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Alfa Romeo says its quality and reliability on the Tonale small SUV is "far ahead" of its German rivals in BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi, saying it has access to top-secret shared warranty-claim data in which the Italian brand says it "scores so much better".
It's little secret that Alfa Romeo has faced issues with perceived reliability from the buying public, but the brand says a host of factory improvements – from laser-guided paint checking called 'Eagle Eye' to human quality control – has seen it rise above its competition, at least based on its data.
"So we saw in the warranty period, the issues, if you want to call it this way, on Tonale. We have also OEM shared information, the ones that we cannot disclose because otherwise we would be kicked out from this group of information sharing," says Alessandro Corgnati, Alfa Romeo Tonale Global Product Manager.
"Comparing all this data, we understood that our 2024 production was at the level of the best competitors. And what I can tell you is that with the improvements that we mentioned, those are just very little improvements, we have many others that are also technical and are even maybe not clearly understandable for a customer.
"We brought down this level of warranty issues, if you call it this way. And now we have, let's say, a level that we feel is best in class, comparing all the information possible."
Pressed for detail on the data, Mr Corgnati said the information was "very sensitive", but said it was based on warranty claims.
"It's a tough one because since this is internal data, either I don't want them to know where we are, and all the information is very, very sensitive. What I can tell you is that the information I was giving is based on warranty period," he says.
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Alfa Romeo is banking on the Tonale small SUV to fuel a brand resurgence, both in Australia and around the world. The just-launched Junior crossover will remain the brand's best-seller, but the Tonale is expected to slot into second position, ahead of the now-ageing Giulia sedan and Stelvio mid-size SUV.
"What I want to underline is that we don't aim to do what the Germans do. As our CEO always repeats, we don't have the ambition to sell millions of cars as the Germans are doing," Mr Corgnati says.
"We clearly know what is the role of Alfa Romeo, and we want to go in a very clear way in that direction because we know our customers, we know them very well, we know what they want, and we want to keep delivering this in a very clear way."
