Alfa Romeo SUV is living up to its exalted heritage

THOUGH quite the niche player in Ireland, Alfa Romeo is planning bigger things as the Italian carmaker looks to take a larger slice of the burgeoning luxury car market here.

- With John Mitchell

Prices for top end marques have hit the roof lately with only Tesla seeming to have applied any sort of discount with the new Model 3 - which will still set you back an arm and a leg if you want to spec it up at all.

So it's refreshing to see Alfa is sticking to a more sensible price for this, its latest offering, the Ibrida (hybrid) version of the Alfa Romeo Junior.

That was a famous nameplate back in the day when Alfa made slinky little GTs but, of course, it's now a compact SUV, though it doesn't deny its exalted heritage particularly in the Q4 hot hatch version of this car, which is a force to be reckoned with.

I had the car for a week-long test drive recently and was surprised at just how much fun the little car could inject into the usual driving week.

ELECTRIC

It loves to corner hard and the suspension is stiff enough to let you really feel it straining away to deliver the best experience it can despite it heavy enough kerb weight.