what do you reckon?

how rusty is it? 90%...

depends, the diesel ones are very good but dearer to buy, 2.4 20v turbo is nice and well worth chipping for super grunt but its very heavy and consequently hard on the already fragile front suspension.
The smaller diesel is a nice car, better balanced but a bit gutless.
v6 petrol sounds great but is thirsty, 4 cylinder ones are better and if all belts and tensioners are changed regularly they ARE actually reliable despite what the laptop experts say.
I see complaints about dodgy electrics on 156s which I have to say I have never seen. I have been a mechanic in a small Alfa garage for about 5 years now and very rarely do any electrical components fail. Its all bosch stuff and the only problems we seem to see are with the air floww meters, something which is common to everything with these bosch afms from Polos to merc jeeps.

Im going to have to hold my hand up say the i origanaly read the title as "Would you but a Alfa 159"

However, with no first hand knowlage of alfas, they do look nice, so what the hell if its the right price, maddness prevails logic.


Daniel

friend had one, CD player broke a few times & he had real problems after having the front window replaced. Had to have it done a second time.

owning an alfa is an emotional experience

i admit it was an Alfa Sud, it handled superbly, rusted like mad, fouled its plugs and was electrically a nightmare, bu when it all came together what a car.

as top gear keep saying owning an alfa is an emotional decision, and if you have to ask with your sensible head on dont buy it.

ditch

Hmm if it had the 3 litre V6 in it... Yes. then use the engine for the kit car:

Cam belt, cam belt, cam belt espec. if its 24v. Cost a mate best part of £4k when his let go 2k miles before change was due - otherwise he loves it.
Cheers, Pewe
PS I think they've changed the 72K belt change down to a more sensible 36k.

No. we had a GTV for a couple of years. Everything done by the book re servicing. Had to take it in due to rough running. Flow meter faulty...40,000 miles common fault yer right, suspesion bushes knackered...common fault. Variator on cams knackered, common fault. Coil/plug unit cracked...common fault. Gearbox notchy....the list goes on. When I said to the guy who ran the Alfa Garage about why everything was falling apart he said it was because it was a performance car....Yer right! 2.0 ltr 150 BHP, hardly trend setting levels of power.

I think the bottom line is they look great but are 15 years behind everyone else in the durability race. I dont think I would have one again even if it was a company car as the hassle is just too much.

Had 2 Alfa Sud's
2nd was a "1978 1500 Ti
Had it lowered 2 inches
Just about beat every thing around the twisties.
Mine used to bend the radio consule when booted in 2nd.
That's when I knew the rust was getting real bad.

Lov' a BEC version SUD without the rust.

What age is it. Early cars had some probs with porous engine blocks.

The 156s dont rust like the suds and alfettas of the 70s & 80s. Fun to drive but dont expect Germanic build quality. As with all Alfas make sure you warm them up before you thrash them.

This link maybe of interest

Cheers

- Jim

I said no purely from my brothers example which suffered head gasket failure and a few other minor part quality issues. Quite a decent handling car though except the front tyres did wear a lot on the inside. Maybe incorrectly set alignment. I only had it briefly to get shot of it for me bro.

I agree with Clarkson on this...you have to have one once to be a petrolhead. Had an X reg, 156 2.5 v6 24valve sportwagon. Loved it then tried to sell it before anything went wrong. That took 12 mounths to get rid and in that time the injectors started failing. Lost more on that in 12 mounths than ever lost on a car. You've just got to exept that Alfa think if it looks good, who cares if it rattles!

Would I do it again with hindsight? Course I would...the noise alone is worth it.

adrian

I asked the question about 18 months ago, and taking advice from everyone - and ignoring most of it, I bought a 2002, 2 litre TS.
It is, by far, the best decision I've made regarding cars (with the exception of deciding to build a Locost ).
I made it a condition of sale that the Cam belt be changed and haven't regretted it for a minute.
The bodywork is galvanised from the factory, so rust shouldn't be an issue unless you buy a repaired car. There is still an area which does rust, and that's the roof (believe it or not) This isn't galvanised and they don't put much paint on the front and rear screen apertures - mine's bubbling a little around the rear screen.
The front suspension needs the bushes keeping in order or you get uneven tyre wear.
Try for the Veloce spec, you get leather, lower suspension and those gorgeous teledial alloys.
2002 saw the change to JTS engines and dual climate control, but I prefer the TS engines as they seem crisper (perhaps I drove a poor JTS). I also like the older carbon inlaid dash.
Electrics are fine - min occasionally suffers a fuel gauge which shows full when only 1/4 full - has happened twice in 18 months after rain storms!
Make sure you listen to the engine when cold, sometimes they sound a little diesely for a second or two - this is usually down to the cam variator (controls the VVC system). Mine does this slightly, but it doesn't affect performance at all, just factor in changing it at the next cambelt change (36k miles).
Lastly, all I can say is - if you want one, buy one!!

