 2.2-litre, four-cylinder turbo diesel with 207bhp. These will be respectively followed up with less powerful, more affordable, 197bhp and 178bhp variants, all built in Cassino, south of Rome.

Both engines will come with four-wheel drive and an eight-speed automatic gearbox, and Alfa Romeo’s UK arm says it doesn’t anticipate selling a version with rear-wheel drive or a manual gearbox, because that’s not what British drivers want.

The red-blooded flagship of the Stelvio range is the Quadrifoglio version. It runs the same hardware as the hot Giulia of the same name, which can only be a very good thing indeed, including a 503bhp twin-turbo V6 that’s said to be related to the V8 used in the Ferrari California. A Ferrari-powered SUV? Now there’s a thing… it’s only taken 30-odd years to catch up with Lamborghini’s LM002.

Most drivers, however, are going to be buying the sensible diesel or petrol versions. And they’re the only models Alfa let us drive. So what are they like?

Let’s get the practical stuff out of the way first. The Stelvio makes for a surprisingly good family car. This is a pleasant surprise, as Alfas of past have had driving positions only fit for an ape, back seats fit for a chimp, interiors that felt as flimsy as an Airfix kit and buttons in places you least expected to find them – such as the electric window switches set in the roof.

The Stelvio is deeply rational – a car a family could live with without cursing it every time they had to pile aboard.

The driving position (on left-hand drive versions) is excellent, the seat’s supportive in all the right places and when set for an average-height adult there’s still plenty of leg room in the back seat. It’s even dog-friendly, with a large, flat-sided boot with 525-litres of luggage space – almost matching a BMW X3 and more than a Porsche Macan.

Okay, so the fit and finish isn’t going to give anyone at Audi sleepless nights, but then what car maker can? Only one piece of trim fell off – the bonnet release lever – but generally it’s attractive and looks well executed, if you don’t peer too closely.

The car’s name is taken from the famous Stelvio Pass, one of the highest roads in the Alps. It was chosen because the company wanted to suggest that SUVs could be exciting to drive – and as edge-of-the-seat driving experiences go, they don’t come much more spine-tingling than winding your way along the Stelvio Pass.

Does it live up to the promise of a great drive? We started with the 2-litre, four-cylinder turbo petrol version that produces 276bhp. Unlike Alfas car enthusiasts know and love, it didn’t rev very high or sound special – the rev limit was 5,800rpm, for heaven’s sake – so this is the first Alfa in which you’ll turn the radio up, not down. But with so much torque it delivers a brisk turn of pace. Acceleration to 62mph takes 5.7 seconds and the top speed is 143mph, while the combined fuel consumption is 40mpg.

It feels as though Alfa’s engineers have struck a well-judged balance between control and comfort

The Stelvio’s chassis does a good job of putting the performance to good use – and is greatly helped by the fact that this is comfortably the lightest car in its class, at 1,660kg for the petrol model. The suspension rides bumps smoothly, yet body roll is kept in check and the steering response is – as ever, for an Alfa – more direct than Jeremy Paxman.

The Q4 four-wheel drive system knows how to gives the driver a good time, sending power to the back wheels as a rule and only diverting it to the front when extra traction is required. (Alfa will offer keen drivers a rear, mechanical locking differential as an option.) And it didn’t disitegrate under duress – unlike the last all-wheel drive Alfa I tested, the 33 S Permanent 4.

Overall, it feels as though Alfa’s engineers have struck a well-judged balance between control and comfort. Alfa has set out to make a more entertaining SUV than the competition, and on first acquaintance, the Italian company has done a commendable job. The only slight fly in the ointment was the automatic transmission, which didn’t behave as smoothly as some.

The high-powered, 207bhp version of the 2.2-litre diesel engine elevates the fuel economy to 58mpg. This is a pleasingly smooth, quiet engine with even more torque than the petrol version. That torque makes its presence felt with an even bigger kick of drive to the back wheels that requires a dose of corrective steering lock on a slippery bend, when driven in ‘Dynamic’ mode. Alfa wasn’t joking when it said it wanted to create a more involved driving experience than other cars of this ilk.

To my mind, at least, the Stelvio feels like more of an accomplishment than the Giulia saloon on which it’s based. Alfa doesn’t yet have pricing for the new model, but says it will be competitive with the BMW X3, which starts at £34,400.

Drivers who approach it with an open mind will find this is the SUV that can put the fun into the school run. Skip the Pilates session and take the long way home, says Alfa.

If you don’t like the idea of an SUV, let alone an Alfa Romeo SUV, the chances are you won’t warm to the Stelvio. A lot of people felt that way about the Jaguar F Pace, but look how well that has done for the British-based car maker. If the Stelvio can do the same for Alfa, perhaps then the Italian company can set about creating the Porsche 911 rival we all want it to make.

The post First Drive review: 2017 Alfa Romeo Stelvio Q4 SUV appeared first on Sunday Times Driving.

source https://www.driving.co.uk/car-reviews/first-drive-review-2017-alfa-romeo-stelvio-q4-suv/