A Week With: 2025 Alfa Romeo Stelvio

The single unifying principle behind an Alfa Romeo was always passion. That tradition carries through into the 2025 Alfa Romeo Stelvio SUV. Read the whole review at Headlight.News.

Alfa Romeo has always been a special automaker. Even when they made ordinary passenger sedans, they were not ordinary because they were built on the same chassis as the brand’s sports and racing cars.

The passenger cars carried the same engines, brakes, and suspensions as the sports cars. The single unifying principle behind an Alfa Romeo was always passion and that’s something that was readily apparent when we got the chance to spend a week with the 2025 Alfa Romeo Stelvio SUV.

For 2025, Alfa Romeo drastically reduced the number of Stelvio trims from seven to just three, dropping the high-performance Stelvio Quadrifoglio and Competizione variants and building the remaining packages around a single specification.

Design

While far too many SUVs for sale today have a bland sameness to them, the Stelvio is as spicy as an Arrabbiata sauce in Naples.

It starts with the exterior – the Centro Stile Alfa Romeo took the usual SUV shape and gave it some sinuous curves and a bold look. They put big, open-face wheels on the Stelvio, the better to show off the brakes with a flash of red on the calipers.

The whole interior emphasizes the driving dynamics. The homage to the brand’s racing and sports car history begins with simple, comfortable heated and ventilated seats. There’s even a nod to Alfa’s lengthy Grand Prix history with the engine start button located on the steering wheel.

On a more practical note, there’s a moderate amount of room in the second-row seats. But the cargo area is decidedly compromised.

Powertrain

Sadly, the most iconic version of the Stelvio, the muscular Quadrifoglio trim, has been removed from the line-up this year. That said, there’s still plenty to appeal to performance fans.

Under the hood, Alfa provides a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine rated at 280 horsepower and 306 lb-ft of torque. It’s mated to an 8-speed automatic transmission with paddle shifters. And while some performance fans might disagree, we think Alfa made the right choice by making all-wheel drive standard on all 2025 Stelvios. Expect 0-60 times in the mid-5-second range.

While you might not think of hitching up your trailer to the back of this exotic Italian import, it will tow as much as 3,000 pounds.

More on Alfa Romeo

• Alfa Romeo Pivots Away From All-EV Plans
• Alfa Romeo Teases The Future of Stelvio SUV
• 2025 Alfa Romeo Tonale Gets $10K Discount, Non-Hybrid Version Comes To The U.S. 

Safety and Technology

One of the things we appreciate about the Stelvio is Alfa’s reluctance to go all-in on technology. The SUV gets real climate controls, as the touchscreen is a modest 8.8-inch unit, rather than the giant tablets that dominate the interior of most SUVs. Alfa’s designers would tell you that this is a sports car, not your living room.

Directly in front of the driver, meanwhile, Alfa has planted a 12.3-inch gauge cluster.

The SUV has the requisite technology that matters, including Apple CarPlay and Android Auto and built-in navigation.

The safety story of the Stelvio is up-to-date, with standard blind spot and lane departure, foward alerts and collision mitigation, and adaptive cruise control. There’s a back-up camera, of course, along with front and rear parking sensors.

Driving Impressions

On the road, there’s no doubt you went Italian. Stelvio may fall into the SUV category, but key components, starting with the chassis and suspension, are largely shared with the decidedly sporty Alfa Romeo Giulia sedan.

Stelvio is much more communicative than other SUVs, and corners with enthusiastic grace. The name was not chosen lightly for this SUV, honoring the legendary Stelvio Pass in northern Italy known for its challenging switchback corners.

Driving the Stelvio is a pleasure, what the Italians call “Forza!” for strength.

Wrap Up

Buyers can head to Alfa Romeo dealers for the 2025, but look carefully because there may be some of the remaining high-performance 2024 Stelvio Quadrifoglio models still on the lot.

Alfa went from a wide range of trims to just three this year, so be sure to understand the differences and get just the right Stelvio you want.

Between the three trims available for 2025, we’d take the top Tributo Italiano because it’s a roughly $7,000 price walk from the base model. Prices start at $50,990 and top out at $58,085. Do note those numbers could soon jump up substantially due to the Trump tariffs on imported autos and auto parts.