Now thinking about an Alfa 156
 

I do like these but what are they like

i understand they do 1 1.8 and 2.0l + diesel and the 2.6.

Thinking along the lines of either a 1.8 or the 2.0l

Has anyone owned one of these

any ideas on fuel enconomy
performance
build quality
handling and cost of ownership
also what is the 'selespeed' like, seen a few of these around.

One of my mates bought one a few years ago, i think it was 6 months old.

He had it for about 3 weeks before he rejected it. During this time the car was in and out of the garage for about 2/3 of the time.

Even the loan cars they lent him during this time had problems.

ReL Alfa 156
 

My Mate has a 99 156 2L T-Spark.
He gets about 350 miles for about £40
No problems, I driven it revs and goes quite well but the brakes are pretty poor you have 2 options either on or off !!!

My mate had one & sold it after six months. He had the turbo diesel & loved the torque, handing & spec but he got pissed off with taking it back to the dealers every week or so to have something fixed. He said he would take it in with a list of faults & they would repair half of them & he would get it back with some new faults.
If that is character then you can keep it!

My friend used to be a Fiat/Alfa salesman - he obviously drove loads and said they were always going wrong.

I had a 156 2.5 for a week or so from the london classic car club a few years ago. It was about a year old. The guys said "if you hear a dreadful whining noise then smack the dash really hard here". I did hear it once,it was awful and really loud/worrying and smacked it and it stopped. Apparntly the dealer had no idea what it was or how to fix it :rolleyes:

in 5000miles of driving my 156 1.8 t-spark i went through 3 engines!!!i was told i "should have taken more care of the engine"!??by an alfa specialist.steer away,these cars are bottomless pits of money wastage.i was initially taken in by the looks of the car,which i do still like but never again.

Try the owners forum

http://www.alfaowner.com/

Save yourself and run for the hills mate
 

We had a 156 1.8 ts for a year and it was a long year.

The economy wasn't bad at around 35mpg but the performance was seriously poor - it handled ok but was quite slow.
The engine revved well and sounded ok bt it was an underpowered car - if you're looking for performance even the 2.0 wont do it will have to be the 2.5v6.
We had quite a few problems with it in the 8,000 miles we did from new and believe what everybody says about the servicing, it's shocking. It was one of the reasons why we got rid of the car. The Scooby i have now has 10 times the milage and no rattles or squeeks, whereas the alfa started to rattle early on.
If you must have one then do yourself a favour and avoid the selespeed like the plague - i had a go in one and it's shocking, not only that but they are even less reliable than the normal box!
The car did look stunning though and the interior and the momo leather were gorgeous but not enough reasons to keep the car.

I understand why you want one and if you need to get it out of your system then fine but try and find one with a warranty or it could get expensive.

PM me if you want to know any more mate.

the whole range are good handling cars, 2.4JTD will sit at 100mph easy, you think your going slower, V6 is easily the best of the lot with lthr, 6spd and wood pack, but expensive on Cambelt service, Lusso model most popular, shame about ECU probs/brakes and electrical gremlins, older cars are better??
Selespeed is ok, but probs arise if not serviced at Alfa as they plug the trans in their computer and service it electronically to keep it tip top, not a popular choice though.

Just to add to the list,
I considered buying a Selespeed 2 litre model
Had one on trial for a couple of weeks and had to call the AA out twice as it kept getting stuck in reverse then eventually righting itself, dealer couldn't find a problem

neighbours car on a 51 plate recently had the cambelt fail
so lookslike major engine damage

dont know much about alphas but do hear that reliabiliy can be an issue

Thanks, sadly this is as i suspected. What a shame for Alfa as the 156 is a good looking and stylish car IMHO.

Oh well back to a Honda Accord then.

Had one as a rental car in spain last year, nearly new it was. Sadly the car was terrible, no room for anything and very cramped inside with terrible build quality. A wise move not to buy one as although they look nice externally, the inside is very poor by comparison.

I'm onto my third 2.0 Alfa now. The first 2 I had were faultless - decent handling, nice steering, speedy enough (0-60 in 8.2/8.3), nice inside, great looking. The 3rd one I'm on has around £800 worth of work waiting to be done on it but it's mostly wear and tear stuff (blowing exhaust, etc) that needs done when I bought the car (it's a W plate and bought it 3 months ago).

Still love the marque though.

Richard.

Had a 2.0 selespeed for 18 months with no technical failures at all. I didn't much like it though - probably because of the gearbox. Didn't find the handling that amazing either

The Lusso and Turismo are soggy handlers, the Veloce has sports suspenion setup and is far better. Earlier cars with this setup were called Sports Pack or SP. The Veloce/SP cars also get different trim and side skirts.

I had a 2.0 Selespeed Veloce for 20 months. The car went well above 4000rpm but is pretty gutless below. The gearbox was faultless and I enjoyed it.

Some Twin Spark engines use lots of oil and some don't use a drop. Most of the engine failures are down to low oil. Luckily mine didn't use a drop.

I really loved the car when everything was OK, but that wasn't very often. :(
The car suffered lots of niggly suspension and steering issues that the dealer were incompetent in putting right.
I even gave up on the dealer network and changed the front lower and upper wishbones myself to cure the front suspension knocking.
Eventually gave up on the car and sold it before it's second birthday for £8k, loosing £10k in 20 months. :(

Cheers
Lee

They do drop like stones. The W plate I bought was the Veloce Sportwagon, it had done just under 31k miles and I got it for £5,800.

My dad has had a 2.5V6 from new for nearly 6 years now. Had some problems at first with the air conditioning but has been fine since.