2024 Alfa Romeo Tonale Ti review and Alfa Romeo Festa

The Alfa Romeo Owners Club of New Zealand celebrated its 50th birthday earlier this year. We made the trip to Wellington to join the celebration and check out some Milanese metal.

Heading away to an Alfa fest, we needed an appropriate ride and the newest model in the range seemed good. The Tonale Ti, priced at $59,990, sits below the higher spec’d $66,990 Alfa Romeo Tonale Veloce.

The Alfa Romeo Tonale has been on sale in NZ for over 18 months now and Alfa has sold 74 units. Not too bad considering dealers sold 104 vehicles in total for 2022 when they only had the Giulia and Stelvio on offer.

But has Alfa’s first crack at a compact crossover done the job of turning around sales of Alfa Romeos? Perhaps not.

From whatever angle you view the Tonale, it looks classy. The front is aggressive with the three modules of matrix LEDs on each side and I also like the Ti’s scudetto grille in aluminum.

The long swooping beltline and bulging side skirts give the car added presence. Standard equipment is generous and extra options include a $3000 Technology pack which includes blind spot monitoring, rear cross traffic alert, traffic jam assist, side parking sensors, 360-degree camera, lane centering, and auto-dimming side mirrors.

A Lusso pack ($6000) also adds heating and cooling to the seats, a heated steering wheel, leather interior with dark grey stitching, eight-way electric seats with memory and a 14-speaker Harman Kardon sound system.

Red and white paint is standard with other colours costing an extra $2000.

On the Road

We set off on Thursday morning to rendezvous with some club members in Mercer before heading off down State Highway 1. With the DNA drive mode in Natural, we opted to use adaptive cruise control and lane keeping assist to ease the monotony of highway kays.

We also preferred to use Apple CarPlay for our navigation and tunes (Android Auto is also standard). Leaving SH1 at Lake Karapiro, and heading along the Waikato River, we switched into Dynamic mode to liven things up.

The Ti doesn’t get the Brembo stoppers found in the Veloce or the Active Dual Stage Valve Suspension so the handling and ride finds the middle ground between sportiness and comfort. Long time owners will find the sportiness dialed back from past models as Alfa has tried to appeal to a larger market, erring on the side of comfort.

Guess that’s not a bad thing for a crossover. The Ti’s smaller 18-inch wheels also get more sidewall than the optional 19-inch rims. The steering is light and quick, which is great for parking and city driving but it’s a little lacking in feedback at highway speeds and in corners.

With just 110kW and 240Nm sent to the front wheels via a seven-speed dual-clutch auto, you have to drive smoothly to make good pace in the twisties. The Ti foregoes the aluminum paddle shifters found in the Veloce but you can use the shift lever if so inclined.

In Dynamic mode it holds the gears longer and the variable geometry turbo helps keep things moving along in the little 1.5-litre, but it does feel like hard work at times.

Crossover comfort

A quick pit stop was the order of the day in Whakamaru, and we then carried on to Turangi for a short lunch break. Rejoining SH1 we pressed on southbound passing through Levin towards the final stretch of the drive.

The Tonale’s seats we found comfortable, the seating position sorted. The high center console gives you a hunkered down feeling but a knee pad would be a welcome addition. The cabin does possess the right personality and style for an Alfa.

It doesn’t redefine luxury with some hard plastics in evidence, but keep in mind that the Tonale undercuts its rivals on price. Alfa Romeo elected to go with two screens.

Both have good resolution and are responsive with a 10.25-inch touchscreen infotainment/navigation system in the center and the 12.3-inch driver’s screen set deep within the binnacle.

Driving info can be displayed in a variety of ways; we liked the retro gauges which are a nice throwback to vintage Alfas. It’s a classy place to be. The HVAC controls get real buttons and the steering wheel just feels right.

Updated recently

Alfa has recently updated the Tonale’s interior for 2025 presenting the refresh at the recent Paris motor show. The facelift addresses some primary criticisms with the interior including new air vents, instrument cowl and armrest cubby.

The instrument cluster’s new on-board info includes a clock, and fuel and battery gauges that are now supposedly easier to read. Personally I found the existing items to be fine.

