Alfa Romeo Stelvio Veloce 2022 Review

From a launch price of $78,950 plus on-road costs when it joined the Alfa Romeo Stelvio range in mid-2021, the Veloce has suffered some price creep.

Yet though it has jumped to $82,950 plus on-road costs, the 2022 Alfa Romeo Stelvio Veloce still manages to sneak in below model-equivalent competitors including the base Porsche Macan ($89,300 plus ORCs), Audi Q5 Sportback 45 TFSI (from $90,600) and BMW X4 xDrive30i (from $99,900).

It’s also far more affordable than the only other model in the line-up, the Stelvio Quadrifoglio that opens at $160,700 plus ORCs.

In addition to extra power over lesser models that have quietly disappeared from Australian showrooms, the 2022 Alfa Romeo Stelvio Veloce adds active suspension, a Q2 limited-slip rear differential and upgrades to the braking system using four-pot callipers at the front and single pistons at the rear.

Wheel size has lifted too, from 19 to 20 inches.

The cabin has also been upgraded, scoring stitched leather on the seats, dash and door trims, powered front sports seats with three-position memory settings on the driver’s side, heated seats front and rear, a hands-free powered tailgate and a solid 10-speaker sound system that includes a subwoofer to impress passers-by in the street.

Standard cabin niceties include a heated steering wheel, ambient lighting and aluminium pedals.

Our review Stelvio was optioned up with a $1650 14-speaker Harman Kardon audio system to further enhance the soundscape, as well as a good-size sliding panoramic sunroof ($3300) and metallic Misano Blue paint ($2150).

Newly-expanded warranty provisions to five years/unlimited kilometres make the Alfa Romeo Stelvio Veloce competitive, while servicing requirements of 12 months or 15,000km between workshop visits are pretty much industry standard these days.

Servicing costs open at $345 for the first service, ramp up to $645 for the second and $465 for the third, then top out at $1065 for the fourth before dropping back to $345 for the fifth service, for a total of $2865 over five years/75,000km.

A comprehensive rollcall of active and passive safety features stands the 2022 Alfa Romeo Stelvio Veloce in good stead.

All the usual safety spec is there, including autonomous emergency braking (AEB) – for both low and high speeds – pedestrian avoidance, adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning with lane keep assist, blind spot monitoring with active assist, rear cross traffic alert, front and rear parking sensors and driver attention monitoring.

The Stelvio has six airbags and a five-star ANCAP safety rating that dates back to testing carried out in 2017, the year before it launched in Australia.

Standard tech equipment on the 2022 Alfa Romeo Stelvio Veloce includes touch-screen sat-nav on a smallish 8.8-inch screen, Apple CarPlay/Android Auto connectivity complete with wireless phone charging and four USB ports sprinkled around the interior.

Headlights are self-dipping and will help the driver see partly around approaching corners, but dated bi-Xenon technology fails to provide the penetrating spread of white light or the glare-avoiding characteristics – aimed at making life safer for oncoming traffic – that are available via LEDs.

The 2.0-litre turbo engine was powered-up for the Alfa Romeo Stelvio Veloce in 2021 and has a bit to boast about with its solid 400Nm of torque and lofty 206kW maximum.

Redlined from 5500rpm, the Veloce’s powerplant requires a mere 5250rpm to reach peak power, which doesn’t encourage excursions into the upper reaches of the rpm range.

Because the 400Nm of maximum torque is produced at higher engine speeds than most turbo fours of this capacity (2250rpm), all the action occurs across a fairly narrow 3000rpm power band.

That means there’s a slight faltering at low engine speeds that is followed by a very solid but relatively brief rush up to maximum power.

The upshot is that the Veloce feels eager but not frenetic, leaving the eight-speed ZF automatic transmission to sort out when and where the power output is best applied.

Alfa must have got it right: 5.7 seconds from zero to 100km/h and claimed combined-cycle fuel consumption of 7.0L/100km are nothing to be ashamed of.

Achieving that 7.0L/100km is not likely to be a common experience in general use, however. The 2022 Alfa Romeo Stelvio Veloce review car was more inclined to sit around the 10L/100km mark and in past reviews we’ve seen 2.0-litre Stelvio models using 11L/100km or more.

