Alfa moved just 2700 vehicles in America in the first five months of 2017. The brand’s keepers hope to grow that number by moving beyond just building sporty vehicles for the enthusiast fringe, expanding into the greener field where the masses of buyers have clustered: compact crossovers. The Stelvio’s measurements suggest tighter rear-seat and cargo space than its competitors, although neither feels especially cramped. To keep Alfa’s entry from being a me-too vehicle, the brand is applying technology in its own way.

“At Alfa Romeo, technology is more than a fancy radio and advanced driver-assistance systems. Everybody has that,” taunts Alfa boss Reid Bigland. The technology that Bigland boasts of: Every Stelvio carries a carbon-fiber driveshaft and enough aluminum that the new Alfa should undercut the BMW X3 by almost 100 pounds. The available Performance package installs a helical limited-slip differential between the rear wheels. To drive home the brand message, Alfa makes the driver thumb an engine-start button mounted on the steering wheel. In Sport and Ti Sport trims, massive column-mounted aluminum shift paddles block the control stalks. “You’re not going to use that turn signal without first executing four flawless downshifts,” they insist.
Everybody else also has a turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-four paired with an eight-speed automatic and all-wheel drive, all of which comes standard here. The variable-valve-lift engine is the strongman of the class, however, at 280 horses and 306 lb-ft of torque. Yet it’s also a gentleman, revving smoothly with minimal turbo lag.

Stelvio pricing starts from $42,990 for a nicely equipped car that includes 10-way power seats for both the driver and passenger, real leather (many competitors use a synthetic material as standard), 18-inch wheels, proximity-key entry, remote start, adaptive headlights, rear parking sensors, a backup camera, and a power liftgate. The $2000 step up to the Ti trim adds heating to the front seats and the steering wheel, satellite radio, front parking sensors, and an 8.8-inch infotainment display (up from 6.5 inches in the base model). Sport variants, available in both base and Ti configurations, include paddle shifters, aluminum interior trim and pedals, larger wheels, painted brake calipers (in red, black, or yellow), and gloss-black exterior trim. A couple of different driver-assistance packages bring blind-spot monitoring, auto-dimming exterior mirrors, adaptive cruise control, forward-collision warning with automated emergency braking, lane-departure warning, and automatic high-beams. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatibility will become standard equipment within a couple months of the Stelvio’s late-June arrival, but that feature is unavailable in the initial batch of cars.

While Maserati’s remake has been assembled partially with Chrysler leftovers, Alfa gets its own premium-feeling switchgear and a new infotainment system that is, at least for now, exclusive to the brand. The clean interior design can be accented with real aluminum, wood, or carbon fiber. At the same time, the designers didn’t attempt to dress up some of the plastics, such as the untextured, flat-finish trim that surrounds the unfortunate, ambiguous electronic shifter. And the coarse-grain dashtop might have been pilfered from the Ford Taurus assembly plant. In the Stelvio, the highs are high and the lows are low.

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