Alfa Romeo Stelvio Review & Prices

If you're looking for an ultra-stylish SUV that shows you don't follow the crowd, the Alfa Romeo Stelvio is a fantastic choice. It's not just handsome, it's also brilliant to drive, so should appeal to those who enjoy taking the long way home from time to time.

Okay, the Alfa Romeo Stelvio’s swooping exterior design may look better from some angles than others – it’s essentially an Alfa Romeo Giulia that’s been stretched vertically – but it’s definitely got more personality than an Audi Q5 or BMW X3.

The Stelvio is a bit like buying a Rolex watch. Sure, there are plenty of other options that tell the time with just as much accuracy, but few look quite so good in the process.

Like the similarly-priced Jaguar F-Pace, the Stelvio’s interior gives you the sensation that you’re in a sports car rather than an SUV thanks to recessed dials and plenty of silver trim accents. An update for 2023 has changed little inside, which is a bit of a shame, because while general cabin quality isn't too bad, it doesn’t feel quite as plush or as well-screwed-together as a BMW X3 or an Audi Q5 – nor that Jaguar.

At least the latest infotainment is superior to earlier versions of the Stelvio. The screen is still 8.8 inches in size and isn’t as bright as you might expect, but the menus are clearer and more customisable than early models, and it now responds to touch too. Wired Android Auto and Apple CarPlay are standard, but despite these improvements it's still one of the more clunky and frustrating systems to use.

You can have no complaints about the driving position, though. You sit closer to the road than in many alternatives, giving you a better feel of the car. That said, you can still jack the seat up quite a fair bit for a commanding view. Sitting lower doesn’t mean overall visibility in the Stelvio is bad, but the standard-fit rear-view camera and full parking sensors definitely come in handy.

Space in the back isn’t too bad either. There’s plenty of room for two adults to get comfy, and kids will find it massive back there. The 525-litre boot is big enough for a week away with the family, but it’s not as big as the Jaguar F-Pace.

That said, there are few alternatives that can challenge the Alfa Romeo Stelvio for its enjoyable driving experience. The Jaguar F-Pace comes close, but it’s the more expensive Porsche Macan that gives the Stelvio a proper run for its money. The Stelvio steers and grips almost like a sports car, which is sure to put a smile on your face if you enjoy driving. There is a drawback – the bigger wheels that are fitted to Veloce models make it feel quite firm over most roads and it becomes a touch bouncy on really poor surfaces.

Keen drivers will prefer the 280hp petrol engine, which is a bit more responsive and fun when you point the Stelvio down a country road. Spend a lot of time on the motorway? Alfa Romeo still offers a diesel engine, something that is becoming rarer all the time, and will return much better fuel economy. There’s also a 510hp performance model that is utterly bonkers – called the Stelvio Quadrifoglio.

That said, you don’t need to go for the most powerful model to enjoy driving the Alfa Romeo Stelvio. If you’re willing to sacrifice some comfort and a posh interior, you’ll find the Stelvio to be an SUV that can put a very big smile on your face. However, to some, the roomier, comfier and more luxurious Mercedes GLC and Audi Q5 will still remain the go-to choices.

If this stylish Italian SUV sounds like it’s the car for you, head on over to our Alfa Romeo Stelvio deals page to see how much you can save through carwow. You can also browse the latest used Stelvios from our network of trusted dealers, as well as check out what other used Alfa Romeos are available. If you want to sell your car, carwow can help with that too.

You might assume that the Stelvio would undercut its major German rivals on price, but actually that’s not the case. The BMW X3 and Audi Q5 both start at a near-identical price to the Alfa Romeo, with the Jaguar F-Pace also joining the gang by coming in at just under £50,000 for the entry-level model.

There are a few less-obvious choices to consider too. The Lexus NX is, again, very similarly priced, but it should cost less to run thanks to its hybrid engine, and you get the bonus of that famous Lexus reliability. The Porsche Macan — the only comparable SUV to offer a better experience for the driver — is quite a bit more expensive, but it has badge appeal the others can't match.

The Stelvio is gloriously fun to drive on the right road, but has its flaws — a firm ride, blind spots and a noisy diesel

In town

The Stelvio suffers a bit from stiff suspension, so the usual array of urban potholes and speed bumps are not going to be a happy hunting ground for the Alfa. It’s not outrageously hard-riding (unless you’ve bought the sportier 510hp Quadrifoglio version of course) but it doesn’t smooth things out as effortlessly as an Audi Q5 or a Jaguar F-Pace. 

The big turning circle — 11.75 metres — isn’t helpful either. Rivals have much tighter turning circles and feel more manoeuvrable, not helped by visibility being a bit limited. There’s a decent view out the front, even though the windscreen pillar gets in the way, but the way the roof curves down and the windows curve up at the back combine with the tiny rear screen to cause a chunky blind spot.

