Alfa 147 GTA

Matmulder said:
I can't swear on here, but bull****

I had an Audi that used to break down a lot, should I warn every single person who's thinking about buying any type of Audi that it'll break down a lot too?

Oh wait, the bloke around a corners had a few problem with his new Merc too, best make an announcement on all the Merc forums! :rolleyes:
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LOL. Even most Alfa owners admit that their cars are 'high maintenance' in terms of servicing, and bits needing replacing. Then are a few Alfa crackpots who reckon their cars never break down, have the build quality of Lexus or supposedly know a 'mate of a mate' whose Alfa hasn't ever had any problems.

Just to give you a comparison - over the last 3 years my sister's Alfa, year on year, has cost more than twice as much to maintain than my older and significantly higher mileage 323i. Jeez, I know more about Alfas and things going wrong on them than BMWs.

Alfas - interesting cars, but the components are made from cheese.
 
My GT is just shy of 80k and I've had it since it was on 19k.

I had one warranty issue and it behaves without fault on the 100miles a day I do in it. It's been far far far more reliable than my Passsat 1.8T, fact!
 
I've always wanted a 147 GTA, but just didn't have the bottle to do it. I was more worried about the reliability and running costs, but I will get one oneday!
 
A girl at work had one (well her husband), after owning a 147 and the thing was forever in the garage! He loved it so much though he refused to get rid of it.

That was untill she threw the wedding ring at him!

Sounded awesome aswell.
 
Matmulder said:
I can't swear on here, but bull****

I had an Audi that used to break down a lot, should I warn every single person who's thinking about buying any type of Audi that it'll break down a lot too?

Oh wait, the bloke around a corners had a few problem with his new Merc too, best make an announcement on all the Merc forums! :rolleyes:

But back on topic...

I will say, they are expensive to run for a small car - expect 20-22mpg mixed driving, and component wear rate is far greater than the German counterparts - 40k is a big milestone, you'll be looking at suspension components, radiator, cambelt, top mounts to be a bit worse for wear at this point.

Q2 diff is a MUST, both in terms of preventing diff explosions and because it massively improves road manners.
In terms of driving, its got a big, heavy V6 that blunts its ability to change direction, but the noise, looks and general "feel" of the car is unrivalled in its class, even now. Its about as close to exotic as you'll get for a hatch.

But that looks like a good example - I think the owner is actually on the Alfaowner.com forums. Worth registering on there to get some better opinions and find out some history on the car (if its there).
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2 gearboxes,3 selespeed pumps, a selespeed actuator and a partial wiring loom says different but, i guess you know more about the experiences i had with mine than i do.
 
Point. Missed. Entirely.

Just because ONE person had issues with their Alfa doesn't mean they should tell everyone else that every other car by the same manufacturer will break down (see reply 1 & 2)

And this is the problem with discussing Alfa's on this forum. People feel the need to tell strangers to avoid the brand because they've had issues with ONE car, or know someone who has

MarkDavis said:
LOL. Even most Alfa owners admit that their cars are 'high maintenance' in terms of servicing, and bits needing replacing. Then are a few Alfa crackpots who reckon their cars never break down, have the build quality of Lexus or supposedly know a 'mate of a mate' whose Alfa hasn't ever had any problems.
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High maintenance and regular servicing is not the same as unreliable. Mines high maintenance, but its never failed me in over 2 years. EVO's need regular servicing, doesn't make them unreliable, does it??

But then, you seem to be under the impression that EVERY Alfa breaks down consistently, seeing as only "crackpots" have Alfa's that have never broken down.


I'm not claiming they're better than, or as good as they're German counterparts, what I'm saying is they're nowhere near as bad as the drama queens on this forum seem to make out. But we seem to have this conversation every month or so. What I can tell you is, Alfa finished 2nd in the 2009 JD Power reliability survey, finishing way above the Germans. Not that it'll make a blind bit of difference to people's opinions.
 
So how is it BS? I got to know quite a few people at the local Alfa specialist in royston who pretty much all had the same opinion as me, they are great cars but break way to much.

Think that pretty much covers the point you made as for drama queen? See if you find doing 80 mph on the outside lane of a motorway then for no reason losing drive all-together makes you a happy bunny on the way to work. Fair enough if it was a one off but, it wasnt. It happened on a few occaisions,so much so i used my 5 AA callouts in a 2 month period. A lorry writing it off was only luck i ever had with the car.
 