thanks for the replies , keep em coming,

the car in question is a 51 plate 2.0 TS Veloce, 80k miles full history (all main dealer except 1 minor service at a specialist), just had the belts and variator done Full MOT, could mine for a tad under £2k

good deal or not?

Ray

I have a 166, build quality is superb! Great to drive, obviously. Certainly not behind germans in quality/reliability. AFM neeeds doing thou, suggestion anyone?

ray, you say it has just had the belts done, you have to make sure that everthing has been changed, timing belt, idler pulley, tensioner, balance shaft belt and tensioner and the auxiliary belt and tensioner. If the tensioners aren't changed as well they can fail before the next belt change and bend all your valves! I've seen a 166 that jumped the timing belt because the auxiliary belt tensioner collapsed and the flailing belt smashed the plastic front cover and wrapped itself round the front of the crank, so get them to change that as well if it hasn't been done, easy to do and not expensive.

Don't kid yourself it's a badge engineered Fiat.

I wouldn't buy any italian car

like this one <<<<< 2.5 v6 24v I wouldn’t buy a German car I have a phobia of square cars and boring interiors. i love driving it and i gos like stink or did till last week when the engine seized at 125,000 (see pics in my archive)was hoping to get a bit more out of it but I have done 50,000 miles in it in 4 years so it didn’t ow me any thing. Its just been sent away to have a recon engine fitted by italautos fingers crossed it will make the 400 mile journey back ok. I was going to put an engine in it my self but cant be bothered to spend the winter time on it. I wana get the locost finished. If you don’t mind getting your hands dirty once in a wile when things go wrong go for it in my opinion it has been no worse than any other car I have ever owned in terms of things going wrong I have done a cam belt / water pump service alternator and front suspension. All around 90,000. electrics have always been fine. Look out for squeaky front suspension leaky back doors at the top back, squeaky rear windows ( the mechanism can break) dash board noise on early cars. variator noise and poor paint (stone chips) for lots more info go to www.alfa156.net o yes and my car has no rust on it 2000 w reg.you get a lot of car for the money.
the pearlescent paint really terns heads and looks best on rainy dull days.

Its worth having one just to chuckle at your misses friends when they stand out side trying to work out where the rear door handle is one even tryed to get in the front and pull the seat forwards um its not a saxo lol







[Edited on 4/12/07 by westcost1]

I bought a year 2000 156 2ltr TS at the beginning of the year. It had a busted engine due to a snapped timing belt. I intended to get another engine from the scrappy, chuck it in and run it.There are planty of 156s in the scrap yards but they all have busted engines! Either cam belt gone or bottom ends hanging out of the sump....... The few I did find wanted £1k for a second hand engine. I ended up rebuiling the original engine which was very easy and very cheap!
It was fine for 12,000miles, then the Selespeed gearbox started to play up............
Alfaowners.com is full of folks who are actually scrapping perfectly good cars because of electronic faults!! One poor guy spent over £2500 at an Alfa main dealers and the car still insisted in changing into 2nd whenever it wanted.
I bought a cheap laptop and Alfadiag and sorted all its problems but still sold it two weeks ago for £700!!
If you are buying one at retail price, get a very good warrenty and make sure you're entitled to a courtesy car....

mmm id steer clear of selaspeed cars.

Good god no. The 2.0TS engine is made of chocolate, it's an awful unit. They drink oil at close to the same rate as they drink petrol (fast). They're also very sensitive to being run low on oil , if you see a warning light it's already too late, and at the rate they use the stuff it can only take a week or so to be down at dangerous levels. I can only agree with what's already been said about camblets, variators etc, if it's not been done recently it will need to.

