Alfa Romeo Junior

This small SUV wears its sporty nature on its sleeve, but can it be persuaded to work hard as well as play hard? We're living with the hybrid version to find out

- By JOHN BRADSHAW [e-mail]

A DOMINANT, ASSERTIVE and confident individual, often seen as a natural leader. All of those are terms that describe the Alpha Male, and they make me feel rather happy about myself, given that I am now one of those individuals. Okay, I'm a male who drives an Alfa Romeo Junior Ibrida. Same thing, right?

After running an eminently sensible, very talented but perhaps slightly unevocative Skoda Kodiaq for the past few months, the Junior is something of a contrast. It's a slinkier small SUV, and its glamorous badge – the figurehead of a brand with a long and illustrious history of sports cars and motorsport success – carries a certain swagger. I'm looking forward to the new light in which my friends are bound to see me, now that I'm a more dominant, assertive and confident type.

So what, exactly, is the Junior Ibrida? Well, it's Alfa Romeo's smallest SUV – smallest model, full stop, in fact. Under the surface, it's actually closely related to the Jeep Avenger, Peugeot 2008 and Vauxhall Mokka, the makers of which belong to the Stellantis Group, as does Alfa Romeo.