So BMW was and still is having great success with its Mini in all its variations, so some carmakers decided they should have one too.

Fiat brought us the super cute and nippy 500, Audi recently introduced premium quality to the segment with the A1 and Alfa Romeo decided to thrill us with emotion and gave us the Mito. The 500 is the smallest and cutest, the Audi is in a word ugly and the Mito is awkward looking, but I got a Mito to test and Alfa was nice enough to give me the Quadrifoglio Verde or in English the Green Four-Leaf Clover or QV, 125kw version, so I wasn’t complaining. It’s basically the fastest, sportiest version available; think Polo GTI so all I said was “yayness!”

Back to the looks and someone has to say it, it looks strange and this is me being nice because I really liked everything else about this car.  Its drive and handling is crisp, clean and very responsive, but it looks like a shocked mouse, a friendly mouse, but a mouse. I’m harping on about the looks because Alfas are usually beautiful cars. BMWs are masculine, Audis are handsome, but Alfas have always been beautiful. I really needed this car to be beautiful because that’s what would have set it apart from the others because lets face it; the premium super mini segment has never produced a beautiful car. Alfa unfortunately didn’t see that gap in the market.

The engineering is brilliant though because it uses Fiat’s highly acclaimed multiair engines. The 1.4 litre, turbocharged unit in the Mito QV pushes out a very useful 125kw and it really makes the little guy move. It works by electronically regulating the engine’s air intake and combustion process and the real benefit can be felt at the pumps where Alfa claims it only uses six litres per 100km. Acceleration is quite brisk at a mere 7.5seconds from 0 to 100km/h. So ja, its fast, economical, sort of cute and it has a desirable badge.

The interior is stylish, Italian, super modern, with a huge, fake carbon fibre insert taking centre stage. The whole top of the facia is made of the stuff and it looks and feels great. The controls are chunky and solid and all the buttons worked well. The cabin is full of leather, chrome and high quality plastic. The DNA system alters the feel of the accelerator, steering wheel and stability control. Everything is more responsive and it revs into the red when the system is set to Dynamic mode. The other modes are Normal and All Weather and I think they are silly because I had it in Dynamic the whole week.

The dark matt looking alloys were not my favourite, but worked well with the pearl like white paint finish my test unit came in. The rear end is particularly pretty with Ferrari like tail lights and the bulging rear hips. The frameless doors make it feel sports car special and its rarity made me feel very special, but the car lacked something I can’t put my finger on. Alfa promised emotion but I didn’t feel like crying. It started every time I turned that key and all the instrumentation worked.  I was comfortable, fast, and exclusive and from behind I was very sexy. Alfa finally got their quality and engineering issues sorted because this car is mechanically sound, almost German, but in the process it forgot to be silly. This car is a bit too serious, but I love the solid, safe feel of the whole situation.