Chris L

I was having a new set of tyres fitted today, so I thought I would kill an hour and have a look around the showrooms of a couple of nearby dealers. Popped into the Mitsubishi garage - I might as well been invisible total waste of time - even asking for the latest Evo brochures.

Anyway, so I went next door to the Alfa showroom. What a difference - couldn't have been more helpful - good knowledgable guys very enthusiastic. Spotted a lovely 146 GTA (3.2 lite V6) - what an engine. If ever a car needed a glass bonnet - this is it. Very impressed with the car (great looking on the big alloys and flared wheel arches) - they could teach Subaru a thing or to about paint finish too. Apparantly an RB5 owner had just bought one, which says quite a lot about the car.

Also had a good look around the new Alfa GT - very very nice. Personally, I like the styling - fab car. I could get quite tempted if I opt back into the company car scheme. All Alfa's are now coming with a 5 year warranty which certainly helps!

Granted they're not perfect, but they are a damn sight less boring than the stock Audi / BMW / Merc etc that you could buy for around 20 grand.

Anyone own a 147 GTA?

Chris

Old_Fart

I always thought they were sexy looking cars, with a fantastic heritage. Testdrive showed lovely steering, but felt front heavy. But my experience of the 3 dealers I visited when considering a 156GTA couldn't have been more different. Total *****. Then my neighbor got a 147 diesel and my fears were born out as he's had the most appalling service. Damn. And drat. The GT is nice looking from everywhere but the rear 3/4's, where it looks big-arsed IMHO.
Rgds
Chuckster

C

Every person who has an Alfa company car where I work (156's & 147's) have had nothing but problems.

We have about 25 within the group.

All are now at the end of thier 3 year cycle.

Not one car in the last 3 years has a warranty bill of less than £10,000 (mine and others are substantially more)

So if you can afford to run one, can be bothered when they literally break down weeky, remember to fill it with oil every week (im doing about 1.5 litre's a week) then yes it's for you.

But for everyone else it's the biggest, most nreliable heap of **** I have ever had to drive.

Since Monday afternoon, I have been recovered by the AA twice.

Anyone who buys an Alfa Romeo must be mental!

mattstant

Bu66er thats a shame as soon as i saw the new GTA it went straight to the top of my next to buy list but i was hoping that alfa had sorted its problems out.
Please will some one post how fantastically realible these motors are now.
you can even lie (a little)

Up_North

I had a 156 and it was generally a nice car but the build quality was iffy to say the least.

But the worst part of ownership was the dealers - sales people were fine - after sales care was appalling. Accused me of ruining the locking wheel nut - the only people who had had the wheel off was, er the dealer on a previous occassion.

Look at customer satisfaction surveys - eg JD Power in What Car - go ALL the way down the list and eventually you will come to Alfa.

Shame really.

Ian

man on the moon

I must have been lucky but have had my 146ti for over 5 years and 90k miles and it has never let me down. It has never not started or broken down ever so my RAC memmbership has never been used. Yes bits can be pricey and the build quality is ropey but I've never had any electrical glitches either. No real need to test the dealership either.

MOTM

R1916v

Which bright spark decided to use Alfas?? I like em but given their track record guessing they must hav ebeen offered a v cheap deal on em.

Chris L

Yeah I know they aren't perfect. We went through a similar run of problems on fleet 156s a couple of years back (a lot to do with oil starvation - they seem to use a fair bit and the problem with modern cars (esp company cars) is that no bugger looks under the bonnet anymore). That has put me off in the past too. But as the sales guy said, they'd be bankrupt if they offered a 5 year warranty on every car and expected to pay out huge amounts during this time. I think they have made a lot of progress. Build quality isn't upto BM standards, but it has improved a lot. The GT especially was really nice - apparantly they are built to order (and there is a 6 month waiting list on the GT and the 147 GTA).

They just seem to have more soul and character than so many other modern cars. I've never owned one, but I do have a real soft spot for them (can you tell) and I would dearly love them to be a success.

Chris

i love scooby snacks

I posted on here last week about the Alfa 156 2.5 V6 as there was one on offer at my work for less than trade price and I need a car. It came in over the weekend but didnt think it was running quite right so I got my mechanic to look at it yesterday. It booked at £4.5k (1998R 64k)and I could have had it for £3000 but I was given a long list of things needing doing which made it not worth while at all.

But I will add it sounded great but Ive never driven anything with a crap driving position

tony

Gizmo555

My missus car is a 147GTA. Had an 8 month wait but well worth it.

Build quality is excellent (well compared to the Scoob anyway) - I believe this used to be a problem with previous Alfas.

