Alfa Romeo Tonale 1.5 Ti UK Drive

Alfa Romeo's second SUV, the compact-ish Tonale, arrives in the UK, albeit still in left-hand drive form for now

The Alfa Romeo Tonale compact-ish SUV has arrived in the UK for review, albeit still in left-hand drive form, to sit below the Stelvio.

It’s powered by the first engine option we will get in the UK: a mildly hybridised 1.5-litre turbocharged four-cylinder petrol making 158bhp and driving the front wheels through a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox. A plug-in hybrid is coming later, too. Here the powertrain, with just 20bhp provided by the electric motor, is good for 46.3mpg and 139g/km of CO2 on the official combined economy test cycle.

For rivals, of which there are a lot, you could consider anything from the Audi Q3 through to the Volvo XC40, but everyone from Ford to Hyundai has something like this in their range these days.

There are three trim levels. This one is the middle Ti, which starts at £39,995, but it has some options, most notably 20in alloy wheels. If you go for the top spec, Veloce (£42,495), it would have flappy gearshift paddles and adaptive dampers too.

I quite like it inside. There’s a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to materials, but the small round steering wheel is cool and the brightwork on the dashboard is pleasing. There are comfortable and supportive seats, too, and it’s good to see prominent separate switchgear for heating and ventilation, which means the touchscreen isn’t too overloaded (and will mirror your phone anyway).

But the perceived solidity of some of the materials – the door tops, the column stalks and the application of brushed-effect silvery plastic – I don’t think would match up to the plushest alternatives. There’s reasonable room in the rear for a 4.5-metre-long car and a competitively sized 500-litre boot.

The driving experience is as mixed a bag as the interior. Alfa has fitted its DNA driving-mode selector, and only in D (for Dynamic) is it particularly satisfying, with the system selecting the right gear to provide enough response to suggest that the claimed 8.8sec 0-62mph time is accurate.

In N (Natural) or A (Arrggh, it’s unbearable), it’s to increasing degrees gelatinous and gloopy, attempting to begin moves with the electric motor in what I presume is a futile attempt to not use to much fuel but which leaves it infuriatingly ponderous before the engine pitches in. It’s particularly wilfully bad in A (actually Advanced Efficiency).

In N mode, at a steady 30mph, I hit the throttle and a stopwatch at the same time, and it wanted more than 3.5sec to gain just 10mph. For comparison, I climbed into a diesel Citroën Berlingo van – not a rival, I know, but what I had to hand – and it was a full second quicker doing the same thing.

You can select and hold gears yourself (even on the Ti, the gear lever has a manual mode), but it shouldn’t be this hard work. I doubt it saves much fuel over Dynamic mode, either, given that you will be on the throttle that much harder. And either way, this isn't much more than a 40mpg car.

It's not entirely a rival, but the new Honda Civic that I drove last week, easily breezing past 60mpg with a much more responsive and predictable powertrain, shows how it can be done.

The Tonale's handling is, though, very agile, so if that’s what Alfa was going for, it nailed that. It doesn’t roll too far – just enough to lean on – and I doubt there’s another car in the class that’s this willing to turn, yet it does it without the harshness of ride that you get in, say, the smaller Ford Puma ST.

Even on these 20in wheels (and in left-hand drive, which often doesn’t help the perception of ride quality in the UK, because it sits the driver on the worst bit of the road), the Tonale is well-controlled yet far from harsh, breezing aside most town lumps and imperfections.

The steering is very quick, at around 2.2 turns between locks; really responsive, even just off of straight-ahead; and extremely light. Which means that for all its agility, the Tonale doesn't feel very stable.

Combine that with the difficult drivetrain and, even though it comes across as quite dynamic, it’s a difficult car to drive smoothly, get into a rhythm with or feel relaxedly comfortable with.

I’m reminded a little of the 2010 Mini Countryman, which was given very rapid steering in an effort to make a tall car try to feel as nimble as the Mini hatch, rather than being given dynamics that suited its nature.

A seemingly similar ethos makes the Tonale a half-appealing car but one that’s harder to warm to than, say, the incredibly compelling Giulia saloon or the maturely capable Stelvio SUV.