Fortunately you get both front and rear parking sensors as well as a rear-view camera as standard to make it easier to get into a tight spot. The camera also has grid lines that move as you turn the wheel to help line the big Alfa Romeo up between cars and other obstacles.

On the motorway

The Stelvio scores well on a motorway cruise, thanks to being rock-solid stable, which is in spite of the fact the steering is very responsive to your inputs. Again, on anything less than a glass-smooth surface the suspension can fidget a bit too much, but it's less noticeable than at slow speeds.

That’s compensated for a bit by comfy seats and the easy-going performance of the diesel engine, but there's not much difference here with the more powerful turbo petrol, aside from the fact the petrol gets worse fuel economy. The diesel can get a bit grumbly, but it’s less of an issue on the motorway than it is at low-to-medium speeds. There is quite a bit of wind noise around the mirrors, and a good deal of tyre noise too. 

The Alfa’s Highway Assist and Traffic Jam Assist systems work pretty well, keeping the Stelvio centered in its lane at your pre-set speed. Traffic Jam Assist works at speeds of up to 37mph, and can temporarily use other cars around you to keep you straight if the road markings are in a poor state. 

On a twisty road

Here’s where the Stelvio really comes to life. Both engines deliver solid punch, with the petrol engine the best choice if you really want to enjoy a country road – though if you want the ultimate fun from the Stelvio, you’ll need the 510hp Quadrifoglio model, which has storming performance and a Ferrari-like soundtrack.

Even in regular form, on a properly twisty road, the Stelvio feels planted and agile – almost like a family-friendly sports car – and although the steering is a touch light it’s very quick to respond to your inputs so the nose darts into corners. By any standard, never mind SUVs, it’s really good fun to drive, and more fun than anything other than the Porsche Macan in this class. Oh, and it has really good brakes too.

There’s just about enough space for the Stelvio to be a practical family SUV but others offer more room (and sometimes for less money)

The driving position is excellent, with lots of adjustment in the steering wheel and seats letting you get comfortable whether you want a low and sporty feel, or to sit high with a commanding view of the road ahead.

Italians love their coffee, so perhaps it’s no surprise that the Stelvio gets massive cupholders (sensibly sited in front of the gear selector so tall bottles don’t get in the way of your elbow). They can easily hold a hot venti’s worth of caffeine.

There’s a useful storage box under the front seat armrest and you get massive door bins, plus a handy little storage tray under a lid down by the driver’s right knee — perfect for keeping loose change, or maybe some emergency Wine Gums. The glovebox is the only let-down here — it’s disappointingly small. 

Space in the back seats

There’s just enough space in the back of the Stelvio, but it’s not what you’d call especially roomy. Full-sized adults will find that there’s enough space for knees and heads, but there’s none of the stretching space you’d find in, say, the Audi Q5, while the Jaguar F-Pace is massively more spacious in the back.

One particular bugbear is that the footwells are quite tight, so there’s little space for rear seat passengers to put their feet. The big transmission tunnel in the middle doesn’t help. On the helpful front, the rear seat splits three ways, so you can fold down the middle to carry long items and still have two passengers in the back, and there are two decent cupholders in the rear armrest.

You get two ISOFIX anchor points in the back seat, and the covers for the anchors flip up, so you don’t have to take them out and — inevitably — lose them.

Boot space

It’s a similar story in the boot. At 525 litres it's a decent size, and the boot gets a flat floor with no load lip, so sliding larger items in and out is a doddle. The rear luggage blind is also light and easy to pop in and out, but there’s no space under the boot floor to store it when you don’t need it, which is a little annoying. 

You get shopping bag hooks, tethering points, and a handy 12-volt socket, plus the rear seats can be folded by tugging a lever in the boot. With those seats folded down, load space increases to a useful 1,600 litres.

What’s the problem? The problem is just that it’s a bit small for this class of car. The Audi Q5 manages a slightly better 550 litres, while the Mercedes GLC has 600 litres. A Jaguar F-Pace comes with a 650-litre boot. Only the Porsche Macan trails, with a 500-litre boot.

The Alfa Romeo Stelvio has a cool, sporty cabin, but it feels some way behind the likes of Audi and BMW in both material quality and technology

Like a really well-cut Ermenegildo Zegna suit, the inside of the Alfa Romeo Stelvio is a mixture of conservative and stylish — it’s just a shame that the materials used don’t quite match up to that fancy suit…

Let's start with the good. The steering wheel looks and feels great, and properly sporty. We love the way the engine stop-start button is on a pod hanging off the steering wheel spoke too — that feels more special than just another button on the dashboard.

Down on the centre console, Alfa has definitely improved the quality of the panel around the gear selector, which used to feel appallingly cheap, but which now (along with that gear lever) looks and feels much nicer. There’s the nice little touch of an Italian flag badge too, just in case you forget what you’re driving. 

