UK Drive: The Alfa Romeo Junior Ibrida has a lot of style, but it’s not perfect

What is it?

Small crossovers are dominating the UK’s roads, and that’s because they are affordable and practical.

So, when you think of Alfa Romeo, you go straight to stylish four-door saloons and two-seater sports cars, not compact crossovers.

In the last few years, the Italian marque has only offered three cars in its model line-up and seeing it was missing out in the compact crossover segment, it’s only gone and jumped on the bandwagon and produced the Junior.

The Junior originally launched as a pure EV; however, with its high starting prices and there being a strong demand for jacked-up hatchbacks, Alfa decided to launch this – the Junior Ibrida: a hybrid version of the car which is cheaper and just as attractive to look at, but does cramming in a petrol-electric setup spoil what was already is an impressive little car? Let’s find out.

What’s new?

It’s all to do with what’s underneath as the Junior is now available with a petrol-electric drivetrain.

This is to make it more appealing to customers with a lower price tag over its electric counterpart.

Other changes include revised styling at the front and different trim levels to differentiate the two offerings.

Underneath its skin, you’ll find it sits on Stellantis’ ‘STLA Small’ platform, which is shared with the Peugeot 2008, Vauxhall Mokka, Jeep Avenger and Fiat 600.

What’s under the bonnet?

Powering the car is a 1.2-litre three-cylinder turbocharged petrol mated to a 48-volt battery and electric motor.

This setup produces 134bhp and 230Nm of torque, while 60mph takes 8.7 seconds and the car will run onto a top speed of 128mph.

Alfa Romeo claims that the car can achieve more than 57mpg on the combined cycle and that emissions are a low 110g/km of CO2. Plus, all hybrid versions of the Junior come with an automatic gearbox as standard.

What’s it like to drive?

Although this Alfa shares the same underpinnings as many other Stellantis-owned products, the Junior somehow feels more special to drive.

Let’s start with the steering, which feels more communicative in your hand, as well as having a sharper turn-in, and the car goes round corners with minimal fuss. Sure, the ride is a little fidgety, but it’s by no means uncomfortable.

Around town, the car’s light steering makes it a doodle to park and the 48-volt battery cuts in effortlessly at slower speeds, it’s just a pity that the small rear windows and thick C-pillars make looking out the back tricky. Thankfully, our car’s standard reversing camera helps out here.

But, where the car is let down is with its extremely hesitant automatic gearbox, which doesn’t know what day it is, let alone the gear it should be in. When pulling away at junctions, it’s sluggish and unresponsive, and under acceleration it takes a few seconds to make its mind up. Due to this poor transmission, we think the electric variant of the Junior is a lot smoother and feels better-suited to the car.

How does it look?

There is very little that has changed over the electric variant of the Junior, with the only differences made to the front grille, which now houses a brand-specific lettering and the recess in the rear bumper for the exhaust pipe.

Other than that, the recipe has remained untouched, which means you still get the traditional triangular Alfa Romeo front nostril, while the side profile features hidden rear door handles for that sleeker look. The C-pillars feature the firm’s ‘biscoine’ green snake logo and the sloping back end with its lion claw-styled rear taillights make it have a unique appearance.

We think the Junior is one of the best-looking small crossovers in its class, capturing that DNA from Alfa Romeo’s design of yesteryear with this Junior.

What’s it like inside?

Sadly, if you’ve spent a lot of time in cars owned by the Stellantis Group, you’ll be disappointed to find that this Alfa feels rather familiar and not in a good way.

The interior is just a parts bin from the door handles, right up to the gear selector, which has been taken from Fiat, Jeep, Citroen, Peugeot and Vauxhall models. All of the materials feel cheap and poorly screwed together, and our test car had an annoying rattle in the driver’s door.

At least the design is rather appealing with its curved instrument binnacles, which glow different colours depending on which drive mode you’re in, and the infotainment screen with climate control buttons are angled towards the driver.

The driving position is also spot on, as you sit low and the centre console is hemmed-in next to you. However, storage could be improved with a pathetic glove compartment, narrow door bins and an average-sized underneath compartment under the centre armrest.

Step in the back and things don’t get much better, as the small back windows make the rear feel dark and claustrophobic, while legroom is limited. But, at least headroom should be adequate for average-sized adults.

Boot space is good though, with there being 415 litres or 1,280 litres with rear seats folded down, which is bigger than a Jeep Avenger, but smaller than Peugeot 2008. But, the false floor does give it a bit more flexibility, at least.

What’s the spec like?

It’s relatively straight forward when it comes to speccing the Junior Ibrida, as there are only two trim levels.

We’re driving the entry-level ‘Ibrida’ which comes fully-loaded with 17-inch alloy wheels, a 10.25-inch infotainment system, keyless start, automatic climate control and rear parking sensors.

Our car also came with a few options which took the final asking price to more than £33,000, which is £3,000 more than a top-of-the-line Fiat 600, making this Alfa look rather expensive next to the competition.

Verdict

The Junior Ibrida had all the ingredients to be a great alternative in the compact crossover segment. But, it’s let down with quite a few flaws that makes this Italian SUV not as appealing as it could have been.

The driving experience is good, but is let down by an extremely lacklustre gearbox, the interior quality is not the best and the price is still more expensive than a lot of its rivals.

Sure, it looks great, has a sporty driving position and at the end of the day, it’s an Alfa Romeo. However, if you want a Junior, we’d still recommend you take a look at the electric version as it drives even better and is similarly priced to this petrol-electric offering.