Autocar - First for car news and reviews

never buy a clio February 27, 2009 6:02 PM

Probably getting a 147 sometime soon. And, let me guess.. next week is Aston Martin? Maybe Audi the week after?

brinardi February 27, 2009 9:30 PM

I've always quite fancied the idea of getting an Alfa BUT having watched my father tear his hair out with the many faults of a Rover SD1 back in the 80s (then switch exclusively to German marques) and my Spider-driving mate's tales of high parts prices and lengthy waits for spares - I just can't tear myself away from the Germans when it comes to the crunch...!

superstevie February 28, 2009 11:16 AM

i was tempted to buy a Mito a few weeks ago, but sensibly didn't and went for a car with no road tax, 80 mpg and costs 100 quid a month less

Earl K February 28, 2009 4:43 PM

I remember my blood red Alfa GTV6 in the late eighties with affection. It was as pretty as a picture, and the V6 engine never missed a beat; But it still saw too much of the Dealer who sold it to me, and when was the last time you were recommended to an Italian electrician?

michael knight February 28, 2009 6:12 PM

I loved my 164Cloverleaf 24v with maniacal devotion;

an incredible car in my opinion, I still lust after another,  and criminally neglected by the motoring press ;) - i can't remember ever seeing a road test of one. Never let me down, but it was a pampered beast.  Electrics were a little fragile, but the irony was most were Bosch - maybe the Germans made a special Italian batch!

sportwagon February 28, 2009 7:50 PM

I gather that the earlier Alfas can be a bit problematical to say the least, but in my experience by the time of the 156, 147 generation they had solved most of the problems. My eight year old 156 Sportwagon has been pretty reliable for the six years that I have owned it, that is if you count the replacement of cambelts and suspension bushes as routine service rather than repairs! The only blot on its copybook has been the reluctant operation of the rear windows, but that could be a problem on any car where they are only rarely used.

My main gripe is that of depreciation, although that wouldn't affect anyone buying one now. In fact the price has dropped so low that  it now not so much the half-price hero as the seven per cent solution. (you don't need to be Sherlock Holmes to work that one out) So if you make sure it has a history from a recognised specialist, one could make your weekend (and for some time to come too)

montgomery March 1, 2009 12:40 AM

"It seems every motoring hack loves Alfas, except maybe for me."

Ehh no... actually most of you biased British hacks do is give Alfas a hard time and bad press at any given opportunity. Particulary Autocar. I recently tried to take one of your journalists up on his ridiculous and contradictory review of the poor GT. He actuallly tried to reply to me(look up the comments on the GT Cloverlief review on this site) but in my opinion just made a fool of himself.

ThwartedEfforts March 1, 2009 12:10 PM

Actually in the GT thread you came off sounding like the overzealous drumbeater everyone's been bored by at one time or another - whether it's Alfa Romeo or BMW, you all sound the same. Boring.

Anyway. You've said before that quantifiable aspects of the GT were unfairly criticised - packaging and ergonomics for example. While this may or may not be true, Alfa's reliability is certainly quantifiable: the manufacturer came 28th (of 30) in What Car?'s Reliability Supertest last year, and has always been in the bottom five worst of Warranty Direct's index.

Certainly those numbers echo my experience of them, not to mention the experience of others here, and you just need to look at resale values to understand that it's not just "biased British hacks" who steer clear of Alfas but the entire British public - there's a good reason that a nine year old 156 with low miles can't even scrape game console money.

Though it must be said that the same "biased British hacks" at Top Gear bang on endlessly about them, and even devote entire programmes to the marque... which probably says all you need to know :^)

montgomery March 1, 2009 5:56 PM

"Actually in the GT thread you came off sounding like the overzealous drumbeater everyone's been bored by at one time or another - whether it's Alfa Romeo or BMW, you all sound the same. Boring."

I think I made valid points which the Autocar journalist evidently had no replies to. If you thought I was boring you could have stopped reading!

macaroni March 2, 2009 8:51 AM

James,

you only mention the 2 litre engines which, in my opinion, are rubbish. The V6, if sensibly looked after, should last a lifetime and will never, ever fail to disappoint once above 4000rpm.

You can get a reasonable 156 v6 for under £2k which has to be a far superior choice than anything German or Swedish for similar money.

I too, long harboured a distrust of anything Italian, probably fuelled by press reports. However, I now own a 156 V6 (could you have guessed!) and a Fiat Multipla and love them both.  

Richard H March 2, 2009 10:16 AM

There is a general assumption that as Alfas are Italian they will breakdown and rust away.

Neither of these things have happened with either of the Alfas I have owned and it is very waring that this is all the motoring hacks bang on about.

That, and any line stating with "Back in the 80's".....

The TS and JTS engines must be kept topped up with oil, and bushes wear (As they do on other cars with mult-link suspension) but that is it.

The Mito is an excellent car, but the bias towards anything BMW or German means that it will not win any road test shoot outs against the overpriced Mini

The new range of engines coming on stream mean that the 159 will be much improved.

Also, they have new diesels that will eclipse the excellent range thay have at the moment, they're so good other manufacturers use them

When are the motoring press going to move in to this century and look at what Alfa are doing now, rather than looking back to what happened in the past.

Timberwolf March 2, 2009 12:20 PM

The 156 is amazing not least because Alfa managed to develop what started life as the humble Fiat Tipo platform into a competent and characterful compact executive.  Where that all fell apart a bit was that because so many of the hardpoints were for a car a class smaller, anything you want to replace or repair is invariably behind something, under something else, and more often than not at the mercy of a bolt that requires removing the wheelarch liner or similar to access.

This I found drove the labour times of common jobs (especially the 36k-interval cambelt) right up and made the car expensive to run for a non-DIYer, particularly given that the service life of any given part would usually be on the short side - radiators on the early ones often only being good for about six years, for example.  Other than that the cars are reliable and the galvanisation/rustproofing is far better than a lot of the competition at the time - I never saw a spot of rust on mine.

Mind you, the way they depreciate, as a second-hand buyer you could probably buy one, set aside a £2-3k running and repairs fund, and still come out a couple of years later having spent less overall than any of the "normal" options...

theop March 2, 2009 2:08 PM

My last Alfa, an 145 1.6ts was taken by Hephaistus (the God of Fire in Anciant Greece)...

Driving in the country side (in Greece) circa 1997, a few misfires, car stalls, pull on the side, get out, flames underneath, car on fire, fire consumes car in about 8 min flat. Leftovers were the steel bodyshell, steel seat springs and a few other bits, but not much - you could certainly not tell what car it was. My mother's lower leg got 3rd degree burns. Alfa dealership and Fiat Auto Italy both got sued for damages by the top legal firm in Greece on our behalf. Dealer settled with Eur 50k in today's money which was doubled by Fiat. (Dealer countersued Fiat themselves). They also paid for 3 plastic operations and reconstruction that my mother had since (leg still looks Laudalike). Lawyers kept 40%, we kept abt Eur 70k when all said and done 2 years later.

No more Alfas since or ever again. I will buy the new Fiat 500 though when it drops to £3.50 in about 6 months time in other words.