250bhp through front wheels is a problem. The traction control lights are continually flashing, its eaten a set of fronts (Goodyear S02's) in 10K miles and warped a set of disks - the brakes are excellent. I think the warped disks are a bit of a problem (replaced fine under warrantly), a number of people have seen this but I think Alfa have changed disks now ? will find out if she warps the current pair.

Straight line against my Impreza (246BHP, 220 lb ft) the Impreza is slightly quicker 'till you get to silly speeds.

Average fuel consumption is 21/2 mpg. Don't expect over 30 mpg at all.

And it does drink oil for the first 5K km at £15/litre

But does sound nice

Got a 3yr warranty so not really worried to much about problems.

Would I buy one - YES

Ask over at www.alfaowner.com

Here it is











Cheers

Mark

Dul

That 147 GTA is a great car. I had a chance to drive it during a while.

Pro: The look is really splendid. The interior has a nice sporty look and build quality is very good. The engine is fantastic. A superb sounds, excellent acceleration and very torquy. The body roll of the car is well controlled and the short and sharp direction procures a nice feeling. Despite it has stiff suspensions, the ride is still quite comfortable…

Con: The chassis is crap. The car does not handle correctly. In almost every curve you feel the “electronic” working. Despite the deceleration is fine, the brakes missed a better initial bit. The gear box is correct. The gas consumption is really huge…

It’s a car that shows more a sporty image that it procures in reality.
Well, if sporty sensation is very important for you, it’s not the right car. If you are more interested in a nice looking car that performs well (Especially in straight line) with a fantastic engine then, that GTA is for you.

Trem

iTrader: (3)

Hit the nail on the head there. My mate has just had a 156 and I said exactly the same thing to him about the character.

Chris L

Nice car Mark - the one I saw in the garage was red with black leather interior - really looked the part. I would also agree with Tony about the 156 driving position - it is real classic Italian, but the GT I sat in was much better. Fully adjustable seats and steering wheels, plus pedals perfectly placed for heel / toe changes I am certainly looking at them in a different light to a few years ago.

Chris

stiks

My last car pre scoob was an MY00 156 v6 Wagon. Contrary to popular opinion:

It was reliable - and cheap to run. couple of fluid changes and a new set of pads on the rear (£22) that was it in 15 months of ownership

Cheap as chips after 3 years with bags of soul and good looks. Best sounding OEM exhaust note IMO.

I'd swap the wifes focus for one any day...if she'd let me

logiclee

I ran a 156 Selespeed Veloce for two years, I never had a problem with the engine or gearbox. I used to put about half a litre of oil in between services.

The dealers however were crap. I had small problems with suspension bushes that turned into major issues and totaly spoiled my ownership experience.
Looking back I loved the car and if the problems had been sorted straight away I wouldn't hesitate to have another. But the dealer network needs sorting out first, they fully deserve their constant position at the bottom of all the customer satisfaction surveys.

Lee

buzz_lightyear

Ive had about 9 Alfas - last one was a 2.0 156 Veloce. Loved it - only problem I had in 3 years was a faulty heater matrix (and the missus had wet feet!).

doesnt go like a scoob, but drives much better than other common company cars imho...

suppose im lucky in that i have (had) a decent local dealer (motorvogue in northampton).

cheers

Bluebeard

Ugh! I've just got rid of my GTV V6 and am waiting with baited breath for my WRX to arrive! I've had a pretty poor ownership experience with my GTV, which was bought from new. This is a shame, as it was my second Alfa, the first was a 145 1.7 with the old boxer engine, bought at 2 years old and relatively well behaved with bags of character (and fantastic value for money).

In 3 years and sub-30,000 miles, the GTV has had the following glitches:

- stereo fell into the fascia
- panel fell out of the fascia
- odometer replaced
- drivers door seal adjusted twice
- brake discs/pads changed three times in the first year (Alfa then washed their hands once 12 months was up)
- vallance refitted due to a water leak
- weld at rear of car had to be redone
- brake light switch failed, flattened the battery
- rear wheel bearing and suspension arm replaced
- electric window motor and associated controller replaced
- fusebox replaced (it had melted!)

The car was typically off the road for a week, sometimes longer, for each visit to the garage. To add insult to injury, when the car was returned from having the wheel bearing fixed, 3 out of the 5 retaining bolts had not been tightened at all.

I keep hearing that Alfa's quality problems are a thing of the past. I thought so too when I bought the GTV and was proven wrong. You can't knock their designs, but the execution leaves much to be desired - approach with caution and a big wallet!!

C

People mention them having 'soul'...

Give me reliability over soul any day - since my last message I had another AA recovery

Mine sounds like a bag of nails again (like the bottom end has gone again) if it has that will be the 3rd time & a week before it goes back to the lease company.

