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For reasons best known to itself, Alfa Romeo chose to launch its new Mi.To not at the Geneva Show, but afterwards. Perhaps the thinking was that it might not attract the attention it deserves. Alfa Romeo decided on the name Mi.To despite a public opinion poll suggesting something more conventional. Alfa maintains that Mi.To was chosen in recognition of ‘a deep-seated link between the past and future of the brand: between Milan, the city of design that brought the car’s style into being, and Turin, which will be responsible for its industrial production.’ To me, Mi.To will always be reminiscent of the abbreviated road signs indicating the direction to the A4 autostrada. Also, I can see the dot between ‘Mi’ and ‘To’ being lost; in which case, Mito translates from Italian as Myth. Is this complimentary?

Anyway, the real point is that a new small Alfa is a great idea and one that Auto Italia has been advocating for some time. I was rather hoping that an open-top version would also be announced. My spies tell me that there may well be a new small sportscar in the pipeline but it will probably be branded as an Abarth. This is also good news.

Perhaps Fiat was impressed with the Punto-based Bertone Suagna cabriolet prototype that we featured last year. If this is the case, then it would also be a saviour to the ailing Turin designer/manufacturer. But Fiat, please, whatever you decide to do, can the UK market have it in right-hand drive? Otherwise it will be a repetition of the 124 Spider and Barchetta situation where really good cars were handicapped by having the steering wheel on the wrong side. I suppose rear-wheel drive would be too much to ask. I wonder how many Mazda MX5s have been sold over the years…

Phil Ward

Auto Italia

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