Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio (2024 – ) review

It’s expensive to buy, there isn’t even a whiff of electrification to help keep a lid on the daily running costs and it’s going to cop the worst of emissions-related taxation like expensive first-year VED/road tax and more. But nobody is going to buy a car like this with their eyes closed to these realities, and the pay-off of driving something with an exotic badge that handles like a sports car but is practical enough to run as a daily family vehicle does make some sense of it. OK, not much. But if all that appeals and you crave vaguely sensible running costs the Veloce version of the regular Stelvio is the next best thing. Or you could downsize to the hybrid Tonale. But there’s a school of thought that if you’re going to do it, you may as well do it properly.

Sporty stereotypes favour Alfa Romeo, the flipside being a long-standing reputation for flaky reliability the brand has struggled to shake. To be fair the supposedly more dependable German premium brands are also pretty weak by the same score and the Stelvio and Giulia saloon on which it is based hail from a more recent chapter in the brand’s history, and one that hopefully overcomes a historically poor reputation.

Alfa Romeo has done a good job equipping the Stelvio Quadrifoglio with all the safety kit you could want, while the all-wheel drive means it puts its power down to the road in greasy conditions with far more security than its somewhat wild Giulia Quadrifoglio saloon equivalent. For times when you just want to sit back and relax there is a Driver Assistance Pack to upgrade the existing driver aids to what is known in the business as level two semi-autonomous driving , which in plain English means the car will hold its position in the lane and automatically adjust the speed according to your distance to the vehicle in front though you, of course, retain ultimate control and responsibility. Pretty common stuff on modern cars, though even at this level Alfa Romeo makes you pay extra.

Many sporty SUVs need rock hard suspension to keep their heavy bodies from wobbling around in the corners, which can come at the expense of comfort. Almost uniquely Alfa Romeo seems to have found a cake and eat it solution where the Quadrifoglio’s significantly uprated foundations can deliver the handling buyers expect of that esteemed cloverleaf badge and sense of the Giulia saloon’s agility. But in a much chunkier and more practical body, with plenty of room in the back and a huge boot. So, no ‘…for an SUV’ caveats required when describing how it drives – the Stelvio is just great fun full stop, with light and positive steering, composed suspension, strong brakes and just a hint of naughtiness in the way it encourages you to drive. Which is all good, but there’s no escaping that for all the appealing retro vibes of the interior it can’t match its German rivals for tech or the all-important luxury ambience. It’s perfectly fine, and as a range flagship the Quadrifoglio’s flashes of leather and carbon do make it feel more expensive. But if interior design matters more to you than driving style there may be better options.

The starting price is steep but the Stelvio Quadrifoglio isn’t left wanting for much, this updated model gaining a new fully digital instrument cluster to accompany the relatively small screen in the centre of the dash. This has all the functionality you could wish for, and the recently updated menu system of swipeable tiles is easy to use whether you go by touch or the physical control wheel between the seats – the latter a bonus in this age of touch-controlled everything. But if you want wall-to-wall widescreen displays and the fanciest graphics the likes of BMW, Audi and Mercedes do it better. Instead, cheer yourself up with what you get included in the price, goodies including a thumping Harman/Kardon sound system, the new-look ‘Tri-lobe’ LED Matrix headlights, power adjustable and heated front seats, a power tailgate, blind spot alerts, rear view camera, fancy carbon trimmings on the inside and the utterly gorgeous 20-inch alloy wheels. Still not sporty enough? Options include a fancy Akrapovič titanium exhaust, carbon shelled front sports seats (best avoided if you have toddlers likely to kick the hell out of the back of them) and even supercar style ceramic brakes. None of which is strictly necessary. But helps the Quadrifoglio look, sound and feel that bit more special.

The Stelvio Quadrifoglio certainly goes full Italian under the bonnet, the racy 520 horsepower, 2.9-litre turbocharged engine actually sharing foundations – and a good deal of character – with the eight-cylinder motors used in various Ferraris. It powers all four wheels through an automatic gearbox, which is best enjoyed in manual mode via the large, supercar style shifter paddles behind the steering wheel. Like the Giulia Quadrifoglio the three-position ‘DNA’ driver mode switch gets an extra ‘Race’ mode, which tightens everything from suspension to steering and makes this hulking SUV drive like something much lower, lighter and smaller than it actually is. There aren’t many SUVs we’d consider taking for a blast along the back roads just for the hell of it once the family errands have been run, but the Stelvio Quadrifoglio is one of them. If there’s only space on the drive for a single vehicle but you’re not ready to cash in your sports car chips quite yet it’s still one of the best of its type.