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Copyright © 2019 Alfa Romeo Owners Club | MiTo Register www.mitoregister.com
Facelift MiTo vs Previous MiTo How a 2018 MiTo compares to a 2012 MiTo
If you are on our Facebook
group (or attended Spring Alfa
Day), you may have been una-
ble to avoid my constant posts
about my new MiTo and my
endless and tedious pictures of
it. And I make no apology for
this. I am very happy with it
and it would be rude not to
share.
For those of us (yes, I was
one too) with the older model
MiTo, I thought it may be inter-
esting to hear about what is
different, what is improved,
what is the same and what
works better or worse.
So let’s start with my old
MiTo, which I still greedily own,
much to the consternation of
my long-suffering wife. It is a
pre-facelife 2012 MiTo Quadri-
foglio Verde in Graffite Grey
(Grigio Gaffite). I bought this as
a used car, albeit with very low
mileage, from a dealer in Edin-
burgh and bought it based on
pictures alone, having to have it
shipped on the back of a truck
to my home town of Bourne-
mouth.
There were a few reasons why
I chose this specific car: I love
grey and at the time owned a
Stromboli Grey Alfa GT which I
very much regret selling. I
wanted the cloth interior (never
really been a fan of leather –
cold in winter and too hot in
summer) and I adore the green/
white stitching on the seats
(reminds of my very first Alfa,
an Alfasud Sprint Green Clover-
leaf with black cloth, green
stitching and green carpet). It
has a manual gearbox and I had
driven automatic or Selespeed
cars for a while, and it had a full
service history with only one
owner from new. It was the
closest I could get to buying a
new car, and it took me many
months to find in the right con-
dition, mileage and history.
Over the course of my own-
ership, the car has been subtly
modified but only to make the
driving experience even more of
a pleasure or, in a few cases,
improve the aesthetics to my
own personal taste (something
that I don’t expect us all to
agree on). I run my own busi-
Copyright © 2019 Alfa Romeo Owners Club | MiTo Register www.mitoregister.com
Facelift MiTo vs Previous MiTo How a 2018 MiTo compares to a 2012 MiTo
ness, so if I’m not using the
train into London to meet with
customers there, the type of
driving I do typically involves
long hauls across the UK to see
customers who span from Glas-
gow down to Doncaster and
York, Liverpool and Manches-
ter, Birmingham, Cardiff and,
my largest customer, in Milton
Keynes where I also have an
office I work from sometimes.
So not short journeys, but not
every day either.
In summary, I might not use
the car for a few days but then
I’ll be in it for a thousand miles
over a few days and stay over
somewhere in a dodgy travel
tavern along with all the travel-
ling carpet salesmen and hard-
hat/hi-viz wearing real-workers
who go where the money is.
So I rarely drive my car down
to the shops. I normally get in
it at 4am and drive until 10am.
Then I might drive it again from
4pm until 8pm, ready for a stop-
over close to the next customer.
Then return home the next day
in a five or six hour drive home.
So comfort, ultra-reliability, sta-
bility, enjoyment, a good stereo,
phone connectivity and not-too-
frequent fuel stops are a priority
for me. But most importantly I
need to make a tedious journey
enjoyable, and I do that by be-
ing in an Alfa Rome and driving
with spirit and joy in the compa-
ny of equal measures of good
music and talk radio.
So one of the first modifica-
tions I did to my QV was to in-
stall a sub-woofer and amplifier
in the boot, delivering outstand-
ing sound quality of all music
types. My QV had the standard
fitments like cruise control, but
not BOSE. In fact I don’t think it
has any specified options. I
commissioned a custom stain-
less exhaust, but only because
my original one had reached it’s
typical MiTo end of life by
rusting away to dust (check
yours at the weekend). I then
went on to modify the perfor-
mance a little, initially with a
Bluespark tuning box, and later
with a hybrid turbo and re-map.
