Alfa 147?

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Clum

Soldato
Joined
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Anyone here owned a 147? Just sold my M Roadster as the roof was starting to leak so need a cheap car for over the winter. How are the 147's for reliability? Probably looking a the 2.0 TS. Anyone had the selespeed?

Really hoping to hear some good news here as I really dont want to end up in a Ford/Vauxhall............
 
I don't have a 147 but my old man use to have a 156 2.0 litre and a 156 2.5 litre and they were incredible cars. unfortunatley they both died on him in the end. Afla really arn't the reliable way to go but a true petrol head has or will own an Alfa. His 156 was the quickest thing i've driven too date. And that was about a year ago.
 
Wrong forum for a start - try Motors.

But in answer to your question:-

1. Avoid Selespeed like the plague. Horrific reliability problems with those boxes which can cost £thousands (yes, thousands) to fix. How does the car dropping you into neutral as your pulling into a high speed roundabout grab you?

2. 147s are noticeably more expensive to maintain than other cars in their class. Components don't last long so often need replacing.

3. Full service history ALWAYS.

4. Make sure you have evidence of the cambelt, balancer belt and variator being changed every 36k. If it hasn't been regularly changed, BANG, there goes your engine.

5. A well looked after car will be okay. Look for a car with a lot of receipt, and signs that money has been spent on it.

6. They use oil. Can be as much as 1ltr / 1000 miles, so ask the owner a general question about how often he tops up. If he doesn't have a clue, walk away. Its not one of those cars that never needs a top up between services. If its ever been run low on oil, that's the end of your engine.
 
I have been looking at these myself and they do seem fantastic cars for the price :o

£3k-£4k gets you something ~5 years old. How bad can a 5 year old car really be? :o
 
Didnt see there was a motors forum!

Obviously alfas have a bad rep for reliability but i'm just trying to get real opinions from people who have owned them as reputations are often really unfair. Will only keep it until the spring and running/insurance will be cheap compared to the bmw. Just dont want to spend a couple of grand in repairs in that time.

Also I have to own an alfa at some point.....its the law.
 
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Clum said:
Didnt see there was a motors forum!

Obviously alfas have a bad rep for reliability but i'm just trying to get real opinions from people who have owned them as reputations are often really unfair. Will only keep it until the spring and running/insurance will be cheap compared to the bmw. Just dont want to spend a couple of grand in repairs in that time.

Also I have to own an alfa at some point.....its the law.
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cheap car
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and Alfa 147 does not go, it's like dividing by zero. Buy a cheap 147 and you'll rue the day you handed over the cash. It will be good, BUT it will break.

My next door neighbour had one. He became very good friends with the local recovery company.
 
Well to throw a curve ball with what everyone else is saying.

I've found my 2yrs of 147 ownership to be the best car I've owned in terms of money spent to date.

It's reliable (bar a failed motors on the electric window but I've had that happen on other cars, it's not a biggie), looks gorgeous, sounds nice and has all the mod cons.

I would however keep away from the selespeed.

All the year 2000 amd on cars really suffer no more faults than any other car. However it is a bit more expensive than similar cars of it's class. But IMO stands out more than all the other hatchbacks. They really have improved their reliability - besides I don't particularly mind quirks... but that's just me.

In the 2 years I've owned it I've spent less than £1k on it in terms of servicing and fixing bits, that includes a new set of tyres too. So IMO it's pretty good going. :) It's been the cheapest car I've owned bar my very first car.
 
Haha 97% is some badge snobbery. By cheap I still mean 5-6 grand. Not looking to pick up a £900 heap.

Need something that i can get a big horrible labrador in teh back as well as fit a bike rack onto. Fully open to any suggestions! will have a look at the focus.

Freefaller, cheers thats the sort of reply i was hoping for. It's amazing how a bad rep can stick with a car. Generally folk would think that bmw's are reliable but if they knew the thousands i've spend on constant problems with the one i just sold....
 
To be fair I think FF was lucky. The 147 has been languishing in the bottom end of reliability charts since it's launch.
 
Janesy B said:
To be fair I think FF was lucky. The 147 has been languishing in the bottom end of reliability charts since it's launch.
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Even the newer facelift ones?

From what I've read Alfa's over the past 5 years have been sitting comfortably in the middle, maybe a bit above.
 
I'm sure there are plenty out there that are reliable, Freefaller's for example - but they're not as common as other cars. If you found one, it would be superb, but its difficult to know what you're going to get.

Selespeed is always a big no no in terms of reliability though.

I used to have a 156 2.5 which I really enjoyed, but it did have a lot of problems. Most of the problems were niggly electrical/trim things but still annoying.

To give you an idea of the sort of random problems a car like this will throw at you, an example of one I had that left me stranded a few times - a draining battery. It turned out to be the rev counter....yes, the rev counter. It held the circuits that detected a blown bulb but it was common for a diode in it to fail, leaving the offside rear light glowing faintly all the time.
 
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