Tonale front

Living in rural Nova Scotia, Matthew Guy has immersed himself in car culture for over 30 years and relishes the thought of a good road trip. A certified gearhead, he enjoys professionally writing about cars and is very pleased to contribute for wheels.ca.

His work has also appeared on Car Throttle, The Truth About Cars, and in CAA Magazine. Find him on Twitter @matthewkguy

Alfa remains a bit player in the Canadian car market, having sold just 167 units through the first quarter of this year. That’s approximately 56 fewer than the number of Ram pickup trucks sold every day, on average, during the same timeframe. In other words, Alfa Romeo is a solid choice if you’re looking for reasonably affordable exclusivity.

Fresh out of the gate is their new Tonale, an Italian-built compact (some would argue subcompact) crossover packing all-wheel drive as standard equipment. An iZEV-eligible plug-in hybrid powertrain will be available as an option in Canada later this year but, for now, the Tonale moves itself with a 2.0L turbocharged four-cylinder engine making a reasonable 256 horsepower and 295 lb.-ft of torque. A 9-speed automatic handles shifting duties.

Up front we find a trademark Alfa Romeo grille, stretching from the hood’s leading edge and dramatically diving towards the pavement. At each corner are so-called ‘phone dial’ wheels which are perfectly suited to duty on an Alfa; LED lamps are standard all around and there are washers for the front peepers. The sole no-charge paint selection is Alfa White but tasty Alfa Rosso is only a $200 proposition. Meanwhile, metallic options like Misano Blue are $900 extra.

<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-176338" src="https://wordpress.wheels.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Tonale-int.jpeg" alt="Alfa romeo tonale sprint" width="1801" height="1128" />

The brand chooses to include several handy interior features on the $47,190 Sprint trim, such as a wireless charging pad for yer devices and enough charging ports to keep everyone happy (and quiet). Air conditioning with dual-zone climate control is present, along with a leather-wrapped heated steering wheel. Infotainment is handled by a 10.25-inch touchscreen packing navigation and Apple CarPlay/Android Auto plus satellite radio. Another 12.3-inch display sits ahead of the driver to pull duty as a colourful instrument cluster. The power 8-way front seats are heated and there’s a universal garage door opener for those of you with covered parking.

What We'd Choose

The leap to a Veloce trim is only $1,500 and brings functional items like an adaptive dual-stage valve suspension system for entertaining handling plus zooty red Brembo-branded brakes and 19-inch wheels. A power liftgate is also nifty, as are ventilated front seats and interior ambient lighting. These five items are more than enough to warrant the extra cash – particularly the suspension and liftgate.

By now, know-it-all eggheads are surely bleating that the Dodge Hornet, a close cousin to the Alfa Romeo Tonale with the same structure and powertrain options, starts at $40,190 – making the Dodge a significant $7,000 walk from the zesty Italian. However, while the bones are similar, the content level is not. Hornet GT customers do without wireless charging, power/heated seats, 18-inch wheels, remote start – and the list continues. Jumping to the GT Plus brings those features but jacks the sticker to $46,190, at which point one is back into Alfa territory. The GT Plus also includes a sunroof as standard, ruining headroom; that feature is optional on both the Sprint and Veloce trims of the Tonale.

Every week, wheels.ca selects a new vehicle and takes a good look at its entry-level trim. If we find it worthy of your consideration, we'll let you know. If not, we'll recommend one - or the required options - which earns a passing grade.

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Base Camp: 2023 Alfa Romeo Tonale

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For over half a decade, Dan Heyman has written professionally about cars and car culture, specializing in luxury/performance vehicles, 4 x 4s and pickup trucks, with a micro city car or two thrown in for good measure. If he's not striking a spacebar, he's likely out photographing cars on the twists and turns of the Coast Mountain roads outside his hometown of Vancouver, BC, or cutting a line on a racetrack.

The 2024 Alfa Romeo Tonale is an important vehicle for Alfa for a number of reasons; Alfa Romeo – like so many other brands – has plans to electrify their line-up, and the Tonale luxury compact crossover is their first foray into that world. It’s also their first entrant in the competitive subcompact/compact luxury segment, one that by Alfa’s own admission, is set to continue to grow at a fever pitch – to the tune of 231 percent by 2025.

With a base MSRP of $44,995 for the gas version and $54,995 for the plug-in hybrid (PHEV), it’s also the least expensive way to get into an Afla and if all goes to plan, should open up a whole new segment of buyers for the brand. So, yeah – there’s quite a lot riding on the (admittedly quite cool-looking) shoulders of this baby Italian crossover.

[caption id="attachment_176086" align="aligncenter" width="2560"]<img class="size-full wp-image-176086" src="https://wordpress.wheels.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/IMG_8873-scaled.jpg" alt="2024 Alfa Romeo Tonale" width="2560" height="1707" /> The Alfa Romeo Tonale is the brand’s first compact crossover. (DAN HEYMAN)[/caption]

It is indeed very “Italian”, starting with where it’s built: Alfa’s Pomigliano production facility just outside of Naples, Italy. That factory has existed since before even Fiat owned the brand and while that may seem like a trivial thing, if there’s one thing Alfa knows how to do, it’s tap into their heritage when it comes to designing and engineering their cars.

Even the Tonale, an entry into a new segment, wasn’t going to make the grade without the requisite Alfa-ness. You can see it in the way they’ve shaped the LED DRLs – squinting shows hints of the old 147 and 155 sedans – the “telephone dial” wheels with red brake calipers behind them, and the way the rear fascia gets a full-length light bar. Alfa says it’s designed to recall the modern Brera hatch; for me, I couldn’t help but see a callback to the 164, a unique forward-looking design from the ‘80s. The classic Scudetto grille and mirror caps with Italian flags painted on them just screams Alfa, as does the Verde Fangio (green), Rosso (red) and Misano (blue) paintjobs. The classic Alfa serpent emblem remains, but on the PHEV model it appears in certain areas with its head replaced by an electrical plug. Get it?

