Alfa Romeo Brera

The Alfa Romeo Brera is a fabulous-looking car, but some of the old caveats apply; the interior packaging is shocking for tall people and nobody can sit in the back seats. Nobody, do you hear?

• Comfort

  The front seats sit ridiculously high so there's no place for six-footers in here - though the glass roof can add a couple of centimetres. The rear seats are just impressions of what a seat might look like if you never needed to use it, and the boot is OK, just a bit inaccessible. Can nibble and tramline on the better-looking big wheels.

  

• Performance

  Three engines, none of which particularly want to tear your face off. The range starts with a 2.2-litre petrol four, hits a peak at the 2.4-litre JTDM diesel (yup, diesel coupe) and tops out at the lardy 191kW V6 with four-wheel drive. All drive into the 225km/h area, though the V6 is comfortably quickest. The same economy comes from the smaller petrol and the diesel at 9.4L/100km but you'll be lucky to get 11.5L/100km out of the V6.

  

• Cool

  Very cool for people who don't care much about the driving experience.

  

• Quality

  Alfa's socks; consider them pulled up. Nice aluminium dash, with an interior based on the 159. The Brera feels solid. Time will tell.

  

• Handling

  Definitively not the best in class, the Brera is a strange one. Fast steering tends to highlight body roll as the car snaps into corners, and there's a lack of fluidity when you start to push on. All models understeer like they're trying to escape from the scary apex, especially the Q4 4x4 variant. More suited to cruising.

  

• Practicality

  Eh? Pardon me? No. The Brera is a looking-at car, not a load-lugger.

  

• Running costs

  The lowest C02 rating comes from the frugal diesel, but these things drop like stones; still loads of Alfa bad voodoo out there and it softens secondhand values.