ALFA ROMEO MiTo Review

We weren't exactly expecting a comfortable, wafting ride that gives you the feeling of driving a car with sponges instead of absorbing shocks. Still, the sporty little red hatch provides even a bumpier ride than expected, especially on paved roads or over tram lines in the city. In other words, the Alfa MiTo we drove has more in common with an Italian sports car than its vivid-red color. The pretty hard suspension setup doesn't do much for absorbing pot holes. On a perfectly flat road and at medium to high speeds it doesn't feel jittery at all though.

The only problems arise when tackling poorer road surfaces, speed bumps and, contrary to what we expected, at highway speeds. Because the wheelbase is rather short and the suspension hard, at high speeds the MiTo doesn't feel exactly planted but jittery. This doesn't exactly go well with a sensation of comfort when traveling long distances at high speeds.

The sporty seats found in the “Progression” trim level we tested were softer than we expected though. They don't have anything in common with the plush Citroen seats we drove earlier but they aren't rock hard either. The side bolster support is pretty good though, so larger drivers and passengers should be wary of that.

Unfortunately, our test ride wasn't equipped with the best comfort amenities one could ask from an Alfa dealer for the tiny MiTo, so it doesn't score a lot of points for those either. For example, the dual-zone climate control system was missing, giving way to a manual, single-zone, air conditioning unit. Not say that it was bad or anything, but as far as comfort goes, it doesn't get any over the top good remarks.

The standard audio system is fine, but any seriously hardcore audiophile should consider upgrading to the optional one. Other than that, the MiTo is a comfortable car only if you know what to expect. In other words, people who usually crave for a “cloud-walking”, wafting ride will be disappointed, while the ones who appreciate cars for their handling instead of their comfort will get exactly what they want.

In normal “diesel speak”, the 1.6-liter oil-burner under our test car's hood would be regarded as a small technical masterpiece. Sadly, these past few years diesel engines have evolved quite a lot, and this can be regarded only as bad news for our little Alfa. Considering it sports a rating of no less than 120 horsepower at 3750 rpm and a humongous torque of 320Nm (236 lb ft), which is quite impressive for an engine of this displacement, the JTDm we got to drive is much less impressive than you would expect. No, we're not talking about the sensation of speed every time we floored it, we're talking about how less good it looks on paper compared to its number one rival.

We suspect the main difference comes from the weight - 1280 kilograms or 2822 pounds for the MiTo 1.6 JTDm compared to only 1165 kilograms or 2568 pounds for the Mini Cooper D. This basically means that, at least on paper, the differences are pretty steep. Let's see now, both cars have a modern and petite common rail engine with just 1.6 liters of displacement. Both share a 0-100 kilometers per hour (62 mph) acceleration of 9.9 seconds. So, where are the differences, you may ask?

Well, the Mini achieves the same naught to 100 km/h (62 mph) sprint with 10 horsepower and a staggering 80 Nm (59 lb ft) of torque less than the MiTo. Not to mention the fact that, at least on paper we must stress, the Cooper D uses 3.9 liters of fuel to cover every 100 kilometers (US 60.3 mpg), compared to the “massive” 4.8 liters (US 49 mpg) used by the MiTo.

In conclusion, the engine under the MiTo 1.6 JTDm's hood is mighty impressive, as long if it powers a car with a substantially less amount of weight. Either it's the weight, or maybe Italian test drivers used the “All-weather” mode to check the acceleration and the “Dynamic” mode to check the medium fuel consumption. Other than that, the six-speed manual transmission is pretty precise (except maybe from second to third at times) and the fact that it uses cables means the engine doesn't make the stick shiver at idle almost at all.

Sadly, the Alfa MiTo we tested wasn't exactly the most fully optioned MiTo we could ever drive. Not that any other Alfas would be filled with gadgets, but there were quite a lot of features missing from the options list. In other words, we “only” had to live with a manual, single-zone, air conditioning unit and the standard Blaupunkt mp3-reading audio system. Apart from these, the "DNA" system is the most impressive (and useful) piece of gadgetry. In short, those were our test car's best gimmicky features, but that doesn't mean it all ends there.

For example, the audio system had an auxiliary port for your iPod or other types of mp3 players, plus steering wheel control buttons. Also, albeit we didn't have high-intensity discharge headlight or “aero” windshield wipers, we did have light and rain sensors for the headlights and the wipers, consequently.

Not jumping on the “LED is the new black!” bandwagon, the MiTo's daylight driving lights use “regular” light bulbs. The taillights, however, have enough LED technology to put a 1970s Star Trek episode to shame. Truth is, they do give quite a nice look and are also a bit safer than regular ones when it comes to visibility.

The last gadget probably worth mentioned is the “up/down” electric mechanism on the doors' windows. We're not sure how many of you have noticed that on most modern convertibles there's an automatic mechanism which winds the side windows up or down every time you close or open the doors. This is done so that rain and unwanted sounds stay out of the car. Well, the MiTo is the first non-convertible we drove which also has this feature.

Although at first the MiTo's array of safety features are a bit hidden, we soon learned this is one of the safest cars in its class. For example, it's small size and the fact that (surprise!) it doesn't even have any grab handles for its passengers can give you a pretty wrong impression. Let's just start with the standard active and passive safety features to let you know that you'd be wrong if you had a similar first impression.

There's an anti-lock braking system with corner brake control, an electronic front differential to put down all that torque safely to the ground, an electronic stability control system and quite a lot more. Plus, there are also double pretensioners for the front seatbelts. As far as passive safety goes, the MiTo comes standard with no less than seven airbags (two frontal dual-stage, two side airbags, two curtain airbags and one airbag for the driver's knees. Pretty impressive for a car its size.

If that's not enough, you should learn the the MiTo has also passed the EuroNCAP crash test with honors. Five full stars mean that it can pose quite a decent threat to just about any car its size in a head-on crash. Of course, its small size and weight kind of diminish those stars' impact versus a full-size SUV or something like that, but there's always a bigger fish out there no matter what car you buy.

Every male alfisti out there will probably agree with this sentence: living with an Alfa Romeo is like living with a supermodel. Not that much of us guys will ever know what it's like actually living with a supermodel, but you get the point. The best part about owning a red MiTo is not something completely technical, it's more like a motley array of different sensations cumulated in one single package. There's the joy of driving one (even if it's a diesel!), the envy from other drivers - which accumulates every time you pass someone - and there's the pride of owning a car with a brand which even Enzo Ferrari was tipping his hat for. Plus, the DNA system also makes it a big boy toy.

The bad part about the Alfa MiTo 1.6 JTDm is probably the fact that its engine could have delivered much more than it actually does. Although it's actually designed and built by the true inventors of the common rail, it somewhat fails to deliver the best impression there is. It's powerful, silent (within the reasonable diesel limit) and it uses a very small amount of fuel. Too bad it's not enough to completely shatter its much older competition, which kind of makes it mediocre.

Honestly, "ugly" doesn't go with anything Alfa-related, but we have to cover this part also. The ugly bit about our test car was probably its inability to completely obliterate its main competitor, the Mini, in every chapter. It manages to outclass it in chapters like styling or interior space, but it only manages to tie it or get beaten by in other areas. It's not exactly a great thing for a car launched almost seven years after the only source of inspiration for its existence.