Alfa MiTo

[colcol]

Drove a Alfa MiTo last week for 4 days, at the Winton 6 Hour Relay event,, i was the driver up and back to the track, not actual Safety car driver, very impressive!, Damon at Lance Dixon Alfa Doncaster handed the keys over to me, and most likely winced, when i bunny hopped it down the road, it felt very different to what i was used to, but after about an hour, it all came together, it was a 1.4 petrol Turbo model, of which i don't know much about, on the way up, the excellent cruise control maintained a 110 kph, it did over 200 klms, and used 1/4 of a tank, so ithought about 15 litres, but i filled it up, and it only took 10 litres,.... that worked out to 5 litres per 100 klms, [which is meaningless to me], so i worked it out, old school 56 Miles per gallon!, as mentioned great cruise control, push stalk up to go faster, push down to slow down, push button on end to resume, through Benalla, it has a speed limit of 50 through the centre, MiTo was doing 50 in 6th gear, 1,200 revs, without a hint of shudder, lots of usable torque way down low, at 110 kph, it is doing 2,900 revs, the engine won engine of the year in 2010, it is called MULTI AIR, it somehow has, no inlet cam, and the valves are opened by hydraulics and electrics, small valve opening at low revs, to improve air flow and increase torque and compression, valves open up more at higher revs for more gas flow, engine is an absolute gem, didn't put my foot down, as i was driving it on the road, but during the race, when the Race control said Safety Car Scramble, it went like sand of a shovel, Colin.

[colcol]

And to add more, it handled very well, with a touch of understeer, the steering was well weighted, with plenty of feedback, the cabin was spacious, with plenty of room for race officials, and when no one was watching, i got into the car and did what i do to all cars i am driving,.....sat in the back seat, thats right, to all those unlucky enough to know uncle col, i am not a small person, and there was plenty of room in the back, complete with individual drink holders, as much room as a 33 or 156, in my opinion, the car also has SST, [stop start technology], that is when the clutch is out and the gearbox is in neutral, the engine stops to save fuel and emisions, no biggie, but some coutries with a congestion tax, SST is given cheaper fees, [than cars that don't have it], on a 23C day, the airconditioner worked as good as when the motor was running, and it worked at night too, with the lights running, after a while i forgot all about it, if it annoys you, it can be switched off, press the SST button for 2 seconds after starting the car, but it resets to ON after restarting the car, the model i was driving had SABELT seats, and i thought they were the best seats i have ever sat in, [for a production car], good to get in and out and hold you properly when you are driving, the test was no aches and pains in the foot or legs up and back for the 6 hour, the seats also had carbon fibre look to them as did the dashboard, and this model had a 6 speed gearbox, with 6th being under 5th and reverse being where 1st is, engaging reverse required lifting a collar under the gear knob, the action was light, with strong synchro action as on all modern Alfa's, [unlike old Alfa's], Colin.

[Victor Lee]

Good review, Col!  So have u bought it yet? 

[colcol]

No haven't purchased it, no room in garage, but a car on the radar in the future, a few other points, the negative points on the MiTo, 1. Keeping up an age old tradition, the clutch pedal sqeeked, and plenty of sqeeking with a 6 speed gearbox, 2. The door pulls on the doors, are to the front 1/3 of the door, which means no mechanical advantage when opening or shutting of doors and the doors are long and heavy, you would damage the door easily on other cars and walls, got back in 156, the door pull is about 1/2 way up the door, so you have more mechanical advantage in controlling door, the 33 has the door pull 1/2 way up the door, and you have much more control over how far to open it, when parked close to another car, 3. the 'A' pillar is very thick and tapers down in front of you, giving poor visability when looking to the side, mind you it isn't Robinson Carusso here, as all modern cars have the same problem, as the front screen is tipped back for better aerodynamics, but apart from those 3 items it was fantastic, Colin.