So some might say my car is
Copyright © 2019 Alfa Romeo Owners Club | MiTo Register www.mitoregister.com
Facelift MiTo vs Previous MiTo How a 2018 MiTo compares to a 2012 MiTo
sunroof, dual zone climate con-
trol, folding mirrors, BOSE
sound, visibility pack (auto
lights, auto wipers and dipping
rear-view mirror), 60/40 split
rear seat with third seat belt,
heated washer jets (great in
winter) and, the most im-
portant of all, no front number
plate plinth!
The Veloce comes with
standard black cloth upholstery
but with red stitching (green no
longer available). I did consider
leather but knew it wasn’t really
for me so I settled for the stand-
ard cloth which I’ve been very
impressed with. Some have
asked why I did not specify the
Sabelt seats, and my short an-
swer is because it doesn’t come
with an armrest which I use all
the time with my type of long-
distance driving. The longer
answer though is that although I
think they are things of beauty
to look at, I always advise peo-
ple to try them first. For me,
they were too hard, not adjusta-
ble enough, just frankly painful
and they took away the enjoy-
ment for me. But I know people
who love them, so always try
them first! I should also confess
that I’m pretty chubby and six
foot one, so a more normal
sized human may find them
more appealing. But I digress.
So what’s really different
then between the shiny new
MiTo and the old MiTo?
Sunroof
I hadn’t had a sunroof for as
long as I can remember. When I
had a sunroof years ago, I don’t
remember using it. And with air
conditioning why would you
quite heavily modified. My view
is that I have created the sub-
lime MiTo for my style of use
and driving. The combination of
torque and fun is certainly some-
thing to experience, but I really
only made the most perfect Mi-
To just a tiny bit better, and a
little more personal. And I love
it.
I didn’t plan to buy a new Mi-
To. If Alfa Romeo had continued
production of the MiTo for a few
more years I almost certainly
wouldn’t have bought a new
one. In fact, I was never really
sold on the facelift – it had to
grow on me. I thought Alfa
could have done much more on
the re-design, but what they
actually did was the least they
could get away with to make the
front look a bit more like the
new Giulia. Don’t get me wrong,
I love the facelift design now, but
it would certainly not have been
enough for me to buy a new
one. No, I bought a new one so I
could have one of the last ever
made and know that now the
MiTo is no longer being built, at
least I had one of the last ones
that was.
Ordering was a pain. Not the
fault of the dealer or indeed Alfa
Romeo UK. Just a reflection of
Alfa Romeo Italy wanting to
close the factory as soon as fea-
sibly possible. Their announce-
ment that they were ceasing
production was not, as we might
like to think, a final call for or-
ders. Quite the reverse. They
didn’t want any more orders and
made the process as difficult as
possible for anyone trying to
shoe-horn a last MiTo in.
And so it was I settled on my
Alfa White MiTo Veloce. There
were certain options and colour
combinations that were impossi-
ble for the factory, and they
made this very clear by refusing
point-blank to build them! But I
did get a number of options that
I really wanted, including electric
Copyright © 2019 Alfa Romeo Owners Club | MiTo Register www.mitoregister.com
Facelift MiTo vs Previous MiTo How a 2018 MiTo compares to a 2012 MiTo
an Alfa owner. My wife doesn’t
think it is hugely intuitive, but if
you’ve come from an older MiTo
like me then I think you’ll be
impressed.
Dual Zone Climate
What can I say? It works
well, the fascia is good quality
and it’s a nice change from hav-
ing the three big turn-wheels.
And it’s dual zone, meaning your
passenger can control their own
temperature separately from
often and be generally a bit rub-
bish. Not true with this new unit.
True, you do get the occasional
radio silence, but only for a sec-
ond or two. I can drive from the
south coast of England to York
and have only one disconnect,
sometimes none. A huge im-
provement on an after-market
double-din DAB unit I fitted in my
previous Alfa GT.