Alfa Romeo at least suggests a diet of 95 RON fuel, not 98 RON as required by some other performance SUVs, although its relatively small 64-litre fuel tank will tend to limit the Veloce’s range.

Dynamically, the 2022 Alfa Romeo Stelvio Veloce rates among the top contenders in its segment and is remarkably sedan-like in its composed, flat-handing demeanour.

With lightning-quick steering – there’s just 2.2 turns lock to lock yet the turning circle is a competitive 11.8 metres – the Stelvio Veloce feels very un-SUV on twisty, undulating roads.

This is helped by a 20-inch tyre profile that has a low enough aspect ratio to encourage grip but not so low that the ride is overly compromised.

The Stelvio’s light-footedness is helped by its weight too, which measures up at 1619kg tare to make it much lighter than its competitors from Porsche, Audi and BMW.

The Stelvio Veloce can be made to adopt a quietly conservative character or – in a muted sort of way – become an exhaust-popping, rev-matching road-stomper via three-mode ‘DNA; (Dynamic, Natural, Advanced) settings on the centre console which also switch the shock absorbers between soft and firm settings.

The rear-biased Q4 all-wheel drive system scopes out grip requirements to send power progressively between back and front ends depending on road conditions and/or driver behaviour.

If there’s a beef, it’s that the Stelvio’s steering is prone to an unsettling low-speed clunking on full lock that’s been noted in previously-driven Alfas and is believed to be related to the front-end geometry.

The 2022 Alfa Romeo Stelvio doesn’t promote much of an SUV vibe. It’s no off-roader and doesn’t pretend to be.

It’s at home on a mildly slushy or gravelly track where the AWD system and road-oriented tyres cope well, but there’s little point in taking it much further.

Maybe in contradiction of this bitumen-biased slant, the Stelvio Veloce is rated to tow a braked trailer/caravan weighing up to 2.3 tonnes.

In an era where extravagant styling excesses are increasingly prevalent, the 2022 Alfa Romeo Stelvio Veloce is something of an anachronism, with an interior that eschews massive LCD screens, all-embracing digital readouts and the complex moulding of most interiors, including dash and doors.

The result is that, even though some might find it all a bit bland, the Stelvio Veloce is a tasteful, comfortable and prestigious place to be.

Drivers of a sporting bent will love the comfortable embrace of the widely adjustable powered front seats, extending lower cushions and three memory settings (driver’s only), as well as the conventional analogue instrument display which is free of the often confusing array of digital advice presented in many of today’s cars.

The Stelvio’s oversize, fixed shift paddles certainly make a statement and the steering wheel-mounted starter button is equally easy to find.

Up back, the Stelvio suffers a disappointing shortage of legroom, which is somewhat out of place in the context of a mid-size SUV.

The cushioning is fine, and so is the shoulder-room, but the fact that adults need to compromise their stretching comfort is not what you would expect in an $80,000-plus five-seater.

The rear seat headroom, especially with the optional dual-pane sunroof, isn’t anything special either.

There’s solace in a decent 499-litre boot which can be extended to 1600 litres by folding the rear seats flat – although we are not ecstatically happy with the inflatable space-saver tyre which seems to take up an inordinate amount of space.

The Veloce’s hands-free tailgate is welcome, though.

That the 2022 Alfa Romeo Stelvio is well down in the mid-size premium SUV popularity stakes is due to numerous factors including that it is swamped by a big list of high-profile competitors.

Notwithstanding this, the Stelvio Veloce has nothing to apologise for in terms of engine performance, dynamic capabilities and charm.

And there’s no question about the status or prestige of the Alfa Romeo brand.

The question is whether you would lean away from the more popular performance-oriented mid-size premium SUVs – as an indicator of market preferences, the Porsche Macan outsells the Alfa by a ratio of about 10 to one – and the answer would unquestionably refer to the existence of a band of welded-on Alfistis unprepared to even consider an opposing brand.

The price might be relatively high, but the performance and dynamics of the Alfa Romeo Stelvio Veloce place it comfortably in the high-performance mid-size SUV mix.

2022 Alfa Romeo Stelvio Veloce at a glance:
Price: $82,950 (plus on-road costs)
Available: Now
Engine: 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol
Output: 206kW/400Nm
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Fuel: 7.0L/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 161g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety rating: Five-star (ANCAP 2017)