Flawed to the extent of crapness if you ask me. Nose heavy, understeer from hell and tourque steer from 2 hells. Never really got these as they simply failed to deliver the hot hatch thing they were supposed to. Alfa went for the most power route and the cost of most of the other bits.

Mind you

en_231_pistons.jpg


Work of art that sounds like Catherine Jenkins getting into filthy underwear for a good seeing to.
 
Matmulder said:
High maintenance and regular servicing is not the same as unreliable. Mines high maintenance, but its never failed me in over 2 years. EVO's need regular servicing, doesn't make them unreliable, does it??
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You're clearly one of the biased, tunnel visioned crackpots that I'm talking about.
 
CS||nuTs said:
So how is it BS? I got to know quite a few people at the local Alfa specialist in royston who pretty much all had the same opinion as me, they are great cars but break way to much.
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That would be Jamie Porter and his mob. And yes, they see 100s of cars every month, and yes, they break way too much and too easily. a lot of common faults to these cars and well known component weaknesses.

Methinks Matmulder needs to take the blinkers off.

Matmulder said:
Alfa finished 2nd in the 2009 JD Power reliability survey, finishing way above the Germans. Not that it'll make a blind bit of difference to people's opinions.
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Shuuuure they did....

19699419442.jpg
 
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People will continue to write off Alfa's and Fiat's because of the 'dodgy brand imagine' of unreliability.

A few quick googles shows me from previous years Fiat have been above Ford, Merc, BMW, Saab, Audi and others in reliability charts.

Most people wouldn't buy a BMW without a FSH so why do people moan when they buy 8 year old 90k mileage Alfas with hardly any service history and expect a Honda.

As always though stay well away from automatics.
 
The biggest issue with the Alfa's I had were the dealers who we a disgrace, really awful. I remember dropping my first 156 into Alfa Cheltenam many years back for them to service it. I booked it a couple of weeks in advance and made it clear they had the car for 3 hours as I needed it in the afternoon and they confirmed it was no problem. I turn up to collect the car to see it sitting outside, unwashed and seemingly where I had left it. I walk into the dealer to raise my concern when I catch the car being raced into the shop......for 2 minutes when its driven back out and parked outside again.

Receptionist says "all done sir" to which I walk out to the car, still dirty but now with log book stamped on drivers seat. I pull the lid, check the oil and it hasn't been touched, neither has the service been done. THIS is the way Alfa dealers have been working for years, they are bloody awful, well should I say were, I believe Alfa have worked hard to change this.
 
Housey said:
Flawed to the extent of crapness if you ask me. Nose heavy, understeer from hell and tourque steer from 2 hells. Never really got these as they simply failed to deliver the hot hatch thing they were supposed to. Alfa went for the most power route and the cost of most of the other bits.

Mind you

http://www.autodeltashop.com/images/en_231_pistons.jpg[mg]

Work of art that sounds like Catherine Jenkins getting into filthy underwear for a good seeing to.[/QUOTE]

Surely you mean Katherine Jenkins ;)
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Had warrenty work done on my Fiat at the local Alfa dealership and was pretty good. Got a wash, a lift into town and was picked up. Only shame was I had to book 3 weeks in advance if I wanted a courtsey car and had to be over 21 (they can let me test drive and sell me my 150bhp car but won't give me a sodding Panda for a day!).

Depends on where you go to.
 
Peerzy said:
Had warrenty work done on my Fiat at the local Alfa dealership and was pretty good. Got a wash, a lift into town and was picked up. Only shame was I had to book 3 weeks in advance if I wanted a courtsey car and had to be over 21 (they can let me test drive and sell me my 150bhp car but won't give me a sodding Panda for a day!).

Depends on where you go to.
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My last Alfa was years back, I took them to different garages and they were all crap bar one.
 
Bearing in mind this a forum which regularly recommends x30i's with a warning to "put 1k away for the bits that break in the first year", hardly the corner stone of relaibility and no one is doubting that BMW's are bad cars.
 
CS||nuTs said:
2 gearboxes,3 selespeed pumps, a selespeed actuator and a partial wiring loom says different but, i guess you know more about the experiences i had with mine than i do.
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The Selespeed unit is unreliable, you'd have to be mad to pay money for one. The 156, especially after the 1st revision, is fine.
 
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