The SUV that Alfa Romeo prepared was covered numerous times, and there has been a lot of talks surrounding it. Some of you might have even got the impression that it is taking forever for this SUV to show its face officially. Maybe you are right because the talks about it have been dragged for “eternity” but finally they are leading to a concrete info which says – the Alfa Romeo Stelvio SUV will have its official debut at this year’s LA Auto Show.
Thanks to this info and a few others we now know that right after the LA debut it is set to hit the dealerships and start its sales. What is bad is that the definitive date hasn’t been set, and the only thing we got is the “first quarter of 2017”. The only problem with Alfa Romeo is that you have to be restrained when something like this happens. We have to keep the “we will believe it when we see it” attitude because Alfa has a tendency to delay things like this numerous times, as the Giulia and the Stelvio have proven before.
SUV sales have spiked lately, and we believe that Mr. Sergio Marchionne wouldn’t want to keep this thing of beauty any more than he actually has to. Sadly FCA did not release the official pricing for the Stelvio so we can’t give you accurate numbers, and they did not release any info regarding the powertrains and the spec numbers which compels us to figure these stuff for ourselves. The pricing isn’t too hard to calculate. Why? Well, Stelvio is going up against Audi Q5 and the BMW X3, both of these are starting from $40,000 which means that Alfa’s SUV has to stay close to this ballpark. As for the engines, well this one is a little tougher. We think that the Giulia’s power plants will be carried over to the SUV, but be sure that Alfa will additionally tweak it to be little more superior.
As you know, base Giulia has a 2.0-liter turbo four making 280 HP and 306 lb-ft of torque which is more than admirable, but what everybody including us want to see under the Stelvio’s hood is the performance oriented Quadrifoglio’s 2.9 L twin-turbo V6 making 505 HP. This will be the option that will certainly be more than welcomed by future customers, and if any of them, or even you are wondering the manual transmission will not be available. The only option that will send the power to the wheels will be an eight-speed automatic.
All of our guesses will either be confirmed or disputed at the LA auto show where the Stelvio will without any doubt shine. A long time has passed since it was announced and since the reveal time is getting closer, we all are becoming eager to see it just like kids on Christmas Morning waiting to open the presents.
