The unloved Alfa Romeo three-door, the Mito, will be killed off in 2019 to make way for the Italian brand’s more concentrated assault on SUV sectors. It won’t just be a blow to Alfa Romeo’s grand traditions of building small cars, but a blow to the three-door genre in general, which is facing near annihilation.
Alfa Romeo Europe boss Roberta Zerbi confirmed the Mito will end its run in 2019 and will not be replaced. The writing was on the board when the Mito did not feature in June’s five-year plan for Alfa, which outlined the arrival schedule of two new SUVs, a replacement for the 8C and a cheaper GTV-style model.
The three-door genre has taken a hammering lately, with Volkswagen killing off the short versions of the Up and the Polo, Seat dumping the Leon and the Mii (its version of the Up) and Audi offloading the short A3. Other three-doors killed off recently include the Range Rover Evoque, while the next generations of the Audi A1, the Golf and the Kia Proceed will be five-door only. Mercedes-Benz’s A-Class is now five-door only, too.
A small SUV will sit beneath the Stelvio, which Alfa hopes will attract Mito buyers (admittedly, there aren’t many of them) as it bridges the gap from the ageing Giulietta. – BD Motor News
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