Alfa Romeo Mito 1.4 T-Jet first drive

What is it?

This, for many, is the spiritual successor to the Alfasud of the ‘70s and ‘80s, a car loved for its driving characteristics, but not for its durability. The name Mito combines the first letters of Milan (where the Alfa Romeo was conceived) and Turin (where the cars are currently made).

Alfa’s long awaited supermini is a sporty three-door hatch which the company claims “packs all of Alfa’s heritage and spirit into a four-metre length”. If all goes to plan it’s also the true beginning of the company’s fight to double its volume to 300,000 in the next couple of years.

Mechanically speaking, this is a car based closely on Fiat’s highly successful Punto (which also has the mechanical relationship with the Vauxhall Corsa) though Alfa have changed most of the permutations that matter: styling, seating, steering, engine spec, suspension bushes and rates, brakes, tyres. These all move right to the sporty end of the scale.

The car also gets a couple of important electronic driver aids: Q2, which delivers the effect of a limited slip diff by using the front brakes to take a spinning driven wheel; and what’s dubbed a ‘DNA’ sports switch, which gives the driver a chance to toggle between three settings - Dynamic, Normal and All Weather – which juggle steering effort, stability control and overboost according to road and driving conditions.

What’s it like?

Taken all round, it’s great-looking, enjoyable sporty little car. The styling strikes us as especially successful: the combination of key details (headlights, tail lights, grille, bonnet) that are directly influenced by the recent 8C Competitzione supercar, together with the naturally cheeky lines of a three-door hatchback, give this all the hallmarks of a car that will be instantly popular.

Alfa Romeo want to build 70,000 a year, with around 8000 earmarked for the ‘emotional car’ buyers of the UK.

The top-spec 155bhp Veloce feels instantly quick – a key Alfa brand requirement for a marque whose claims are based more on power-to-weight than brute horsepower. Kerbweight for the Veloce is 1145kg, 60kg less than the Mini Cooper S, but still nothing special.

The Mito Veloce’s tall sixth gear will take it to 135 mph flat out, and it reaches 62mph from standstill in 8.0 seconds dead. The turbocharged torque (170 lb ft at 3000 rpm) provides decent mid-range shove in every gear, yet the engine still soars sweetly to its 6500rpm redline. It sounds good too.

Indeed this small capacity turbocharged engine, which feels like a smooth and upmarket normally-aspirated 2.0-litre, is one of the Mito’s best features. The six-speed gearbox is serviceable enough, but it isn’t in the same class for speed or precision.

Handling is just what you’d expect, flat and grippy with very good resistance to understeer and stable responses when you suddenly ease the accelerator in corners, though the Mito can still tighten its line enough to make throttle-steering a worthwhile activity.

‘Dynamic’ mode makes the steering firmer and sharpens the engine response, while adding a few seconds of overboost. Torque steer is hardly an issue, but the price for that seems to be a certain disappointing dullness around the straight-ahead, the kind of thing which used to be normal with electric power steering set-ups, but has been eliminated from the best of them.