Quality is fine, but among its alternatives, fine doesn't really cut it, especially since Jaguar really upped its game to compete on a similar level to Audi, BMW and Mercedes.

There's an 8.8-inch touchscreen atop the dashboard for all your infotainment needs, and usefully it can also be controlled using a dial by your left hand. It's definitely better than the system you got with older Stelvios, but the graphics look dated, the screen isn't particularly bright, and it's really slow to respond to your inputs. It also takes a while for your phone to connect to Bluetooth on each startup, something that's almost instant in most cars these days.

Fortunately you can plug your phone in and use Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, which provide a less laggy experience. But either way, in terms of infotainment systems, the Alfa Romeo could do with an overhaul.

At least there are plenty of connections for your devices. You’ll find a pair of USB sockets under the front armrest, plus two more in the back seats and another single socket and a 12-volt connector in front of the cupholders. 

There are some brilliant things in here, though, which add some flair. Such as the massive gear change paddles for the eight-speed automatic gearbox. They look and feel brilliant to use (even if they do block off the main column stalks a bit) and they’re fixed to the column, not the wheel, so you always know which one is up and which one is down. You’ll probably hardly ever use them (the gearbox is good enough to be just left alone most of the time) but when you do, they feel cool to the touch, and have a lovely little ‘click’ when you pull them. Classy.

The seats are great, too — tight enough to feel like proper bucket seats, but soft and supportive enough to be super-comfy on a long journey. There are enough flashes of character to make the Stelvio stand out from the crowd and be a compelling alternative, but it's just a step behind the rest of the class as an overall package.

The Stelvio is now almost alone in not offering any electric or hybrid versions. So, for most, the best option when it comes to economy will be the 210hp 2.2-litre turbo diesel four-cylinder engine. Which all sounds a bit old-school, but the Stelvio has a trick up its sleeve — it’s really quite light for a big-ish SUV. That means it can offer official fuel economy of 46.3mpg, and you won't be far off in the real world. The emissions are a bit hefty though; at 159g/km it isn't the most tax-efficient car you can buy.

For proper Alfa Romeo snarly sound effects, you’ll need to go for the 2.0-litre turbo petrol four-cylinder engine, with its 280hp power output. That sounds sweeter to the ears than the diesel, and it’ll hit 62mph from rest in just 5.7 seconds. It’s staggeringly thirsty though, offering a best-case of 33mpg, and most of the time it’ll be much thirstier than that. Its CO2 emissions are even higher than the diesel at 192g/km too, so your first-year road tax falls into one of the highest bands.

Of course, the one everyone wants is the twin-turbo V6 Quadrifoglio with its 510hp and 0-62mph in just 3.8 seconds. This is not a car to buy on a budget, though — Alfa Romeo claims you’ll get 23mpg from it, but you’ll be lucky to get 18mpg in real-world conditions, and the CO2 emissions of 267g/km are not what you’d call wallet-friendly.

The Alfa Romeo Stelvio was last tested by Euro NCAP when it was first launched in 2017, scoring the maximum five stars, with a 97 per cent rating for adult occupant protection. NCAP has changed how it scores cars since, so it might not manage a full five stars if re-tested today, but it’s fundamentally a safe car.

Standard safety kit includes radar-guided cruise control, autonomous emergency braking, automatic headlights with an automatic high beam (which, to be honest, isn’t the fastest-reacting high beam system we’ve seen), blind spot monitoring, stability and traction control, front and rear parking sensors, lane departure warning, rain sensing wipers, and a tyre pressure monitoring system.

For £1,000 you can upgrade the Stelvio with the Driver Assistance Pack, which includes active lane-keeping steering (which is also connected to the blind spot monitor to prevent you from accidentally pulling out into the path of another car), driver drowsiness detection, and Traffic Jam Assist which can trickle the car along for you in stop-start conditions. Some, possibly all, of that really ought to come as standard.

All Alfa Romeos come with a standard three-year unlimited mileage warranty, and you can optionally extend that for a fee, pushing it out to four years or even five, putting it on the better side of average among other manufacturers. There’s also an eight-year anti-corrosion warranty. 

As for overall reliability, the general rule of thumb seems to be that the Stelvio is more reliable than you might expect, given Alfa Romeo's reputation for reliability, but possibly not quite as bullet-proof as you’d like it to be. In general, Alfas have long had a poor reputation for quality, but in many cases that reputation has been more about older models than current designs. For the most part, a Stelvio should be more or less as reliable as any of its German competitors (which, conversely, are often not as reliable as you might think) but some way behind the likes of the Lexus NX. 

The Stelvio has been recalled six times in the UK — for seat belt reminders and warnings; for seats that may not lock into position correctly; for inaccurate fuel gauges; for cruise control problems; for water getting into the electrics; and for brake and clutch oil contamination.