I think the touch-screen con-
trols and buttons on the new unit
are very intuitive, but I say that as
need one? Well, I didn’t order
the sunroof to use the sunroof
as such. I ordered the sunroof
as it gives the MiTo a feeling of
openness, a sense of sky above
you, less of a feeling of being in
a car. I appreciate that sounds
mad. But I do love the way Alfa
have implemented the sunroof
in the MiTo. It is tinted and has
a nice quality sliding mesh cov-
er which comfortingly clicks in
and out of place with a quality
you don’t necessary expect.
With the roof closed and the
mesh engaged, it just feels
more open. Slide the mesh
back on the motorway and the
reveal of the sky just adds to
the ambience of driving. And I
have to confess to opening the
sunroof a few times, though
mainly just to press the lovely
one-touch electric buttons on
the roof which work a dream.
I do run the risk of having
yet another electrical item
fitted that will go wrong, but so
far I’m really enjoying the expe-
rience of having a sunroof,
even if I don’t open it very
often.
Uconnect vs Blue&Me
For anyone who does long
journeys, however infrequent,
an intuitive and good quality
stereo is important, and I cer-
tainly think so. My older QV
has the standard CD/radio with
Blue&Me and the dash-top plug
-in TomTom Live satnav unit.
Perfectly usable and I’ve never
had any trouble with it. I con-
nect my phone with Bluetooth
and I plug the phone in via the
USB to use Spotify and a radio
app to listen to my favourite
DAB radio stations.
But the new system just
does all that through the magic
Bluetooth. The phone connects
and works. It has full telephone
functionality plus instant media
player (including Spotify and any
other apps) which all seamlessly
play wirelessly without a physi-
cal connection. When I showed
it to my wife, she was deeply
unimpressed as her Audi has
done that for years. But to us
Alfa owners this level of connec-
tivity is a sight to behold.
Of course, the new Uconnect
system has a colour touch-
screen with built-in TomTom
satnav, DAB radio, CD, media
player and some generally
pointless “apps” which I imme-
diately got bored with. But con-
nect your phone over Bluetooth
to the new stereo and BOSE
system and you really do have a
brilliant system for longer
drives.
The DAB radio works really
well. If you’ve never had DAB
before, you may have heard
that it tends to cut out quite
Copyright © 2019 Alfa Romeo Owners Club | MiTo Register www.mitoregister.com
Facelift MiTo vs Previous MiTo How a 2018 MiTo compares to a 2012 MiTo
the driver. But to be honest
this should have been standard
on the MiTo for years, as it has
been on most other new cars.
It does seem to demist quicker
than my QV, but that is proba-
bly just my imagination. Per-
haps it actually mists less…
Visibility pack
The visibility includes an
automatic setting for the lights
and wipers, with sensors in
front of the rear-view mirror to
determine the levels of light
and rain, the results of which
determine whether the MiTo
puts your headlights on or
wipes your windscreen. There
is also a light sensor for the
rear-view mirror so at night it
automatically dips to prevent
bright lights in your eyes.
The light sensors seem to
work well. It’s quite fun seeing
the lights coming on as you go
in a tunnel like most German
cars do. It’s certainly nice to
feel in the modern age. The
auto-wipers though? They are
pretty useless. I doubt if there
is any adjustment possible, but
I wish the sensitivity could be
modified slightly. In essence, a
few tiny drops and it gives a
quick wipe. No problem. But if
it then starts pouring down, the
wipers just sit there mockingly,
expecting you to see like magic.
When they finally do start wip-
ing you’ve already taken your
life into your own hands. So I
think it’s a nice idea and, ran-
domly, does work quite well.
But it needs to work 100% for
me to trust it, and it doesn’t. So
I don’t.
Inside
I have to say hats off to Alfa
Romeo for overall feeling in the
cabin. Of course, it’s a MiTo so
is not unfamiliar. But small
changes to the dash, the steer-
ing wheel, the armrests in the
doors (slightly more padding),
the centre armrest material, the
seat cloth materials and the
general level of quality of how
everything has been screwed
together does make me feel
that the level of quality control
has improved a lot, and the tiny
changes that any ordinary buyer
wouldn’t notice are certainly
noticeable to someone who
already has a MiTo. And cer-
tainly to someone to alternates
using two MiTos! The car feels
good quality, solid and sturdy
with robust materials, and as a
result feels like a different car,
even though of course I know
it’s basically the same car and
my old one is far from falling
apart – it is very solid.
