We rather liked the Giulia Veloce Ti when we tried it last year. It had the right sort of ingredients - 280hp, eight-speed auto, sub-6-seconds-to-60mph, rear-drive - and, while not exactly cheap, it was affordable enough to make you think hard about whether or not you needed anything quicker. You may remember we tested it against the Jaguar XE HSE P300 and there was hardly any daylight between them. Which is high praise when you consider just how nice the XE is to actually drive.
Evidently there has been enough customer interest in the model for Alfa to try the same trick twice. This time around it's the Stelvio which earns the Veloce Ti badge - marginally differentiating it from the current Veloce range-topper. Somewhat predictably, the recipe is much the same: you get a 280hp 2.0-litre turbocharged engine (now made Euro 6d-final compliant) alongside a styling package intended to evoke the Quadrifoglio's enhanced look.
Looking at the new Ti, it's a wonder really that it's taken the manufacturer this long to get around to it. Halfway fast, sporty looking saloons are as old as the hills, and not terrifically popular right now - but halfway fast, sporty looking SUVs are the flavour of the decade. And correct us if we're wrong, but in Ti drag, with its new rear bumper and optional 21-inch wheels, the Stelvio looks rather good. Inside you get sports seats in leather and Alcantara, aluminium gearshift paddles and carbon fibre accents.
Moreover, as you can with the current Veloce, you get 280hp with Alfa's Q4 all-wheel drive system - an option not available to the Giulia customer. We await performance data for the new model, but assuming it's the same as the current Veloce, the Ti buyer gets access to 5.7-second-to-62mph performance as well. Which ought to be fast enough for most - particularly if it means a substantial saving versus the terrifically good Quadrifoglio. Or you could just buy a lightly used example of the latter for not much more. Decisions, decisions.
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