Alfa Romeo Tonale FAQs

Check out real-world situations relating to the Alfa Romeo here, particularly what our experts have to say about them.

• Would a Jeep Cherokee, Alfa Romeo Stelvio or Land Rover Discovery be a good first four-wheel-drive?

  That’s quite a broad range of abilities you’ve listed there. Both the Jeep and the Land Rover are pretty serious off-roaders while, the Alfa Romeo Stelvio is an SUV that really has no pretenses to working on a bush track.

  None of this trio would be cheap to service, and modern turbo-diesel engines really do need their maintenance to remain reliable. In terms of industry reputation, the Jeep has a background of electrical and build-quality problems, while the Land Rover and Alfa Romeo also have their share of quality glitches. Many owners put up with this stuff, but if you’re going to head seriously outback, there are probably better choices.

  The other part of the equation is what happens when you wish to sell the vehicle in a few years. Frankly, all three of these cars will be a reasonable bet to suffer plenty of depreciation although, to be fair, a 2021 version of each will already have done some of that.

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• The electronic start in my 2019 Alfa Romeo Giulia won't work

  This sounds like a job for an auto electrician, as it's impossible to diagnose something like this by remote control. But for reference, it could be something as complex as a major problem with the wiring harness and its networking, or something as simple as a flat battery in the key fob. But the fact that the car knows something is wrong and issues a fault warning is actually good news and suggests that an electronic scan of the car will throw up the answer pretty quickly.

  Unfortunately, Alfa Romeo dragged its heels on warranty, and only made a five-year warranty standard after April 22, 2022. Which means your 2019 car came only with a three-year warranty which has, of course, now expired.

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• I'm looking at buying Alfa Romeo Stelvio Veloce 2023, Has the reliability improved?

  The very worst of the bad old days of Alfa Romeo's questionable build quality are behind us. At its worst, brand-new Alfas were rusting within in their warranty period and the electrical systems were a total mess. Many owners swore off the brand at that point, not willing to be caught out twice.

  In the intervening decades, however, overall quality has improved dramatically. Of course, this has been an industry-wide phenomenon, not just an Alfa Romeo one, and is the result of better design, metallurgy and materials. Not to mention the increased use of robotics to physically build the end product. For all that, though, there's still some suspicion – if not resentment – towards the Alfa Romeo badge.

  For the record, Alfa Romeo was ranked number one in the luxury segment in Sales Satisfaction Index for 2022 in the USA in the annual survey by JD Power. The survey is one of the more credible quality surveys and placed Alfa in first position (up nine places) from the 14 luxury brands included in the survey. However, the fine print is interesting, because the SSI result is based on the buyer's experience of six factors; delivery process, dealer personnel, working out the deal, paperwork completion, dealership facility and dealership website. Which is a different thing to actual vehicle build quality and reliability.

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