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The Alfa Romeo Tonale starts out in the compact luxury crossover segment with a huge advantage. It’s gorgeous. But it also gets brains to go with its stunner good looks.

Right off the bat you’re looking at a base price of $42,995 for the Tonale Sprint. And here’s what you get for the money.

The PHEV powertrain, the only one that’s available in the US incidentally, pairs a 1.5-liter inline 4-cylinder turbo engine with a 90 kW motor that uses a 15.5 kWh battery.

That combination is good for a pure electric range of 30 miles, which will get most drivers where they need to go and back every day. Replenishing they charge will take about 5 or 6 hours, the Italians were a bit vague on which, on a level 2 charger.

But if you’re commute is far or you’re a road tripper you’re looking at 320 miles of range on a full tank. Combined horsepower is a robust 285 horses with 347 lb-ft of torque. For a compact SUV those are solid numbers.

Basically, in Dynamic mode, this little thing is a rocket. It gets a 6-speed transmission that’s tuned to be pretty sporty in my opinion. Shifts are smooth and the gears, especially the lower ones feel long so you can really get good torque out of them. Paddle shifters are an option on the Ti, which is the middle trim level , so you can downshift if you’re looking for even more of that low end torque, and on the top Tonale Veloce you get the paddles standard.

The Tonale is only coming to the US as an AWD vehicle. I’m not thrilled about the lack of choice, but that’s what it is. As far as its turning ability, the steering makes for precise turns even if it does feel a bit light and heavy on the electronic assistance. It feels planted and stable, with only a little bit of lateral back and forth and body roll if you’re really digging into turns. Torque vectoring differentials do their best to mitigate understeer if you’re accelerating into turns too quick. For more performance driving, upgrade your tires.

The brakes feel sure-footed at the top of the pedal and you’ can adjust regen how you like it. You get more in efficiency mode, naturally. They’re not terribly natural feeling as they’re brake by wire, but they are very confidence inspiring.

Whichever trim you get it has a 10.25-inch infotainment screen comes standard. That screen comes with the Stellantis Uconnect system, which has long been one of the best for its ease of use. It’s customizable, you can pick which apps are most used and put them close to you. Graphics are sharp. The processor is quick. And the layers are not vast.

You get plenty of buttons for oft used functions. Of course, you’ve got standard wireless AppleCarPlay, Android Auto and Alexa available to interface your phone with.

One thing that drove me nuts all day was the wireless phone charging cradle. If you drive aggressively around turns and the phone shifts position once it settles in it tells you it’s charging again. If you’re trying to follow nav instructions, through narrow Italian streets, it’s very distracting.

There’s a 12.3-inch digital instrument panel that gives the driver a ton of helpful information and looks great pulling from Alfa’s history from cars like the Tipo 33 gauges.

If you move up to the Ti trim, ($45,655) you have to add the High Performance Driving Package: $1500, to get paddle shifters and gloss red brake calipers, the Premium interior + sound package ($2500) which gets you memory seat position, Harmon Kardon audio system, and heated and ventilated front seats, the Premium Interior package by itself without the sound bits, ($1500) gets you perforated leather, ventilated front seats and the Active Assist Package ($1850) with Active driving assist, park sense front, rear, side and surround view camera system.

The Veloce trim, that’s the highest one comes in around $50,000 and that gets you 19-inch wheels and a 9-way adjustable seat, but you still have to purchase some of those additional packages, so my recommendation is to get the Ti and add on what’s important to you.

A lot of safety features also come standard and include adaptive cruise control, traffic sign recognition, intelligent speed assist, and lane departure warnings with lane keeping assist. Now, remember, this is an Alfa Romeo, but it’s still from the Stellantis group so all of those systems are shared among the flock.

Alfa’s betting a lot on this little firecracker and hoping to double their NA sales, so they’ve put a lot into making sure it delivers. Do I think they were successful. Well, if a great looking luxury car that’s also fuel efficient and gets some excellent features even on the base model, then yes. Or should I say, si?

00:00 2024 Alfa Romeo Tonale
0:32 Powertrain
1:46 Driving Impressions
6:33 Interior
10:57 Exterior
12:36 Competitors