2024 Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio review | First Drive

The Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio showcased that the Italian firm could still extract amazing performance even when the motoring world began to insist on pushing it into areas in which it didn’t have history.

An SUV at some point had to be made. But Alfa Romeo was damned if it wasn’t going to make it both good to look at and interesting to drive. Since then the Stelvio has had a small nip and tuck. And now, with just a handful of years before its internal combustion engine is consigned to history, there’s a final Stelvio to keep us going.

The Alfa Romeo Stelvio’s design has changed very little over the years. In 2021 the first facelift gave it some new grille surrounds and slightly reworked lighting (including some questionable smoking effects). This year the headlamps are replaced with the new units first seen on the smaller Tonale. That is the oldish new face of Alfa Romeo, bringing back the three piece lighting that has been a feature of Alfa’s history.

Elsewhere it is mostly as you were, but that was a pretty decent existence already. The Stelvio’s nose wears the Alfa triangular grille well, with strong supporting features from the lower aspects and the new headlights, although roughly the same shape, seem to offer a slimming quality. The haunches in Quad form are strong and the rear manages to look as elegant as a large hatchback SUV ever can.

Change externally to the Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio may be only minor, but underneath the car has had a decent whack of updates. The engine remains the same, a twin-turbocharged 2.9-litre V6, but power now pushes to 520PS (382kW) – up by 10PS from the original figure. Torque remains the same at 600Nm (442lb ft) so, despite being a tad heavier now at 1,850kg (from 1,830kg), the 0-62mph time still stands at 3.8 seconds.

The biggest change is in how the Stelvio sends its power to the road. There’s now a mechanical limited slip differential rather than electric torque vectoring. An old-fashioned clutch controls which way the power goes at the rear end, while the four-wheel-drive system remains unchanged, with more power pushed rearwards than fore unless it’s really required.

That change has more of an effect on the Giulia than the all-wheel-drive Stelvio, but does still make a difference. The Stelvio Quadrifoglio has always felt smaller than it is, blessed with a very small kg number compared to rivals and steering that’s quick and responsive. Now the rear, although never overly willing to step out, has a little extra control, especially when grip is reduced. On a cold track at Bicester the new Stelvio felt sharp and a little more accepting of being muscled around than it had done before.

The other real change to the Stelvio has been a slight retuning of the suspension – still dual wishbone up front and MacPherson Strut at the rear. This modification comes to help relieve the Stelvio’s sometimes harsher nature in its normal driving mode and remove an oscillation that Alfa Romeo found when soft dampers were mixed with the Dynamic driving mode.

Out on the road is where the Stelvio Quadrifoglio comes alive. You can chuck the big SUV into corners at rates that something riding so high really shouldn’t accept and expect it to stick. The 20-inch wheels will skitter slightly in the mid corner, but communication through the chassis and steering wheel is still excellent. With that very fast steering it’s very easy to treat the Stelvio like it’s a proper hot hatchback rather than a big speed machine. 

Where the weight does show up is on corner entry, there the extra 200kg and ride height over the Giulia do show themselves. But the trick up the Stelvio’s sleeve is that ability to sling some grunt forward, letting the nose dig itself out of a corner as much as the rear pushes. 

Back into town the Stelvio’s retuned suspension isn’t overtly different to its predecessor, but does manage speed bumps and other hazards of Oxfordshire better. The changes are only slight, but will make a difference to comfort over the length of a journey when you’re not asking for it to be at its dynamic best.

The new Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio is almost exactly the same as it was before. The only real changes are that the instrument binnacle is now fully digital (like the Tonale) and a modification to the materials used inside.

Those familiar with the interior of the Stelvio will feel at home. The screen, now touch operated, is a slender 8.8 inches, and sits within a black surround in a dashboard that it does not dominate. The new digital instruments very much mimic what went before, but are more customisable. They might no longer be physical dials but they still sit within the traditional Alfa Romeo double-bubble surround.

While the majority of the design remains the same, the major change is a switch from shiny flat carbon-fibre inserts on both centre console and door cards, to what Alfa Romeo calls “3D carbon-fibre”. This is raised to the touch, with the same weave pattern you’ll be familiar with. I can’t say it feels like a massive improvement over the old material, but it doesn’t hurt the interior.

We were driving the Stelvio with its standard seats, which are comfortable and provide some support, but not a patch on the optional carbon-fibre-backed Sparco sports seats.

In Quadrifoglio trim the Stelvio comes pretty packed for its £87,195 starting price. The new infotainment comes with a 14-speaker Harman Kardon sound system as standard as well as DAB radio, Android Auto and Apple CarPlay.

The Stelvio rides on 21-inch telephone dial wheels, with the option of pushing those to 21 inches, although really you have no reason to, and there are six colours to choose from including the very fetching Montreal Green shade we’re driving today.

As standard you can expect the 8.8-inch touchscreen, dual-zone climate control, heated seats and steering wheel, automatic wipers and lights, keyless entry, lane keep assist and more. The touchscreen has been updated, so it is now a little richer with features – gaining an operating system seen first in the smaller Tonale. But that doesn’t mean it’s up there with the best around in 2024. While simple to use it’s still very basic compared to many of its rivals.

We at GRR have been big fans of the Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio since it launched. There simply isn’t a better-looking SUV on sale in the UK today and to find a car in this class that drives anything like as well you’ll be looking at spending north of £100,000.

Alfa Romeo’s changes to the latest one will let the petrol Stelvio Quadrifoglio go out on the high that it should. We’re expecting some pretty special run-out editions to wave goodbye to Alfa’s internal combustion era, but for those of us who won’t get to own something that rare, the “standard” Stelvio Quadrifoglio is still brilliant.