Hi all,

These seem to have dipped in price recently, and can now be had for £20k. Anyone driven one ? Heard anything good\bad about them ?

3.2v6 with 250bhp and a nice engine note could be worth a go, plus I STILL miss my old Alfa ! There really is something about them

Any comments appreciated



Matt

 

I would never wish a 156 on anyone!

If it wasnt a company car I would be bankrupt due to the **** poor reliability of it. It's actually beyond a joke how unreliable it is.

Same for everyone else in the office who have 156's, 147's & 166's.

I will never even consider buying one after first hand experiences & seeing others around me suffering the same issues!

 

Looked into this very carefully recently when selling the scoob and was considering a 156 or GTV and out of all the forums I visited, garages I spoke to, mags I read and first hand accounts er....... NO

You say you miss your old Alfa so you obviously know what you are dealing with but it really seems to be a case of ... you buy an Alfa and it treats you well and you love it to bits or ... you buy one, have the complete familiar nightmare with it and then never buy one again ....

Good luck and ask yourself carefully ....just why they depreciate so much ?

Cheers
Si

 

Saw a 156 GTA a few days ago and thought it looked a really nice car. Just the old Alfa reliabilty and built quality lets it down. Sweet engine though.

 

Like sipie I investigated the 156 as a scooby replacement and the owner reports were always the total opposite end of the spectrum. Either the best car they had ever owned or the biggest nightmre. Not a lottery I wanted to play to be honest

 

I had a day-long test drive of a GTA when it first came it. Much nicer than my old 2.0 Selespeed.

Never had any reliability problems - perhaps I was lucky?

 

I love 'em too. A couple of things put me off though. I sat in one down at Goodwood last year. Very nice car, but the pedals were very oddly spaced. I don't have huge feet (Mr UK average size 10s ), but I kept getting my foot caught between the clutch and the foot rest. Very disconcerting and uncomfortable - especially in a performance car.

The other thing is reliability. I love Alfa's but I've never owned one. We did have them on the company car list, but not anymore - half a dozen major engine failures led to them being withdrawn.

Chris

 

Hi all,

Thanks for replies. Incidentally, I have small feet (size 8) so I might be okay on the pedals, although I will bear this in mind. Incidentally, my feet are small BUT VERY VERY WIDE !!! (Thought I'd add that for all the ladies reading )

Yeah I owned a limited edition 75 a number of years ago, in the two years I owned it - I spent more on it than it cost me so I have some idea of the Alfa experience.

I am interested in the GTA, but only within manufacturers warranty as I have heard some 156 nightmare reports. Just wondered if anyone had driven one and what they thought.

Guess a test drive is coming up !

Cheers


Matt

 

I'm a size 11 and I don't remember it being a problem

 

I had a GTV. Main thing is - even with the warrenty its no good.. as the car will spend ages in the garage if something goes wrong.

Alfa dealers are hopeless IMHO... if something needs replacing it takes 4 weeks to be sent from Italy... then they'll have ordered the wrong part. All the time the cars no use...

Stay well clear unless you can afford the inconvenience.

Jza

 

Just been watching 5th Gear on some repeat sky channel and VBH was hooning around in one - she highly rated it and it did look very

 

Does look good mate but the chassis of the GTV cannot really handle things properly and moving from scoob to one you get a real fright with just how **** it is at higher speeds.

Engines are to die for though

 

Dunno if you need 4 doors or not, but one of the broker sites was doing the 147 GTA for £17,500 new a couple of weeks back.

 

Really ?!? Erm, care to point me in the direction of said brokers ?

Cheers


Matt

 

Here's the link

http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/news/index.htm?news_id=1215

If I hadn't had a 3.2 A3 on order at the time I'd have had one at that price, sod the reliability issues

 

Try saying that when yours has had 3 new bottom ends in 2 years, consumes a litre of oil a week, had a cambelt snap, power steerig failure, an airbag go off for no reason, major electrical issues (windows work as & when the please) a/c failure 5 times now, ECU frying itself, normally 3 or 4 warning lights on for no apparent reason & countless other problems...

I waited 7 weeks for a wheel bearing/rear hub once (as it's all one assembly)

Biggest POS I have ever experienced - even worse than a Ford!!!

 

Ok - point taken. That sounds awful!

 

I was on the way with a MB E320, less power an dmore weigth than a 147GTA (same motor). He was behind me and I thougt it´ll be better to let him go... accelerated from around 100kmh (60mph) to 200kmh, and he couldn´t get away!!! I´d never had thought something like this could be....

 

Thankfully I can give the bloody thing back to the lease company in 2 months time