After reviewing cars at the LA Auto Show and test driving a few, we narrowed down her top 3 to the Alfa Romeo Stelvio, the Cadillac XT4, and the Subaru Outback. All three cars are excellent, but the one that excited her the most and was offering the best deal was Alfa Romeo.
So we negotiated with the Carlsbad dealer and brought this one home! This first photo is how it looked when we went to pick it up.
Our Stelvio is Alfa Rosso Red with the Nero interior.
About two hours later, here it is in the garage. Her old car, a 2017 Lincoln MKC, is in the background. The MKC was a fine car, but the 3 year lease was up. We considered keeping it, but it was missing a couple of options we wanted (front parking sensors, sunroof) and even if we extended the lease a year, we only had 10K miles/year on it and with her new job, we need more like 15K. So the choice was buy it or lease a new car. With the deals being offered on the Stelvio, the choice was clear.
The interior is just exquisite. The Italians really know how to design - the Germans are nowhere near as good at visuals as the Italians.
The dashboard. The car comes with Android Auto and Apple Carplay, so there is no need for a built-in navigation system anymore. And that's a good thing - the settings that have been saved on the cell phone can be saved in the car also, and it eliminates the need to update the maps stored in the car nav every year. win-win!
Very nice dash design also.
My wife insisted on rear a/c vents and USB ports, and this car has them.
Comparing the rear end of the Stelvio to the MKC.
The MKC feels much bigger inside and out, but in reality it is an inch wider, an inch taller, and 5 inches longer.
Love the 20 inch sport wheels with red calipers!
...and the front wheels.
The Stelvio has the traditional Alfa Romeo triangular grille, and the front end is just like the Alfa Romeo Guilia (pronounced "Julia"), only a little taller.
The Alfa logo is awesome!
I also snapped a few photos in a local parking garage.
The rear slopes quite a bit, giving this SUV more of a sports car profile. It still has more luggage room than our prior MKC.
Rear view.
One thing I didn't notice until we bought it was how the character line that runs above the taillights wraps THROUGH the taillights and continues on around under the taillights.
It is the attention to details such as these that truly sets the Italians apart.
While we were picking up our car, this Stelvio Quadrifoglio was sitting there. I'm not much of a fan of the blacked-out look typically, but this just looked phenomenal. Black wheels, black paint, black interior.
The Quadrifoglio is the high performance Stelvio - it has something like 500 HP. Quadrifoglios all have the four leaf clover, so they are easy to spot on the road.
Anyway, we are really enjoying the Stelvio so far!
No comments:
Post a Comment