Test Drive: Alfa Mito

Ever since BMW so successfully reinvented the Mini, cars have become the ultimate fashion accessory.  Add in concerns over the environment, congestion charging and city living parking problems and the case for small, beautifully designed premium cars has never been stronger. Enter Alfa Romeo and the diminutive and oh-so-stylish Mito.

With a name taken from two of Italy’s spiritual capitals – Milan for style and Turin for motoring, the Mito is a premium sporting hatchback aimed fairly and squarely at the metrosexual Mini.  Its wide arched, snub nose and giant Alfa shield grill scream aggression – a refreshing contrast to the majority of its supermini peers.

The Mito is a driver’s car that will take no prisoners and there’s plenty for the driver to choose from with a range of three 1.4 petrol engines and two turbo diesels. We tried the range topping 1.4s with 155bhp, which felt suitably feisty and made the most of the Mito’s firm set up. All Mitos get Alfa’s DNA system, which allows you to alter the behaviour of the engine, steering and stability control according to your tastes which means that there’s plenty of grip in bends and body lean is suppressed reasonably well giving arch nemesis the Mini a run for its money!

Inside and any issues you may have had about Italian cars and build quality will be firmly quashed by the Mito’s sophisticated cabin. Gone are the days of air fix dashboards and in come high-end solid soft touch plastics that swoop sportily and metallic gunmetal highlights further add to the quality feel of the cabin.

It’s not all joyful inside though, the three door Mito is small in the back with rear seats being best used occasionally rather than all the time and the tight access means it’s hard to get in to start with unless you’re feeling particularly sprightly! The boot’s a decent size at 270 litres, but we found the load lip to be high, so you have to drop items in from the top – a pain if those items are heavy, or you’re short! The swooping lines do mean you get a small rear screen aswell meaning visibility can be hampered – best opt for parking sensors, especially if you do a lot of city driving!

The seats are a heavily sculpted affair and have bags of adjustment, so ensconce you in the optimum driving position to take to the road.  We’d recommend the gorgeous Natural leather trim, which looks particularly stylish with either Graphite Grey or the Alfa Red paint of our test car.

Those seats not only look good but they’re safe too with built in anti-whiplash head restraints, seven airbags and electronic stability control.  It’s no surprise, therefore, that the little Alfa scored an impressive 5 star rating in crash testing conducted by Euro Ncap making it one of the safest small cars on the road. There’s also an alarm and immobiliser as standard aswell to help ensure your Mito stays yours!

The Mito starts at a very reasonable £10,745 for the 1.4 Turismo although you need to spend a bit more to get goodies such as alloys, so we’d go for Lusso models and above.  Afterall, when a car’s this stylish, you need to go the whole hog!