I haven’t spent a lot of time behind the wheel of our long-term Alfa Romeo Mito QV since my last update. But that’s what prompted this update. I miss it when I don’t drive it. I’ve never felt this way about my previous long-termers. There’s something different about this one.
Every time I climb inside I look forward to the drive. I make sure that “D” (for dynamic) is engaged, allowing for a more involved drive and a quicker response from the engine when you plant the throttle. It’s a very enjoyable drive.
My love for the little Alfa aside, there are one or two things that I have an issue with.
As a kid I watched a lot of movies. I loved ones that featured out-of-this-world (at the time) technological innovations. My favourite was voice-activated anything. I remember watching Richie Rich and loving how the security in their Mount Richmore vault was voice activated. I wanted something – anything – that worked in a similar way.
The Mito QV Sport comes fitted with the firm’s Blue&Me system. This system connects to your phone via Bluetooth, but it’s all done via voice prompts. My childhood dream come true, right? Not at all. What I failed to realise as a kid is that, having grown up in Cape Town, my accent (I tend to roll my R’s and generally speak quite flatly) seems not best suited to a system like this. I’ve had more fights with this car than I have had with my sister. And we used to fight a lot.
I ask it to call “mom”, it will call “dad”. Every time I say connect I clear some or other history and when I need to bring up the settings, I have no idea what it does, but it doesn’t bring up the settings. It annoys me to no end. Now every time I use the system I put on a fake accent and pretend as though I’m having tea with the Queen. I don’t even like tea. Or the Queen for that matter (kidding).
As a result of all of this, all I really want is a normal Bluetooth connection system where you press normal buttons and connect the conventional way. I’ve been told it’s a sign of age.
My second issue is with luggage space. I’ve used the car for a weekend away and I was only able to fit my own belongings in, with a bit of someone else’s luggage. The Mito’s other custodian, Juliet McGuire, hardly ever takes it away for weekend trips because she can never fit everything that she and her friends need in it. She prefers the generous boot of CAR’s long-term Volkswagen Jetta. That said, however, the Alfa Romeo Mito is hardly going to be the main car in a family. The potential buyer of the Mito QV won’t have good luggage space high up on their list of priorities.
Other than these things, it’s been fun living with the Mito so far. So much so that it saddens me slightly to have to let it go. A new car is about to come into the long-term fleet and it’s got my name on it. Stay tuned for updates…
