The satin or metal-look console dominating the centre of the tactile dash – with soft-feel surfaces – carries the radio and MP3 compatible CD player.

Dial controls are soft to the touch, and, more to the point, all controls are simply used and clearly laid-out (not a feature we’ve traditionally come to expect from Alfa Romeo).

Lower down, heating and ventilation controls are positioned in front of the gear-shift: manual air-con for the MiTo, climate-control for the MiTo Sport.

While the dash and centre-console sit high, it planes away ahead of the passenger, creating a surprisingly airy and spacious feel. Front seats can also be placed well back for even the longest legs.

After all, this is a car for ‘category jumpers’. They may be choosing a smaller car, but they don’t want to feel like they’re sitting in a matchbox.

And they don’t want to forego the comforts they traditionally expect from a vehicle purchase at the MiTo’s two price points.

In standard fabric trim (of a higher specification in the Sport), the seats and accommodation are a cut above.

While not as sumptuous as the up-specced MINI, nor as heavily bolstered, the MiTo’s seats offer good support for press-on driving and proved effortlessly comfortable.

For first-class travel, you would option the leather of course.

Rear seat passengers naturally do not fare as well for legroom as front seat passengers, but headroom under that truncated roof-line is surprisingly good (better in fact than the much larger Alfa GT).

In all, there is little to find fault with in the interior. Perhaps the black plastics on the doors and the trimming of the boot fall a little short. But we’re nit-picking here… this is a quality small car with a robust quality feel.

Equipment and Features

In keeping with its premium specification, the MiTo comes with an RDS (Radio Data System) radio, CD and MP3 player, a six-speaker sound system with mid-woofers and double antennae tuner (useful when the signal is weaker on Australia’s longer stretches).

The sound system automatically adjusts volume settings to road speed and also, in the MiTo Sport, comes with the ‘Blue&Me’ Bluetooth technology.

(Blue&Me is a Fiat and Microsoft technology offering a common platform for Bluetooth and USB, MP3, WMA and WAV formats – iPod players are also supported with an AAC extension.)

Carrying a 5-star Euro NCAP rating, both MiTo and MiTo Sport come with seven airbags - including driver, passenger, front side, window and driver’s knee airbags.

Three-point seatbelts and anti-whiplash headrests (moving the headrests closer to the front seat occupants in the event of impact) compliment an array of dynamic safety features.

These include Vehicle Dynamic Control (VDC, or ESP); ABS with electronic brake force distributor; MSR (or Motor Speed Regulator which overrides driver input in low grip situations); ASR (Anti-Slip Regulation); CBC (Cornering Brake Control); DST (Dynamic Steering Torque which controls oversteer) and HBA (Hydraulic Braking Assistance for emergency braking).

Both models also come with hill-holder, a system that maintains brake pressure momentarily when taking off on a hill.

Mechanical Package

At the heart of the MiTo and MiTo Sport are variations of the same jewel.

Alfa’s new 1.4 litre turbocharged petrol engines, the 88kW @ 5000 rpm and 209 Nm @ 1750rpm in the MiTo, and the 114kW @ 5500rpm and 230Nm @ 3000rpm version in the MiTo Sport, are simply an unbridled delight.

Both are deliciously responsive, make a muted urgent ‘humm’ when at work, are beautifully balanced and will rev their socks off.

You are forced to wonder that such a jewel-like unit can produce such willing acceleration away from the line and such accessible torque for shooting the apexes on a winding back-roads run.

Putting the power to the tarmac is a five-speed box in the MiTo and six-speed in the MiTo Sport. Both are slick-shifting units, the ample torque and the ‘shorter’ five speed box in the MiTo means there is not a hill of beans in acceleration times, nor in how each feels at the wheel.

The slightly rubbery gear-shift feel is not at the top of the class (certainly well-behind the likes of the Civic Type R), but it is accurate, falls neatly to hand and is fun to row along.

The MiTo pulls the 0-100km/h run in 8.8 seconds, the MiTo Sport in 8.0 seconds dead. That has the MINI Cooper S shading the MiTo Sport in raw numbers (an edge of 0.4 of a second), but there’d be scant margins in it on the road.

The smaller-engined MiTo also delivers astonishingly low fuel consumption: the MiTo returning 6.1 l/100km on the combined cycle; the MiTo Sport only marginally behind it at 6.5 l/100km.

Aside from the spirited and remarkable turbo-charged 1.4 litre engines, the piece de resistance in the MiTo and MiTo Sport is Alfa Romeo’s DNA switchable vehicle dynamics and handling system.

With a three-position toggle next to the five- or six-speed shift, it’s switchable between Dynamic, Normal and All-weather set-ups.

The switch alters the responses of the engine, steering, suspension and gearbox. In ‘D’, for Dynamic, it firms the suspension, firms the feel at the wheel, sharpens throttle-response and allows less intrusion from the traction and cornering control.

In each setting, the car feels palpably different: in ‘D’ it becomes more alive under your fingers and more connected to the tarmac. You can spin the wheels from the line, and slide in and bring the back around in hard cornering.

Because of the bigger boots and larger alloys on the MiTo Sport (17-inch against the MiTo’s 16-inch), the Sport in ‘D-mode’ feels harder and more-focused than its less-powerful twin.

‘Normal’, of course, is for normal driving. It gives a softer and more compliant ride, and a lighter more-assisted feel to the steering.

The All-weather mode (‘A’), useful in more marginal driving conditions in rain, snow or when icy, increases the sensitivity of the traction control to minimise risk of loss of control.

It’s an effective system; the setting-changes are readily felt at the wheel and, when pressing on, the handling gains are immediately apparent.

The Drive

Few small cars feel as alive as the MiTo and MiTo Sport. Each is simply huge fun, and a quality performance drive.

It is a really quick little car, loaded with personality, as sharp as a razor on a flying run and its breeding and sporting heritage evident in the consummate way it dispatches the kilometers.

Yes, this is a car for people who love the experience of the drive as much as the arriving.

That potent small capacity light-weight engine in the nose, and the short, wide wheelbase, give the MiTo superb chassis balance. Safe and predictable, in press-on cornering it is simply a matter of lifting-off (before getting back on the nail) to slide the tail around.

And it’s forgiving. Overcooked things going in? A rapid light dab on the brakes, then simply power out.

It might test your nerve, but the innate balance and the active technologies working for you, give the MiTo and MiTo Sport remarkable cornering performance.

For this tester, the suspension settings are just right. Nicely connected, the MiTo rides the nuances of the road; it’s firm but not jarring (not like the Alfa GT), and the feel through the wheel keeps you fully informed of what’s happening below.