Ode to an Alfa Romeo

Only Alpha I've driven was a 166 cloverleaf. Had it on rental in Germany for 3 days. My only abiding memory is of a hellish noisy transmission, but then if everyone else drove it the way I did that's hardly surprising!

Willy.

Alfa, the world's most frustrating marque!

I owned a 'Sud many years ago, and more recently a 145 Cloverleaf and a 147 2.0 Selespeed, both from new.

The worry is that with each car I saw a progressive loss of the Alfa driving magic, and no improvement in the quality of build or aftersales service. The 'sud was magical but brittle, the 145 a hoot and decently reliable but with an interior made of eggboxes and the resale value of yesterdays paper. The 147 promised so much, still gorgeous, a classy interior and subjective leap of quality but it was pathetically unreliable. It had the rear suspension replaced twice, two new computers, a battery charging problem (never fixed), water leaks and finally a complete gearbox rebuild after 20,00 miles. Each of these faults was dealt with sluggishly by an amateurish and disinterested dealer. The real worry about the 147 is that it actually lacked the driving pleasure to compensate for the problems. A Ford Focus was a better drive.

I so want to love Alfa Romeo's. I still look at brochures for new models and think, 'maybe'. However when I compare the ownership experience against other models owned by myself and my wife over recent years the gulf is enormous.

I would only have another if convinced that the Alfa culture from factory to dealer had changed totally, and most crucially that they have done this and preserved a unique Alfa flavour.

Bruce

My father ran a 1996 Spider for two or three years. Beautiful car and an excellent drive, but I really didn't think it was magical or anything.

If you want magic and Alfa Romeo, you might be better of with a classic.

Cheers,

Edo

It is said in some quarters that you cannot be a true “petrolhead” if you have never owned an Alfa.

I’ve had three over the years: a 33 Sportwagon many years ago, a new-style GTV in 1997 and a 156 Twinspark in 2000. All of them came with that magical Alfa soundtrack – a distinctive engine note and rasp that puts a smile on your face and makes you forget, temporarily, about the other niggles.

The 33 was lively and great fun to drive. It had a series of minor problems throughout my ownership that, taken as a whole, were probably unacceptable. At the time, I just put up with it and fixed each problem as it arose and I don’t remember it being a major inconvenience. I still have fond memories of the car.

The GTV was superb and I never had a single problem with it. It was a car you put on like a suit of clothes (for me anyway – I’m 5’ 16”) and it felt so responsive and immediate. It never failed to make me smile within a mile of setting off; even at 7.00 am on wet winter mornings. Admittedly, I had it from new and kept it for only 15 months (final fling before the arrival of my first child) so there may not have been time for problems to develop.

With the 156, I was looking for a bit of the Alfa magic along with 4-door/seat convenience. The car did provide that … when it wasn’t in the garage for repair. In the 18 months or so that I owned it, I can honestly say that it spent more time in the garage than in my hands. This was all caused by one electrical fault that they never managed to fix properly. Time and again, the dealer told me it was fixed only for me to find the same fault still present within 3 days of getting the car back. At one stage, they arranged for a survey by an independent auto electrician – and then refused to give me a copy of the report! On another occasion, they flat out lied to me. They told me the reason the battery was flat was that my wife had left the interior lights on and when they put the jump leads on it the self-same light had come on. I told them that was a damn good trick considering I had removed the bulb a couple of weeks before!

The dealer was absolutely useless. One time they had the car for 7 weeks straight and then called to tell me it was fixed. When I turned up to collect it, they kept me waiting for 50 minutes because the problem was still there and they could not get it started. They told me the wait was because they wanted to clean the car – and then presented it to me in a thoroughly filthy state. Needless to say, words were exchanged. They kept the car for a further 3 weeks, returned it claiming it was fixed and 3 days later the problem re-surfaced.

I even contacted Alfa’s Customer Disservice department. They took weeks to reply and then made it clear that they wanted nothing to do with it. In the end, I worked out what the problem was (by a process of elimination) and told the dealer. Even then, they failed to fix it!

In conclusion: great drivers’ cars but generally lousy dealers and support. When I got rid of the 156, I told myself that I would not have another Alfa purely on the grounds that I would never go near the dealer again.

Then they brought out the 8c Competizione concept and my resolution wavered. As it happens, this will not make it into production, so my principles remain intact.

Now they are releasing the Brera which looks wonderful, but I’m still holding firm … until last week when I heard they are planning a lightweight version with a 4.2l V8 for 2007.

Tempting. Very, very tempting.

Dan

My last car in Holland, mid 90ies, was an Alfa 33 16 valve. It was raw, it was fast, it was loud and it was great fun. I didn’t have too many problems with it accept a sticky 2nd gear but who cares, I loved driving it.

Later, after I had moved to the UK, my wife and I ordered an Alfa Spider. Similar experience with the dealer as Bruce and Dan; the car that was delivered after a 3 month wait had a different spec from car we ordered. The dealer couldn’t care less, expected we would take a car we didn’t order and, without saying anything to us about the wrong spec, registered it in our name. Had he shown any interest in customer service, we might still have accepted the car, but he seemed to think it was an honour for us to buy from him. In the end we had to threaten him with legal action to get out deposit back.

No more Alfa for us, unfortunately.


Peter

My second car was an Alfa 33, joy to drive, utter bastard to own.

my first car was a south african import 'sud. Twin carbs, no emissions gear, sports exhaust for the full aural thrill of the boxer engine. Absolutely brilliant to drive, pity about the !£%*)!"£*) rust.