Our long-term Stelvio did actual work this month. Shocking.
We shoved flowers, wedding decorations, and plastic chairs into the boot for someone else’s big day. It was hardly a test of rugged capability. But it worked. The Stelvio Quadrifoglio sat quietly in its green coat while I played van driver. It is a middle-weight SUV. Smaller than the new BMW iX3 we added recently. Plenty room for me. The back seats fold down. Nearly flat. There is a weird lever under the seat base near the footwell for doing it. Never seen that before.
Easy to load. Easy to park. Doesn’t feel huge in the city.
Why an Old Car?
Mileage sits at 9,450. Efficiency is a generous 24.5mpg.
You might wonder why we are running this car. It is not new. It has been on sale for nearly eight years. Sure. It got more power. Better lights. Updated tech. But that is not the reason we kept it. We want to talk about legacy. The ghost in the machine.
The last three cars I tested were from the “new world” kids. Tesla. Polestar. BYD. Clean. Efficient. Forward-looking.
This car looks back. Alfa Romeo turns 116 this year. It was incorporated in Turin when China was still an Empire. The math is staggering. The distance between then and now feels like light-years.
“History plays a part in choosing a new car.”
This SUV is contemporary in shape. A high-performance crossover. But it is the purest Alfa currently being built. The chassis, the engine, the interior logic. Designed by a small team inside the brand. In-house. Even though Stellantis owns them now. That matters.
The spec still bites. A 2.9-liter twin-turbo V6 pushing 513bhp. Mounted far back behind the front axle. The eight-speed automatic sends power to all four wheels. Mostly the rear ones, though. It wants to turn.
Weight is the other trick. 1,830kg. Light for its class. The Mercedes-AMG GLC 63 weighs 300kg more. The Porsche Macan Turbo? Almost 600kg heavier. Electric weight gain is real. You feel every pound here. You also feel nothing when the suspension soaks up a pothole.
The Cabin Trap
The inside is where time catches up.
The steering wheel is beautiful. The paddle shifters click with authority. The climate controls are physical knobs. Simple. Good.
The infotainment screen? Not so good. Low resolution. Slow reaction time. The rear camera view looks like someone smeared vaseline on the lens. You can only use Apple CarPlay with a wire. In 2026, this feels archaic.
There is one redemption. The digital instrument cluster. Introduced in 2024 as an update. High resolution. Sharp. You can configure three extra performance dials. Mimicking the famous five-dial layout of old Alfes.
It is a nice touch. Legacy creeping back into the pixels.
The price is high. £102,045 for our tester. Base model starts at £96,090. Not cheap. But performance SUVs cost this much now. A Porsche Macan Turbo Electric starts around £97,565.
Petrol in London?
I live in London. I have driven EVs almost exclusively for five years.
Switching to a 267g/km petrol burner is a choice. A conscious one. Do I miss the charging stress? Do I feel guilty sitting in traffic burning gas? Or do I just enjoy the noise from the Akrapovic exhaust?
The brakes squeak. Annoying. But the car feels alive.
Will I regret the switch back to combustion? Six months to find out. We wait and see. What is the value of history in a world obsessed with the next thing?
“Is switching back to a petrol car a bad idea?”
The car does not answer. It just revs.