<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-176089" src="https://wordpress.wheels.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/IMG_8879-scaled.jpg" alt="2024 Alfa Romeo Tonale" width="2560" height="1707" />

The Tonale rides a little lower than the likes of the BMW X1 or Mercedes-Benz GLA, but that’s the point; by Alfa’s own admission, they really wanted the Tonale to look like a tall hot hatch and if we’re honest, how much ground clearance does someone with a subcompact crossover really need? The result is a crossover that looks suitably squat, ready to dispatch the curves if not the backcountry.

Inside, the new Tonale continues the Alfa trend of designing interiors that provide a flash of modernity, but are more of a black-tie affair. The dash of our tester has a splash of brushed silver here and bright trimwork there, but it is mainly a deep black affair. Alfas are drivers’ cars and they don’t want to distract too much from that; case in point: at 12.3 inches, the gauge cluster display is larger than the infotainment display, which measures 10.25". The reason? Simple. In a driver’s car, the instruments are what matter most, less so the widgets on your media screen (or UConnect 5 and wireless Apple CarPlay/Android Auto) though those can be customized to your liking. There are also supplementary gauges for oil pressure and power meters. The standard digital gauge cluster has multiple styles including “Classic”, styled to look just like the analogue gauges found on classic Alfas – heritage, remember?

<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-176098" src="https://wordpress.wheels.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/IMG_8907-scaled.jpg" alt="2024 Alfa Romeo Tonale" width="2560" height="1707" />

In addition to looking classic-cool, the interior also offers the most front- and rear legroom and storage behind the rear seats in the segment; there’s actually more room behind the Tonale’s rear seats than there is in Alfa’s own (larger) Stelvio because that SUV gets such a steep rake to its rear window.

Alfa says the Tonale can transport four 6’4” adults comfortably; I found the legroom to be fine, but headroom is such that I barely cleared the headliner, especially with the $1,495 moonroof option. Since said mooroof is a full-length version, rear seat occupants don’t fare much better. Good that you can opt out of it no matter which trim you choose without losing any other features.

We spent the duration of this test in the top trumps PHEV Veloce model, which provides 285 horsepower and 347 pound-feet of torque from a turbo 1.3-litre inline-4 plus rear axle-mounted 90 KW EV motor. It provides 50 km of EV range, so if you can plug-in at night (with charge times in and around the 2.5 hour range on a level II charger), your Tonale PHEV could, ostensibly, become a Tonale EV.

<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-176087" src="https://wordpress.wheels.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/IMG_8875-scaled.jpg" alt="2024 Alfa Romeo Tonale" width="2560" height="1707" />

Here’s the thing, though; with that kind of power as well as standard all-wheel-drive and a 9-speed gearbox with column-mounted paddle shifters (built big, so they can be reached no matter the steering wheel angle), there’s too much fun to be had to really make that efficiency claim. You want to drive with gumption, meaning dynamic drive mode, meaning heavy reliance on the EV motor.

Power is enough to get you to 100 km/h from a standstill in about 6.5 seconds, but the real thrill comes as speeds increase. The torque curve is such that you’ve got good acceleration in most any gear to comfortably perform your everyday at-speed manoeuvres such as highway passes.

<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-176083" src="https://wordpress.wheels.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/IMG_8855-scaled.jpg" alt="2024 Alfa Romeo Tonale" width="2560" height="1707" />

As the world turns and the road begins to twist, the Tonale returns very – VERY – quick steering response, although I would like a little more road feel; in this day of over-boosted EPAS, of course, that’s not really a surprise. I’ll take that turn-in response, though, and even with the extra weight from the 15 kWh battery and EV system, the body is kept nicely in-check through the turns. For most of my drive, I kept it in dynamic mode (which joins advanced efficiency and natural drive modes, likely named as such because of the catchy “DNA” acronym), which allows drivers to choose from between two damper settings and even with 20” wheels and the firm dampers, I didn’t feel myself pogoing across the tarmac. Alfa vehicles need to be able to handle as well as – if not better than – the competition to set them apart, and from my limited time in the Tonale, it answers the bell.

It had better; it’s got a couple of fronts on which to do battle in that Alfa buyers buy for style and driving experience, but compact luxury CUV drivers often buy for comfort and features. The Tonale has the style and it has the drive, and when similarly equipped, it’s actually better priced than the likes of the X1 or Audi Q3.

In short, there could very well be some future Alfisti ready to jump aboard.
<h3>2024 Alfa Romeo Tonale</h3>
BODY STYLE: Five-door subcompact luxury crossover

DRIVE METHOD: front-engine/rear EV motor OR 2.0-litre turbo four-cylinder, all-wheel drive
ENGINE (PHEV): 1.3-litre four-cylinder turbo, 90kW EV motor, 285 hp, 347 lb-ft of torque

ENGINE (2.0L): 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo, 268 hp, 295 lb-ft of torque

FUEL ECONOMY CITY/HIGHWAY/COMBINED: N/A
TRANSMISSION: 9-speed automatic

CARGO CAPACITY: 648-1,430 litres

Base MSRP (2.0L): $44,995

Base MSRP (PHEV): $54,995

WEBSITE: <a href="https://www.alfaromeo.ca/en/tonalephev">Alfa Romeo Tonale</a>

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Base Camp: 2023 Alfa Romeo Tonale

2024 Alfa Romeo Tonale First Drive