2025 Alfa Romeo Tonale Veloce First Test: Laughing All the Way to the Track

Motor Trend

a day ago

Pros Delightful to drive
Exceptionally handsome
Usefully sized back seat and trunk Cons Bulky weight
Dull interior design (outside of the dashboard)
Questionable reputation for reliability
There are dozens of cliches about Italian cars, and a fast cruise on a curvy road in the new 2.0-liter Alfa Romeo Tonale will bring every one of them to mind. Quick and lively, loaded with personality and gioia de vivere , the non-hybrid version of Alfa's Tonale subcompact SUV brought a smile to the face of every MT staffer who encountered it. Even our coldly objective test equipment seemed to display its numbers at a jaunty angle.
The 2025 Alfa Romeo Tonale Veloce is a lively, non-hybrid compact SUV with 268 hp and 295 lb-ft torque. It offers dynamic handling, stylish design, and Italian charm, but is slightly heavy at 3,812 lbs. Priced from $38,490, it promises an engaging, joyful driving experience.
This summary was generated by AI using content from this MotorTrend article Read Next Alfa's Good Day at the Track
We'll talk about why the Alfa made us smile (and a few things that made us frown) a little further down the page, but first, allow us to hit you with some numbers. The non-hybrid Tonale boasts 268 horsepower and 295 lb-ft of torque from its 2.0-liter turbocharged four, but it has 3,812 pounds of Alfa to haul around. That struck us as quite a bit of bulk for a subcompact SUV, especially one without an electric-traction subsystem. Competitors hover closer to the 3,500-pound mark.
Still, the 2025 Alfa Romeo Tonale Veloce did not embarrass itself, dashing to 60 mph in 6.0 seconds and running the quarter mile in 14.7 seconds with a 93.8 mph trap speed. The Alfa responded eagerly to different launch techniques, and we achieved the best times when we wound the engine to 2,500 rpm before releasing the brake. Less fancy footwork, i.e., just releasing the brake and matting the accelerator, still yielded a vigorous start, just not the outright best numbers.
Braking was just fine: A firm foot on the short-travel pedal brought the Tonale down from 60 mph in 114 confidence-inspiring feet. Italian cars may have a flair for the dramatic, but there was no drama here; the Alfa kept its rear end firmly planted and maintained excellent directional control, making us feel like we could stop not just when we wanted but where we wanted. From Strip to Street
Out on the asphalt lake, shod with Michelin Pilot Sport All-Season 4s, the Tonale pulled 0.83 g (average) on the skidpad and ran our figure-eight lap in 26.4 seconds at an average of 0.69 g. That puts the Alfa in very good company, tying the time of the Porsche Macan T and—believe it or not—the Mazda MX-5 Miata RF Club. Impressive, especially when you consider the Tonale's twin handicaps of good-not-great power and a transmission that is reluctant to change down without prompting from the shift paddles. But what about other compact SUVs against which the Tonale actually competes? A couple are quicker—the now sadly defunct Hyundai Kona N-Line and the 2025 Mini Countryman S, for example—but the best of (most of) the rest don't better the low 27-second range.
The Tonale's numbers weren't the only things that made us grin. We like people to picture our car testers as jaded, sober, craggy-faced old crabs who have seen and done it all. The sober part is true—we make it a point to do our instrumented testing before 4 p.m.—but most of us are (relatively) young and enthusiastic. Still, we're tricky to impress, and yet impress us the Tonale did.
From the test track we headed to the twisty back roads of Los Angeles' hidden corners, where the Alfa Romeo Tonale just loves to be flung around. While one staffer opined it doesn't quite have the magic of the Giulia or even the Stelvio, it still generated way more smiles than we expect from an SUV that straddles the line between inexpensive compact and entry-level luxury. With a base price just shy of $39,000, the Tonale isn't cheap—and bear in mind you can pile on another $20,000 or so worth of options and packages—but at the lower end, it sure delivers grins for the cash. It's the kind of SUV that turns you back into a 16-year-old driver with a freshly minted license, making excuses to take the family car out to run some errands. True Beauty Comes From Without
And even when we weren't driving the 2025 Alfa Romeo Tonale Veloce, we enjoyed it. Our test Alfa was done up in the proper color (has Italy ever created a car that doesn't look fantastic in red?), and we found ourselves constantly looking over our shoulder after parking it. We like the squinty headlights, the trademark triangular grille, and those nifty five-petal wheels. This isn't a modern-day SUV trying to look like a classic old Alfa; rather, it shows what a vehicle looks like when a brand stays true to its design motif. Next to the driving dynamics, the Tonale's handsome looks may be its best feature.
But the interior is where the SUV lets us down a little. It's functional, for sure, with comfy seats, a decent (if not exactly generous) amount of back-seat room, and a cargo bay with a nifty multilevel floor panel that lets you choose between a flat floor with hidden space underneath or maximum cubic feet.
The dashboard, like the exterior, is very pretty; perhaps a bit hyperactive in its design, reflecting the Tonale's inspired driving dynamics, but we're big fans of the illuminated metal panel that serves as a centerpiece. Another feature that made us smile is the midcentury-style gauges that can be displayed on the 12.3-inch LCD instrument cluster (although the pixelated movement of the video needles makes us wonder if the underlying computing hardware is entirely up to the task). Of course, it took us a while to figure out how to display these gauges; we were stuck with the ugly, modern digital speedo until we discovered the button to change display modes is located on the end of the windshield wiper stalk.
Unfortunately, the rest of the interior is rather dull. There's not much adornment on the seats and rear door panels. Even if you opt for the black-and-red interior, all you get is thin red stitching and some faded red sections under your butt where you can't see them. Check out the red-and-black options offered by BMW, Acura, or Lexus—they've out-Italianed the Italians. Alfa Tonale: Viva L'Italia!
The cosa about the 2025 Alfa Romeo Tonale Veloce 2.0T is that it goes way beyond the numbers. This is an SUV that feels alive and makes the driver feel alive, and reminds you that, whatever your present circumstances, there's a place in the world where the sun is shining and twisty roads await. Italy is out there somewhere, and Alfa Romeo has been kind enough to bottle up a little of it for us. Fast or slow, the Alfa Romeo Tonale is as Italian as can be—and that is its single best attribute.