Does the 2019 Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio have the most horsepower for a production SUV? In a word, no. We live in a world where having 505 horsepower under the hood of your SUV doesn’t even place you in the top three. Let that sink in.
So, if horsepower alone can’t get you in the door, what can? What about fastest lap time for a production SUV at the Nürburgring? According to Alfa, the Stelvio Quadrifoglio ran a time of 7 minutes and 51.7 seconds. That’s faster than a Lamborghini Gallardo LP 560-4. Ah, there are your bragging rights.
What about the utility part of the equation? With a base price of $80,245, we wouldn’t blame you for thinking that the Stelvio Quadrifoglio comes fully loaded. Alas, it does not. If you want features like adaptive cruise control or lane departure warning, you’ll need to pony up an extra $1200 for the Driver Assistance Dynamic Package. Power liftgate? $350. But hey, you get a cargo net, too. When you add up all of the extras, our tester stickered for $88,540. That might be cheap when you take into account the Stelvio Quadrifoglio’s capabilities against high-end sports cars, but when compared to its contemporaries, there are much more affordable ways to take the kids to soccer.
Scene: Alfa Romeo HQ.
Person 1: Let’s take an SUV…
Person 2: So, a truck.
Fine, whatever. Let’s take an SUV and jam it up with lots of power, big brakes and race car seats.
Why not just start with a car?
Let’s take an SUV and jam it up with lots of power, big brakes and race car seats.
No, really, why?
Because marketing.
And that, my friends, is my take on Alfa’s $80,000 go-fast SUV. If building a true performance vehicle, why not start with something that sits a little closer to the deck? Because marketing.
"If building a true performance vehicle, why not start with something that sits a little closer to the deck? Because marketing."
Counterpoint: Because that's what people are buying; given that CUVs rule the market these days and the Stelvio is outselling the Giulia.
What's it actually like to drive? Is it enough better than the Macan to make it worth all the extra money?
No problem having a high performance truck. But could they use some other special designation?
I guess I'll be happy if there's a Veloce version of the car, but not the truck...
guy at my gym has one.. boy does it sound good... that's all I got.
Are these as nightmarishly unreliable as the Giulia? A guy that several people in my SCCA chapter know actually owns to Giulia Quadrifoglios so that he has one to drive while the other is in the shop. I'm not even joking.
Did you get to drive it before it broke down? Sunburn from all the dashboard warning lights?
A friend of mine recently got one in pearl white. It's rather understated visually for how fast it is, at least in white. The comparison with the Macan is an interesting question. My unthinking reaction is that the Macan seems a lot less special, but I wonder if it feels that way too. I've never driven either vehicle. I once chased a Macan around some mountain roads in Banff in a rented Rav4. That was pleasantly pointless, unless it somehow unconsciously contributed to the fact that i now own a Porsche SUV which I'm pretty happy about. Hmmmm.
We've yet to have a Macan show up in the parking lot, sadly. As for the Alfa, it picked up a nail in the tire and that was that. When I moved it before they came to pick it up, it was stumbling as it tried to idle. Smoothed out as it warmed up. I can confirm that it sounds nice, at least.
NickD said:Are these as nightmarishly unreliable as the Giulia? A guy that several people in my SCCA chapter know actually owns to Giulia Quadrifoglios so that he has one to drive while the other is in the shop. I'm not even joking.
Asking the real question here.
I drove my friend's dads Giulia Quadrifoglio and it was amazingly fast and epic to drive. I tried to talk my wife into leasing a regular Stelvio but the interior space was not enough for the family. The lease specials on the Stelvio and Giulia are very tempting, usually around $299 a month. I love the idea of having one, I just don't think I would want one long term.
The looks - awesome
the sounds - awesome
the price and reliability- walks away
Displaying 1-10 of 26 commentsView all comments on the GRM forums
You'll need to log in to post.