[alfagtv100 (Biggus)]

Great write up Colin

[colcol]

Its a great write up for a great car, great to see Alfa still making drivers cars that puts a smile on your face, a few other things i forgot, the MiTo has a well layed out dash, with big air vents, [unlike my 156], the aircon works great, [as in all modern Alfa's], it also has automatic headlights, that can be set to manual, i left it on Auto, and when i drove it in to the pit garage to have the 'safety car' sign put on, it noticed it was dark, and switched the headlights on, when i left Winton at 6-30 pm, a few minutes up the road, it switched the parking lights on, then when it started to get dark, the main lights switched on, and there is a light on the dash, to tell you that they have switched on, a good safety feature, how many times do you see cars driving around with their lights off?, as told before, plenty off room in the back for barge ar5e5 like me, but push a lever on the front seat and it easily moves forward and the backrest folds forward for easy access to the backseat, the boot would take 2 large suitcases and a few small ones, but was used to ferry the radios back to Melbourne, Colin.

[colcol]

The pedal layout was what you would expect from Alfa Romeo,[but don't always get], the accelerator pedal was the right distance from the brake pedal, and the right height for heeling and toeing, the foot rest was next to the clutch pedal, so take your foot off the clutch and dip it down on the dead pedal and support yourself when cornering, then when clutching, lift the foot up and move to right, as it should be, a small point i know, but when car makers don't get this right, because normal drivers don't heel and toe, it drives you mad, well done Alfa!, it also has a D.N.A. switch that means D=Dynamic, sharpens up the response of the engine, and seems to give you a bit more kick out of corners, and the LED display on the dash turns into a Turbo Boost Bar Graph, N=Normal, what i left it in for most of the time, and let the computer work out what i want the car to do, this is the default setting, A=All weather, don't know what this means, but most likely in wet and slippery conditions, that gives you maximum grip, Colin.

[colcol]

The MiTo i had was some sort of special edition, with the 6 speed gearbox and Sabel seats, it also has blueteeth for your phone or something, but was incompatable with my phone due to my type of phone [annalogue], the MiTo sits in the BMW Mini, Fiat 500, Beetle type Retro cars, but without it being a reproduction of any Alfa Romeo models, they are all excellent cars, but being an Alfa Romeo type person, you would have to go with the MiTo, they come up with the name by combining MI-lan, the home of Alfa Romeo and TO-rino the home of Fiat, it was a joint project between the two, [ Fiat would say, this is what we want you to do], i thoroughly enjoyed the car for the 4 days i had it, the Safety car drivers had a great time in it, it was a much better car than i thought it would be, i was happy and sad to hand the keys back to Damon at Lance Dixon Alfa at Doncaster, happy because i hadn't put any marks on it, [ a elderly Falcon driver did get a bit too close to it 2 blocks away from Lance Dixon's], but sad also, because it was such a good car, don't be like me and not take it seriously, go for a drive in one, Colin.

[chris.h]

I took a MiTo QV for a test drive from Prestige Formula in Adelaide Colin. I spoke to Gordon there about the Brera and MiTo as I was looking at both and was undecided about which way to go.
I took the MiTo through city streets and through the Adelaide hills, and I must say I was very impressed by it. I mostly had the DNA switch in Dynamic as in Normal mode I found it felt like it was being kept on a leash, may have been because the engine was still quite new and tight, I'm not sure. However in Dynamic the engine felt eager the handling through the twisty roads was excellent and inspired a lot of confidence in me, although I could never have got near its limits.
I found the interior very well laid out as well, the cabin felt spacious the boot is a good size especially with rear seats folded down. I especially liked the carbon fibre look dash. Unfortunately it didn't have the sabelt seats, apparently Colin they are actually carbon fibre, and for car of this price thats fantastic, however they did have a Fiat arbarth there fitted with them and I'm sure would've really finished off the interior.  One small thing I was surprised about was that there was no starter button, I know it's a bit gimmicky but for a top range sporty model I felt it would have just finished off the feeling of the sportiness of what is a fantastic little car.