First of all, shameless plug, I also write about cars, hence the 'Alfa Romeo' reference in the headline. Secondly, at long last, the Tonale has finally arrived. The Alfa Tonale was first announced at the last Geneva Motor Show, which means 2019 because the 2020 and 2021 editions didn't happen, but Alfa took its sweet time to reveal the finished product because in the meantime, FCA became Stellantis (with PSA) and the CEO (Alfa) Jean-Philippe Imparato said he wanted to make a few changes. And yes, and the chip shortage didn't help either, par for the course.

The Tonale is ideally designed to rival the BMW X1, Audi Q3 and Cupra Formentor, and it is loosely based on the Jeep Compass. It's available with five engine options: the brand-new Hybrid VGT 1.5-litre petrol-hybrid engine, delivering 128 hp or 157 hp, a 128-hp 1.6-litre diesel, a 261-hp 2.0-litre petrol and a 1.3-litre hybrid (15.5 kWh battery pack), putting out 271 hp and proelling the car from standstill to 60 mph in 6.2 seconds.

Inside you'll find Alcantara upholstery and a newly-designed infotainment system (with Amazon Alexa) comprising two screens for a combined 22.5 inches of usable displays. This is a huge step forward when compared to just about any other Alfa on the market at the moment, because they've all got terrible infotainment systems, imho.

And what about the NFTs? An NFT (non-fungible token), as many of you know, is essentially just a permanent line of code that can't be altered. You can attach anything to it, including (but not limited to) digital art, which is what most people do. They guarantee permanent authenticity and ownership, and since anything can be attached to an NFT, including songs, documents, etc. - Alfa has decided to create NFTs for each car, in other words, you buy the car, you get an NFT as a certificate of ownership, which is actually kinda cool. Good work, Alfa.

I've crossposted this article on my blog about cars Flabbergasted