SA Road Tests

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This is the home of automobile road tests in South Africa. We drive South African cars, SUVs and LCVs under South African conditions. It also just happens that most of the vehicles we drive are world cars as well, so what you read here probably applies to the models you can get at home.
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We have mixed feelings about the 2013 Alfa Romeo MiTo 1.4 MultiAir Distinctive with TCT

MiTo or Me-too?

Published in Weekend Witness Motoring on Saturday January 5, 2013

Call us biased or old-fashioned, but automatic transmissions have no place in hedonistic, fun-loving Alfa Romeos. Cars from Milan and Turin are made for the young of spirit; those for whom driving is pleasure; who put their hearts into the thrill of it and aren’t afraid to use all their limbs and senses doing so.

Sermon over; so what is this twin clutch transmission (TCT)?  It is Alfa's six-speed twin wet-clutch gearbox that gives you the choice of allowing the software to figure out what gear you’re going to want next and holding it in readiness, or letting you decide which and when. It's produced by Fiat Powertrain Technologies in Verrone, not Verona, Italy. Magneti Marelli supplies the control system that integrates with BorgWarner's hydraulic actuation module. The present version can handle torque inputs up to 350 Nm.

MiTo models have, since the beginning, featured Alfa Romeo’s DNA (dynamic, normal and all-weather) response system that controls engine, brakes, steering, suspension and gearbox. This is the MiTo-with-TCT’s saving grace. All-weather is a euphemism for slush and snow, so it isn’t used very often although, in its defence, one can still kick down and accelerate decently at cruising speed if the need arises. The normal setting is for normal people who want to poodle along with blinkers on and quietly go to sleep, because response from the ‘box is almost feeble and makes you wonder sometimes whether the turbo is working or not.

Push the switch forward to select D however, and the whole plot comes together. The torque curve (230 Nm vs. 206 in the manual version) gels with gearbox settings to work in harmony with quickened throttle response and turns the little hatch back into an Alfa. As “Dynamic” engages, the car surges forward, the steering tightens up and everything becomes more urgent. Suspension feels firmer, yet resilient enough to take on the odd speed hump or set of rumble strips, and your MiTo begs to be thrown at some decent curves. As always manual override, using stick or paddles, simply makes the adventure so much more worth living.

But back to basics; what does one get for one’s money? How about 100 kW of power and the aforementioned 230 Nm in a lightweight body propelling the package toward the magic “ton” in 8,2 seconds and on to a top speed of 207? Let us not forget the safety kit; six airbags, a fire prevention system, ISOFix baby chair anchorages, big disc brakes with ABS and BA; anti-slip regulation, hill holder and electronically simulated limited-slip differential.

Standard equipment includes a six-speaker RDS radio and music centre with plugs and Bluetooth, powered windows and mirrors, electrical power steering and stop-start. Backing it up is cruise control, front fog lamps, LED tail lights and 17” alloy wheels with 214/45 Dunlop SP Sport tyres.

The boot is pretty generous for a small hatch, at 270 dm3 with seatback up and 870 with it folded. Flipping the bottom cushion forward and laying the single-piece backrest down, is a bit awkward for one person; especially putting it up again when the seat belts decline to co-operate. You curse some. The cavity is deep and square, without unnecessary intrusions and a steel spacesaver is in the usual place under the floorboard.

MiTo’s driving position is typically Alfa, with longer arms and shorter legs being ideal and its seats are certainly more comfortable than those on the Fiat 500 Abarth. Pedals are well spaced and there is a rest for the clutch foot that has nothing to do, unless you are a peasant like your writer who uses it for left-foot braking (advanced driving instructors get all twitchy about that).

We're in two minds about this thing; if you insist on using “normal,” this twin-clutch is not the world’s greatest. If you are a true Alfisti who doesn’t know the setting exists, however, the MiTo TCT has the makings of a magical small hooligan car.

The numbers
Price: R265 000
Engine: 1368 cc, 16-valve, four-cylinder, turbocharged
Power: 100 kW at 5000 rpm
Torque: 230 Nm at 1750 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 8,2 seconds
Maximum speed: 207 km/h
Real life fuel consumption: About 8,5 l/100 km
Tank: 45 litres
Warranty: 5 years/150 000 km; with 3 years roadside assistance
Service plan: 6 years/90 000 km; at 30 000 km intervals

What We Do

This is a one-man show, which means that road test cars entrusted to me are driven only by me. Some reviewers hand test cars over to their partners to use as day-to-day transport and barely experience them for themselves.

What this means to you is that every car reviewed is given my own personal evaluation and receives my own seat of the pants judgement - no second hand input here.
Every car goes through real world testing; on city streets littered with potholes, speed bumps and rumble strips, on freeways and if its profile demands, dirt roads as well.

My articles appear every Wednesday in the motoring pages of The Witness, South Africa's oldest continuously running newspaper, and occasionally on Saturdays in Weekend Witness as well. I drive eight to ten vehicles most months of the year (press cars are withdrawn over the festive season - wonder why?) so not everything gets published in the paper. Those that are, get a tagline but the rest is virgin, unpublished and unedited by the political-correctness police. Hope you like what you see, because there are no commercial interests at work here. As quite a few readers have found, I answer every serious enquiry from my home email address, with my phone numbers attached, so they can see I do actually exist.

I am based in Pietermaritzburg, KZN, South Africa. This is the central hub of the KZN Midlands farming community; the place farmers go to buy their supplies and equipment, truck their goods to market, send their kids to school and go to kick back and relax.
So occasionally a cow, a goat or a horse may add a little local colour by finding its way into the story or one of the pictures. It's all part of the ambience!

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