In all my years of ownership I have been lucky I guess, & this car was the one to change that & make up for all the other reliabile ones I have had

My warranty bill (at this point) is considerably more than the car cost in the 1st place which is comical!!!

a VERY big wallet!

I have a list of warranty work for my car at work - I dont have the time to type it all out as it would literally take me hours!

The 'look' is good, the execution is beyond a joke bad!

bloke

I paraphrase a bit of Clarkson...

For quality control, Mercedes put a cat in one of their cars, and if it hasn't suffocated after half an hour conclude that there is a problem with the car.

Alfa Romeo also put a cat in their cars, and if it it hasn't escaped after half an hour they reckon it is ok...

Or something like that...

I wanted a 156 once...but then my mate bought one how can something so gorgeous be so sh1te?

RJMS

iTrader: (2)

Everyone can have a laugh now but I've got an Alfa 33 P4 - that's 4WD for those non Alfisti out there, it's got a sensibly tuned 1700 flat four (8 valves - yes I know it shouldn't have) running on carbs (ditto) and giving out about 170 bhp on the rollers - by no means as quick as my recently purchased MY00 Impreza but still a hell of a lot of fun and since I have trumpets and very little else on the carbs it sounds about 100 times better as well.

Built by a good friend who builds race Alfas - would you believe 260 bhp from an 1800 naturally aspirated 16V - it is horrendously unreliable - but then again it is 13 years old hence the Impreza buy - but it is still my car of choice for any journey less than 10 miles or so.

Have owned nothing but Alfas for about 8 years now (until the Impreza) and would agree that reliability is not a strong point - but for overall fun of ownership (discounting tearing hair out moments) the Impreza has got a lot to live up to - but so far so good.

BTW The Impreza replaced 164 Cloverleaf 3 Litre V6 with Squadra chip - supposedly 240 bhp (chip really did make a hell of a difference especially to MPG) and I have to say that it would see off the Impreza, at high speed, on a straightish road.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Happened to rent a 147JTD for a week.

Must admit, I quite took to it. I do have a soft spot for Alfas anyway as they all have drop dead gourgous looks.

Drove superb, very deceptive speedwise too. Performance equally on par with comparable BHP TDis. Good handling, but it did feel like it could have a twitchy rear end. Didn't have chance to find a good damp bend to test this out, but seeing that the rear tyres were wider than the front, it did suggest Alfa may have already tried to address this already. In my book a bit rear end action in the right hands is never a bad thing on a FWD car, just the numpties that need the understeer prone handling

And yes, there was a loose piece of trim (underdash cowl on the drivers side) Easily fixed by re-aligning the clip accompanied with a well aimed thump with my fist Only other gripe was the radio buttons were tiny.

Whilst I had it, we parked up next to a 147GTA, first one I've seen. So I had a good look round it. It looks the dogs

Was considering buying a 2nd hand 157 GTA V6 myself, the family run a garage so fixing it couldn't be that bad....or could it? The faults listed above were no worse than my old Mk5 XR3 (actually - not as bad) and certainly nowhere near that of the 2 Company Rover 200's we used to run. It would take a really unreliable car to beat them.

ChrisB

I've been an Alfa fan since my folks had an Alfasud years back. Shame the chassis rusted into an MOT failure Even my Mum enjoyed blipping the engine in multi-storey carparks

Would like to drive a 147GTA but perhaps it's best not to? I think it looks fantastic but would hate to taint my opinion of it

gso

The car before my scoob was an alfa which i owned from new for the past 3 years, and i must say i miss it dearly... twas a 147 BTW..leather interior...yummy

Compared to the scoob... well in terms of the interior and general feel.... miles better than the scoob... in fact the scoob was a major step down in terms of quality and style.... Had the Bose sound system too... boy do i miss that... i dont even turn my scooby's stereo on most of the time... it sucks

Reliability... well i had one of the first 147's which suffered with some susspension problems (all under warranty)... apart from that... 3 years with no problems... didnt drink oil. The dealers were a bit crappy but they didnt take the **** too much

If i could have my alfas looks, comfort and equipment, with 4 wheel drive and the scooby's performance... well that would be my dream car

DarkStar66

I owned a 147 for over 2 years and was pretty happy with it. It never broke down and the dealer was great.

You have to make sure you check and top up the oil on a regular basis which might explain the issues lease car owners have because they don't usually bother looking after their cars much.

The newer dealers seem to be a lot better so you have to be lucky and live near one of those.

My overall impression was that the car gave a sporty impression but wasn't a proper sports car.

Scotsman

iTrader: (3)

I've just bought a MY00 156 Sportwagon Veloce. It's my third 156 over the years and the previous 2 didn't have any problems.

Lovely drive, lovely interior and great value second hand (mine cost £5,900 with one owner, full dealer history, full leather and only 31k on the clock).