After having a test drive in the petrol Levante last weekend we went for a test drive in a petrol Stelvio today.
First impressions were that its definitely not a Maserati. The general quality of the top of the dash etc doesn't match than on the Levante. Also you can tell its smaller. For someone of more than adequate proportions it was a little cramped, the steering wheel felt small in the hand, and the seat bolstered pinched a little. That said the layout of the cabin felt good, the driving position isn't as high up as the Levante but still higher than a standard car.
Moving off we were stuck behind traffic so I switched into dynamic, pulled back on the left paddle a couple of times, and pushed my right foot down. There was a pleasant enough noise, though missing cylinders, and it accelerated at a reasonable pace for a big car.
Once into driving it on the twisty roads out of the dealership I began to enjoy it. You can tell that it's lighter than the Levante, and my Ghibli, and a GT, and that really helped in the corners. By the time it was time for me to swap over with M I was throwing it into corners and powering out. There's definitely more body roll than in a saloon but it was pretty good, even if it only had the 280hp 4-cylinder engine.
At the moment we don't need an SUV, does anyone? Come time to replace the MiTo though we may look at this again. We were offered one for a day long test drive and may take them up on that in the new year. If we do I'll strap some cameras to it and do a proper review.
We did have a bit of fun in the Spider on the way over
[video]https://youtu.be/6tyWSYNmSg8[/video]