The folding mirrors are stur-
dy, if somewhat manual in oper-
ation (my wife’s Audi automati-
cally folds the mirrors when you
switch off the ignition – the Mi-
To needs you to press a button
before taking your keys out).
Small but perceptible things
like the boot release being more
sturdy (a convincing clunk when
the lock releases) could just be
because it is new – I’m not
aware of any change in the boot
locking mechanism. But I can
see various tiny changes to the
use of certain screws and bolts
around the car and under the
bonnet. Nothing worth men-
tioning, and I doubt any make
much difference, but again it
looks like some extra thought
has gone into quality in the last
years of production.
Outside
Of course, the facelift front is
quite different when you com-
pare the two models. They have
been clever in ensuring the did-
n’t have to change any wing or
bonnet design, yet fundamental-
ly changed virtually every aspect
of the front bumper and grilles.
It’s grown on me a lot, and I’ve
come to really like the wider
from grille and different lines of
the front end.
The headlights are the new
carbon-fibre look lights that are
standard on the Speciale and
Veloce (optional as a “carbon
pack” in Europe). They are gen-
uinely beautiful, and work really
well with the dark grey (not
quite black) light surrounds and
wing mirrors. With white paint-
work, the black of the sunroof is
also a nice visual feature of the
Copyright © 2019 Alfa Romeo Owners Club | MiTo Register www.mitoregister.com
Facelift MiTo vs Previous MiTo How a 2018 MiTo compares to a 2012 MiTo
MiTo, though that was the case
on the old model too.
The new Veloce 18” five-
hole black alloys really are
things of beauty. They stand
out from the older-style MiTo
wheels and I really, really like
them. But as usual (there’s
always a catch) washing and
drying them is a nightmare, so
no improvement there!
The Veloce suspension large-
ly mirrors the old QV suspen-
sion with active damper activa-
tion when the DNA mode is set
to D. But I’m pretty sure the
new MiTo sits a fraction lower
than the pre-facelift. I can’t be
certain as my old MiTo is on
Eibach lowered springs, but I
don’t think the new one is
sitting horribly high (something
I did think of the old one before
I lowered it slightly).
The rear of the new Veloce
features a new diffuser design
which, whilst many people
think is a fantastic improve-
ment, I have to confess to just
thinking “meh”. It’s good and
has nice lines, but I fitted the
SBK diffuser to my QV and I
think those lines are just per-
fect. So I don’t dislike the new
one, but I don’t think it’s any-
thing particularly special. And
the exhaust looks the same as
my old one, so I look forward to
that rotting away prematurely…
Pre-facelift MiTo owners will
know there are certain aspects
of the MiTo which are infuri-
ating when you wash them.
Water collects around the rear
lights and at the base of the
grilles on the front bumper.
And don’t get me started on
wing-mirror water retention…
I’m happy to report that whilst
the rear lights retain all their
magical water retention powers,
the front lower grilles are much
improved! Though this annoy-
ance is replaced by the new 5-
hole alloys having a lovely de-
sign feature (or trough) around
the perimeter which collects the
water nicely.
The Engine and that TCT
Under the bonnet, things
look the same as they always
did, with some very minor chang-
es visible to the initiated MiTo
owner who has spent a bit of
time under the bonnet. But of
course, things are very different
lower down.
There is new design of air in-
take which is much lower and
delivers better gulps of air. And
although this new MiTo is un-
tuned and standard in every way,
it does feel fast. Very fast.