Electrics aren't fine by any stretch of the imagination. It may be Bosch kit but it appears to have been thrown in by poorly trained lemurs. Be prepared to have the thing beep at you pretty much constantly claiming that random lights aren't working, the traction control has gone awol, or failing that the ever useful (and after a month or two of Alfa ownership, very familiar) 'motor control system failure'. Oh, don't be suprised if you find you can't even get in the thing, the buttons have a tendency to fall out of the keys. Thankfully i've not had the pleasure of a selespeed, they're another kettle of electrically-retarded fish entirely.

It's a shame really, they're good looking cars, pleasant enough to sit in and really nice to drive in those rare moments when they actually work.

I had a 155 for 4 years (bought at 2 year old) did 60K in it and only had one lambda fault, new exhaust and brakes...

It was a great car and I thoroughly enjoyed driving it,

ask me if i buy another Alfa the answer would be NO.

I think I was an exception and not the norm, oh and it depreciated like a stone....actually more like a bolder lol

Have had two Alfas - an Alfasud 1350 ti and a 145. Loved them both.

I also think that the twin cam as fitted to the 156 sounds lovely - better than it has any right to.

Would I buy one ?

N O W A Y .

As stated above they don't rust any more, it's the engines that eat themselves.

That's just wrong.

Not for me - and I'm a confirmed fan.

Incidently, my 156 didn't use any oil after I'd rebuilt it. It must be the only one.....

i had a 146ti loved every minute of it huge grins every day when i drove it really are drivers cars the feed back and feel of the steering and brakes are better than any other car i've owned (evo and subaru included) as said though avoid selespeed at all costs history a must and if a petrol sounds like a diesel the variator for the cam timing will be worn out and never wash them as bits seem to fall off after a wash

The brother in law has one. Its sat in a green house for a year after it put a rod through the block.

I love it but cant get it or another engine cheap enough to make it viable

its a 200 2l Ts with full leather and those tele wheels hmmmmmmm

Was thinking of puting a zetec in it

do it, just have a good look round it before you buy, and go through the service history carefully to check it's not been falling apart as it would seem the odd one does. If it's been fine up till now though, chances are it's a good'un and it'll last you a fair while too.

My dad's got one and it's fantastic, doesn't drink any oil, goes like stink and just a nice car to be in. As long as it's serviced at the correct intervals they're perfectly reliable.

I had a 2002 1.8 Veloce for 4 years and did 70k in it it had the drop links replaced twice and the cam variator replaced. I loved the car and would have another. This was a company car though and the dealer I had to use for the service to start with were cr@p.

this was my GTA I sold a couple of months ago. No big problems but lots of little ones.

Even with the niggles, the fuel consumption (high teens average) and the threat of something bad and expensive happening it was one of the most enjoyable cars Ive ever owned. Nimble steering and suspension (eibach kit) and a superb engine note/power delivery made it a real grin inducing car.

As said, the 4 bangers are a bit fragile. I've owned mine for half a year and have not had problems (yet?). Cambelts need to be changed every 38Kmiles and you need special tools to set the timing correctly. This sounds worse then it is, the tools are available new for around 25 quid.

the V6 is pretty much bulletproof (again, if you change the belt on time.) and will withstand occasonal trips to 8K rpm without fuss. So if you can afford it (I couldn't because do 35K miles a year) get a V6 and the Madeno rear box.

nice sound!

It'll never be a toyota, but then again, have you ever seen a good looking toyota? ;-)

The Alfa 156 is a built to a higher standard than previous Alfas and the electrics are of a reasonable standard.

Would I buy 16v? Only if the person I bought it from new about Alfas and cared for engines,
The engine is a good unit but does not sufffer neglect, but this I mean even minimal time with low or wrong oil .
The clearence between valve and piston is tiny and poor Cambelt replacement or wear of big and small ends can cause contact , the rest is History.


Buy an Alfa as a present to your self not as a everyday runaround, look after it and buy it when the depreciation has already kicked in.

I saw a recent 156 2.5 24v Full leather 6 speed box , service history , 50,000 miles
for £1600 . Thats a bargain in anybodys books is a serious performance car.

So, dont right them off from 2nd hand expierence, buy it and try it, and as for

"I wouldn't buy any italian car"

Its a bit like saying " I wouldnt buy Scotch whisky"

Cars like Lancia, Alfa, Maserati, and even Fiat are designed buy enthusiasts and built for enthusiasts.

If you want reliability, a nice sound when the door closes and to bore people at partys , dont buy an Italian car!!!

The original GTA

linky

Want to build a replica?

Make me an offer for mine

here

- Jim