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Everything we know about the Alfa Romeo Stelvio

Alfa Romeo is working rapidly on putting a crossover onto the road and these latest awkwardly-shaped spy shots are our best look at the upcoming Stelvio. Crossovers and compact SUVs are still outrageously popular with Americans and Alfa Romeo wants in on the ever-growing segment. The upcoming Stelvio, then, would make Alfa more profitable and make the storied brand once again a household name. Here's an overview of everything we know about the Stelvio. October 24, 2016: A moderately-camouflaged Stelvio is spotted testing in broad daylight with minimal updates. The most recent prototype has three strangely-shaped ridges on the hood, while the headlights and taillights, despite being taped off, still appear to be taken straight from the Giulia sedan. The profile mimics that of the Porsche Macan with the bulbous rear end gaining massive exhaust tips. View 12 Photos October 11, 2016: Photographers captured a lightly-camouflaged Stelvio testing in Europe at night, giving us our best look at the SUV's design. The front of the vehicle shares the same front fascia design as the Giulia sedan with two oval-shaped inlets on the side and the automaker's iconic rounded-triangle grille. The headlights also appear to be the same slit-like units on the Giulia, as well. The side profile of the SUV portrays a rounder design than displayed on previous prototypes that photographers have spotted. At the rear, two small tail pipes protrude out of the vehicle, while the taillights appear to be similar to the Giulia's, too. Unsurprisingly, the Stelvio looks comparable to a Giulia on stilts. View 7 Photos June 28, 2016: A prototype of the Stelvio is spotted wearing a massive amount of camouflage, making the shape and overall design of the SUV hard to discern. Again, the automaker's well-known front end is easy to spot, as are the two large exhaust outlets at the back. The rear end, though, features an interesting, rakish design that is more in line with a Sportback than a SUV. Photographers also managed to get pictures of the SUV's interior, which featured birch-like wood, an integrated screen, and large paddle shifters behind the thick steering wheel. Just like on the Giulia, the start-stop button is mounted directly onto the steering wheel. View 10 Photos April 7, 2016: The Alfa Romeo Stelvio is spotted testing for the first time. Alfa Romeo was caught testing a heavily-camouflaged prototype of the Stelvio wearing an insane amount of unsightly black plastic.

Fiat Chrysler's next-generation Uconnect is faster, built on Android

If you're a regular reader of Autoblog, you know that for a long time we've liked Fiat Chrysler's Uconnect infotainment system for its bright, clear, responsive touchscreen interface. Now, according to the company, it will be better than ever with Uconnect 5, the latest iteration of the system. It has upgraded hardware and a revamped graphic user interface (the stuff on the screen). Looking at sample screens shown above, there are characteristics shared with the old system, such as the time, status and shortcuts at the top and the menu icons at the bottom. In the middle, the major change is the addition of home screens that can be customized with favorite menus and readouts that are always available. Each of these home screens can have up to four functions and you can have five pages to flip through. The graphics themselves feature more legible fonts and updated icons. Each car brand will get its own set of icons, colors and textures to help create unique experiences. And while each Fiat Chrysler product will be able to have Uconnect, including Alfa Romeo that has until now lacked Uconnect, each brand has the ability to make small tweaks including the screen orientation. The system will support displays in landscape, portrait or square, so different brands may choose different shapes. Powering Uconnect 5 is a processor Fiat Chrysler says is six times more powerful than what's in current systems. It features 6 gigabytes of RAM and 64 gigabytes of internal storage. The processor also supports screens as large as 12.3 inches with as many as 15 million pixels, or nearly twice that of a 4K resolution TV. The system can display information on up to four screens, too. Uconnect 5's firmware is built on Google's Android operating system, joining a few other automakers in using Android as a base for their infotainment systems. Uconnect 5 brings with it a number of new features. It brings full Alexa integration, so you can use it just like you do at home, provided you have a data plan for the car. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto continue to be standard, but now they can be used wirelessly. You can also now connect two phones via Bluetooth wirelessly so you can access content from both. Navigation gets real time information and updates from TomTom. Users can create five profiles with unique climate, radio and instrument settings, plus one for a valet.

2024 Alfa Romeo Giulia and Stelvio prices are a mixed bag

Something happened on the way to the end of 2024, and that happening has resulted in higher-than-expected prices for the 2024 Giula and 2024 Stelvio. When Alfa announced changes for both models in April, we were informed the new Giulia Competizione trim would start at $53,115 in rear-wheel-drive form, the Stelvio Competizione trim would start at $57,420 in obligatory all-wheel-drive form. A month later, Cars Direct got wind of price cuts thanks to Alfa Romeo wanting to give buyers even more reason to put money down on la dolce vita instead of a certain Bavarian. In that report, the entry-level Giula Sprint was going to start at $44,795 after destination, the Stelvio Sprint would start at $46,370. An an Alfa Romeo spokesperson even replied to Cars Direct with, "The reduction in pricing is a lifecycle direction for Stelvio and Giulia to enhance market competitiveness." Looking at the 2024 configurator, the Giulia Sprint improves its advantage before options, whereas the Competizione is $2,345 above expectations. Prices for the 2024 Giula range after the $1,595 destination charge are: Sprint: $44,670 Ti: $47,210 Veloce: $50,970 Competizione: $55,460 Quadrifoglio: $82,970 Quadrifoglio 100th Anniversary: $90,070 What's not included here are mandatory additional costs for the Competizione and both Quadrifoglio trims; they don't offer the free white exterior paint option that the Sprint, Ti, and Veloce do. So the above sums will go up by at least $500, the least expensive exterior color option, to as much as $2,200. As for the Giulia Sprint undercutting the BMW 330i, that only happens if you want a white Giulia on the stock 17-inch wheels. The 2024 330i starts at $45,495, which is $825 above the base Giulia. But the BMW comes on 18-inch wheels, the Giulia on 17-inchers, and stepping up a rim size on the Alfa Romeo costs $1,725. BMW also offers black paint as a free option, whereas going dark on the Giulia costs $660. The Giulia does come with 280 horsepower versus the BMW's 255, so there's that. At the very top, a Giulia Quadrifoglio asking $82,970 might be a tough ask against a BMW M3 asking $81,195, never mind a $90,070 Giulia Quadrifoglio 100th Anniversary. It's the same on the Stelvio side of the fence.