But the biggest difference is
of course the TCT or Twin Clutch
Transission, being the only op-
tion available on the MiTo Velo-
ce. As you might guess from the
name, the TCT features twin
clutches and was developed
over many years at an enor-
mous cost by a collaboration
between Fiat Powertrain Tech-
nologies, Magneti Marelli and
Borg Warner and is fitted in the
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Facelift MiTo vs Previous MiTo How a 2018 MiTo compares to a 2012 MiTo
Alfa Romeo 4C. So it should be
pretty good.
I have driven both a MiTo
and a 4C with the TCT, and I
confirm it is very good. As au-
tomatic ‘boxes go, it is pretty
impressive and generally,
though not always, it chooses
your gear selection well. The
automatic blipping of the
throttle on down-changes and
the relatively seamless up-
changes are all fantastic, partic-
ularly in Dynamic mode which
both my cars live in.
So in full automatic mode,
the car is both fun and quite
accurate, and you can still over-
ride the ‘box with the steering
paddles if you want to down-
shift suddenly to overtake,
though in truth (and full nerd-
test style) the TCT gearbox did
it for me when I depressed the
accelerator in lots of test com-
parisons.
However, flip the gearbox
into full manual mode and
drive it entirely on the paddles,
and now you really do have
fun. The gear changes are al-
most instant, though when
you’re changing near the red-
line you do get a far more pro-
nounced clunk of a change –
not a bad thing, but more no-
ticeable than normal fast driv-
ing. But for everyday spirited
driving, it does everything you
want it to do and more. It
changes gear faster than a man-
ual gear-change (though I know
some of you will still think
you’re the fastest gear-changer
in the west) and it does it very,
very well.
Gearing in first gear is still a
little too short for me, but that’s
the same in the manual and I
guess for the majority of owners
and driving conditions is about
right. I imagine not everyone is
pulling away and reaching for
second gear within seconds like
me. But that’s a small price to
pay for an otherwise wonderful
driving experience.
For long journeys, the TCT is
brilliantly relaxing. For fast B-
roads and twisty bits, the TCT is
just brilliant. I won’t go so far as
to say it is a better driving expe-
rience than a manual as I’ll sud-
denly have all the manual driv-
ers shouting at me. But I urge
you to try a TCT. It may surprise
you as it did me.
There are two things that
take some getting used to: the
stop/start and the slow manou-
vering. In the manual, the stop/
start is pretty straightforward.
In the TCT, braking at a standstill
of a junction results in an engine
stop, so not ideal if you can see
a space coming up for you pull
away. There is no adjustment
on the wait-time for the stop/
start which would be a good
setting for the TCT. And slow
speed manoeuvring takes some
getting used. I have a certain
way I slowly reverse up my
drive, but with an automatic you
need to be on the brakes a bit
more. As you brake, the revs
drop, and as you take your foot
off the brake the revs increase a
little. Not a problem, but if like
me you park up close to a wall
or gate you are convinced every
time the revs increase that
you’re going to hit something!
I’m getting used to it now but it
still catches me out sometimes
and my wife thinks I’ve become
one of those people that take
forever to park a car…
Summary
So I have a new MiTo and an
old MiTo. The old one was and
still is a brilliant car which I love
to drive. The torque and the
power are sublime, but so is the
car as a whole. I love it. But the
new MiTo, is it better? Well, it’s
newer, and who doesn’t love
the feel and the smell of a new
car? It has new features which I
love and, in all honesty, make
the car just that little bit easier
to live with. It looks different
and feels different, in a very,
very good way. And I adore the
look of it, the stance, the
facelift, the new wheels and of
course that wonderful TCT
which is a joy on the paddles.
I suppose I would have to say
that the new one is a little
better all round than the older
one to someone else who didn’t
labour on their old one to get it
right.
If I had had to sell my old one
to get the new one, I would be
absolutely delighted to own just
the new one.
But being lucky enough to
own both, they are both just
different. Both outstanding, and
both different.
And I don’t want to part with
either. Ever. Though I suspect
my wife will have something to
say about that. But I certainly
plan on keeping both these fan-
tastic Alfa Romeos for as long as
I can get away with it...