Mito e me

This past weekend LeAnn and Marsha took a long-weekend road trip to Barcelona for a cat show. Since we're a one-car family, that meant I was going to be 'senza auto' while they were away, so we rented a car for me to get around in. We requested the cheapest car that Europcar had, which would have been the Fiat Panda. For those of you who don't know, the Panda is basically a metal two-drawer file cabinet on wheels. But all was not gloom-and-doom in the driving department, as the rental office didn't have any Panda's. Don't ask me why, maybe their lease was up and they all went back to China or something. Anyway, the nice folks at Europcar upgraded me to an Alfa-Romeo Mito. As the gentleman at the desk explained the situation and passed over the key with that wonderful Alfa logo on it, my resting heart rate suddenly ramped up to a non-resting heart rate. You see, ever since I'd thought about our move to Italy I'd been thinking that I'd want an Alfa when it came time to get me a car. I figured if I'm in Italy I might as well drive something Italian, right? Just like Brad Pitt asking for that El Camino.


Now, I'd seen the Mito on the Alfa website, and occasionally out on the road as well and thought it to be a cute little car with a very aggressive-looking, very-Alfa-like front end. Almost too aggressive I thought, considering its price point. I mean, if the car looks cooler than it winds up being to drive, it risks becoming a parody of itself, doesn't it? What is the good of slathering on all that exterior coolness if the driving experience is just an average one?

Anyway, we tooled over to the designated rental parking lot (consisting of 6 parking spaces in all) and picked up the little blue thing after lunch on Thursday. It was indeed cute-looking, but thankfully not enough to scream "CHICK CAR!". I got in, quickly acclimated myself to the control layout, adjusted the seat, steering wheel, and mirrors, and set out on my way home.

The car did feel nicely sporting, but something was very strange. You see, whenever I had pictured myself driving an Alfa-Romeo in my mind, the accompanying soundtrack would always sound revvy and throaty like the Ansa exhausts of old - not quietly clattery like a delivery truck. So I had a new paradigm to work with here, and I was very interested in seeing how I adapted to it as the weekend progressed. But the 1.6 liter turbo diesel did pull us along quite well, and that's pretty much most of what an engine should do for a car, so I let it slide.


On the outskirts of one of the little towns between Vicenza and Mestrino there's a small, newly-created traffic circle that is a pain in the tail to anyone not driving a motorcycle or a sports car (and an unexpected oasis of curvy fun to those that are). As I arrived at the circle, I decided I'd have a bit of fun and with no other traffic to interfere with my plan, I tossed the car in, shifted down, gave it the right foot and cranked the wheel over. What happened next was a revelation. The turbo spun up and got the cute little diesel sled nicely into the meat of the powerband, settled its suspension, and got down to work. The tires hung on tenaciously to the pavement and the more I turned in, the more they did so. Try as I might I could barely elicit a sound from the OEM spec Continentals. The car either had hardly any understeer or a small bit of oversteer, but in either case it felt fantastic and really opened my eyes to its potential. Strange soundtrack or no, this could turn out to be fun!



One thing that is unique to the current crop of Alfa's is a largish momentary slide switch mounted on the center console to the left of the shifter. This is the "Alfa DNA" selector switch, with DNA being an acronym indicating the three possible driving modes available for your use. 'D' is for Dynamic, and selecting the Dynamic mode sharpens the steering and increases its weight, as well as firms up the suspension and puts the throttle on hair-trigger as well as allows overboost on the turbo. Ever see a cat on high alert, with its tail all bushy and it standing on its claws? That's this car in Dynamic mode.

'N' stands for Normal mode, which puts the car into a good all-around mode for driving around. Response and ride and steering weight all are still a tad firm so as not to let you forget this is an Alfa-Romeo, but bumpy pavement won't turn you into a human bobblehead doll either (although I have read that the 17-inch wheeled versions of the car tend to do that a bit in Normal mode, presumably because of the stiffer sidewalls on the lower-profile tires. This car having the standard 16-inchers seemed fine in that department to me, and I've ridden motorcycles and driven cars that were too firm like that, so I have something to compare to.)

Lastly, 'A' stands for All Weather mode, and selecting that mode relaxes the car even more. Alfa says that mode is best for bad pavement and/or slick conditions.


So it was neat having the car at home to get to know. And a funny thing happened. As the weekend went on, I found myself doing things like getting some music CD's and taking them out to the car, and setting the equalizer on the stereo system and listening to music. Or just walking out to gaze at the car every now and then. I opened the hood to look around, sat in the back seat to check the room back there (not bad) and how easily I could get in and out (pretty easy, even from behind the driver's seat), read the owners manual (as best as I could, since it's in Italian) to see what's what and how things work and what features this car had as well as didn't have, and generally did the same things that I would do if this car were mine for keeps. I was falling in 'like' with the little Mito, if not quite 'love'.


Today being Monday, I woke up thinking that maybe I should take a little road trip, since it's my last day with the car before I return it tomorrow. But nothing came to mind, and since museums and such are closed on Mondays here, I thought that I might just let that go. But then I found out that there's a Harley dealership in Verona that's open on Monday afternoons, so I could buy the motor oil I need for the bike (as I had to empty it prior to shipping)! So I got directions to the dealership, and set out for the hour-long drive down the Autostrada. Sure, one day wouldn't kill me if I couldn't have the oil, and by the time I got back it would be time to feed all the critters, walk Dog Chandler, and get dinner for myself and I probably wouldn't work on the bike tonight, but it's the sort of psuedo-errand that motorcyclists do all the time, as a reason to ride and a place to ride to. So, this was my excuse to take the car out on the Autostrada, try out the different driving modes, and just generally have One Last Fling with Mito.


Well, long story short, the drive was exhilarating. The trip to Verona and back cemented my opinion of this car as one that is on my proverbial 'short list'. Heck, it might even be the only one on the list. Its manners and behavior are perfect for driving in Italy (go figure), and whether cruising alertly at 140 kph on the Autostrada in Normal mode (in sixth gear you're only loping that diesel along at 2500 rpm), or carving up one of those driveway-width twisty local roads in Dynamic mode, this car raises my awareness level and my excitement level and just plain enhances the experience of traveling on four wheels. Cage or no, It's been a long time since I've felt this excited about driving a car.


Funny, I didn't plan on going car shopping this weekend - !