The gear lever is also replaced with a rotary selector which I don’t think anyone asked for. No word yet on when this minor facelift is expected to arrive though.

After we arrived in Wellington, we parked the Tonale in a rather tight hotel parking building full of other Alfas. The turning circle is a little wide, which is typically Italian, but it’s manageable and at low speeds and loads, the 48-volt mild hybrid system works well in urban settings.

Car parked, we set off on foot for Queens Wharf for some amber refreshments after the 610 kilometre drive.

Fun run

Friday morning dawned and the Alfa club was doing some fun runs around Martinborough so we headed up SH2 and over Remutaka Hill.

We decided to lunch at the White Swan Hotel in Greytown while sitting on the verandah watching various Alfas drive by. Next it was off to Martinborough to hunt out some back roads with other Alfas.

Saturday morning was a show and shine in Odlins Plaza which had over 100 Alfas on display with the public stopping by to have a look. The prize for best in show was a beautifully restored Montreal which was so clean it would have made those with OCD proud.

Afterwards, we headed up to Camborne in Porirua to join the convoy of Alfas heading around the bays. We then carried on up to Southwards Car Museum for a tour.

Saturday evening included a gala dinner at Te Papa with over 200 members attending. There was also a gorgeous 1930 Alfa Romeo 6C that greeted us in the foyer.

Alfa Romeo’s former CEO, Jean-Philippe Imparato, commented on AROCNZ reaching its 50th birthday via video. Marco Fazio, who is the Historical Services Manager for Alfa Romeo, also offered his congratulations.

On Sunday the Alfa club had their AGM. However we elected to hit the road instead, departing Wellington at about 10, and made it back to Auckland by 6pm, not making quite such good time as we did on the drive down.

Worth buying then?

The Tonale Ti proved to be great around town and in the suburbs, but if you’ve the extra, I’d recommend going for the Veloce mainly for its adaptive dampers while the additional safety features would be nice too.

A more powerful, AWD plug-in-hybrid was scheduled for arrival in 2025, but that might not be happening now. A pity as the mild hybrid Tonale does lack a bit of power for this Alfisti. 

However, the Tonale Ti is good value in the premium compact SUV area, offering extra style and character at a competitive price point.

A big thank you to Andrew Simms Alfa Romeo for lending us the Tonale for this road trip.  

AROCNZ – 50 Years Young

The Alfa Romeo Owners Club of New Zealand arose from humble beginnings. In 1974 twelve owners made the decision to form a club which, 50 years later, has grown to become the largest single marque car club in New Zealand. It currently boasts over 600 members.

The club undertakes many regular social activities across the country, from fun runs to movie nights.

With active membership in all the main centres, their monthly meetings often feature guest speakers and garage visits. With such a large membership, club members can call on a wealth of knowledge for technical advice; many members work on and even restore their own cars.

The bi-monthly magazine, AlfaNews, features largely local content such as event reports, technical articles and member profiles. The club has a long association with motorsport, with the Trofeo Series.

This has been running since the 1980s, initially as the Alfasud Trofeo series and later expanding to accommodate all Alfa Romeo models. More recently it has also added other Italian marques.

The club holds an annual race meeting at Manfield, which includes a driver training option for novices who would like to safely explore their cars’ limits under the tuition of an experienced race driver.

The catalogue of incredible Alfas that have resided in New Zealand over the years is impressive. Who knew that NZ was once home to two Alfa Romeo P3 Grand Prix cars from the 1930s?

One of which was the very car driven to a famous victory by Tazio Nuvolari in front of dozens of Nazi officials in the 1935 German Grand Prix. The 8C 2300 that won the 1931 Le Mans also lived in New Zealand for many years.

Little nuggets of history like this have recently been unearthed in a book celebrating the club’s 50th anniversary. Titled ‘Half Century, Full Throttle’ the book was produced by a group of members that initially aimed to trace the club’s history.

However, across 520 photo-filled pages, it documents the history of Alfa Romeo in New Zealand; the importers, the dealers, the racing, the owners, and all the cars.

It’s a valuable piece of New Zealand motoring history and is available to purchase from the club’s website.

This article first appeared in the December/January 2025 issue of NZ Autocar magazine.