When Alfa Romeo launched the MiTo here in 2009, the range topped out at $37,490 - plus on-road costs - for the MiTo Sport. Call it about $42,000 driveaway. A lot happened since then: Chrysler went bankrupt in the GFC and became a Fiat property - and both brands have been in a state of generally upward flux since then. Prices were slashed, too, opening the Alfa Romeo MiTo up to a new range of potential buyers. Today, the range topping Alfa Romeo MiTo Distinctive Series II is about $32k, driveaway - a cool saving of more than $9500, compared with the 2009 model. That's about 25 per cent cheaper.
So, how does the Afla Romeo MiTo drive, and how about its key competitors?
A great deal of slagging off centres around Alfa-Romeo's elusive relationship with quality. You've heard all the jokes. (Mate, why didn't you just cut out the middle man and buy a bucket of rust instead. That kind of thing.) But - let's be objective: It's not just Alfa Romeo in this particular picture. Toyota keeps issuing seven- and eight-figure recalls, totalling dozens of millions of cars globally, GM is getting fined $7000 a day for obfuscating around the deaths of more than a dozen people, and sweeping it all under the rug, for 10 years (just like Ford did with the infamous Pinto memo in the 1970s). The Holden Cruze is frankly barking all over the world, and Volkswagen ... please. What a disgrace. Honestly, Volkswagen could run a car company properly if it wasn't for you customers. That's how they think.
It's time for a re-think: Too many glass houses in the automotive industry for anyone to start chucking rocks on this issue.