So, I've been driving it as mine for a couple of days, and had a quick poke around. It's straight and tidy, drives nicely but has been owned rather than properly cared for. It looks clean on the outside but is going green around the top of the boot opening, leaves and stuff in the windscreen gully etc so needs a proper deep clean.
Likes
Feels pretty punchy given the modest power
Engine sounds quite gruff when pushed but feels pretty smooth for a fourpot, burble at idle reminds me a lot of the lancia, just a lot quieter
No lag unless you try and pull away from a crawl in second where the small capacity gives the game away
Feels nice and firm ( motoring press criticised them for being too stiff, but it's fine, even on bumpy stuff )
Love the squat rear end with the single round led lights and the bulging arches which you can see in the wingmirrors
Auto climate works as well as on the German cars
Frameless doors and chunky handles make it feel a bit more special than the average runaround when you get in
Carbon effect dash and doors look great, even if it's just moulded plastic
Feels well screwed together
Boot looks tiny, but swallowed the same amount of stuff which usually fills the compacts boot
Dislikes
Not overly fond of the pinched mouth, chubby cheek mouse front end, especially with a huge uk spec numberplate which needs a big lump of plastic wrapping around the corner to fit it on. I don't dislike it, I just don't think it looks anywhere near as good as the side / rear aspects
Halogen drls look very old tech. I've turned them off but there's no sidelight only lighting position, lights are either off, off with drls enabled in the menu, or on dip with the drls dropping down to 5w sidelight power
Fwd. I really do love a cheeky slippery roundabout few degrees of oppo that even a low output rwd car can do
Some of the interior plastics are awful, the door cappings are very hard plastic with a terrible grain, even the built to be cheap, decade and a half older compact is miles better. Likewise silly things like visible fasteners to hold trim on, and the hideous elephants foreskin 'flap' to fill the gap between the dash and steering column.
Seats don't go low enough
Doesn't feel turbocharged, pretty much zero lag, 99% of the time it just feels like a bigger engine, should be a good thing but I'd love a few more turbo noises and a little bit more drama.
Driving modes. Rubbish. Alfas have their DNA system, for three driving modes. Dynamic, Normal, All weather. In Normal the throttle response is so dulled it feels like the car has half its supposed power output and you get an annoying dash nanny telling you to change up all the time unless you're in 5th gear by about 25mph. Dynamic mode gives a nice keen throttle and firms the steering up a tad, yeah it's a nice improvement but it shouldn't need it, that's how a warm hatch sold as something sporty should feel all the time. Dynamic also lets you display a cool bar graph boost gauge in the dash cluster. Not tried allweather, but can see how modified traction and braking parameters could be helpful in slippery conditions. Annoyingly it doesn't remember the mode so you have to hold the little toggle switch to force it into dynamic every time you start it.
Looks pretty good I think
But don't look too closely at the awful looking 'grain' and really hard cheap noisy plastic
Big saggy flap
Teeny weeny garret turbot
