In a building at Alfa Romeo’s test track in Balocco, Italy, there’s a hallway lined with photographs of impossibly glamorous people driving impossibly glamorous cars. They’re the sort of images that make you want to light a cigarette and say something dramatic in Italian, even if you don’t speak a word of it. It’s from a time when being rich meant you had style and taste, rather than a personal assistant and a gluten allergy.

But then you meet the 2026 Alfa Romeo Tonale. Clearly, this vehicle is not Sophia Loren or Marcello Mastroianni in sunglasses. This is a sensible latte in a recyclable cup. It’s a compact crossover that represents the dull practicality modern motorists claim to need, even though most of them will never use it for anything more daring than a run to Walmart.

When intr

See Full Page