Alfa Romeo 159... talk to me...

Regy53

Regy53

Regy53

Soldato
Joined
11 Jun 2011
Posts
3,882
Location
Northampton
Hey chaps.

I seem to be in a bit of a mid life crisis with cars. I need a daily to do around 20k per year mainly motorways.

I dont have big money cause i'm tight but I keep coming back to 5-7k Alfa Romeo 159 Diesels.

Anybody have any experience? reliability as bad as Alfas used to be? I think im in love with the looks of the thing.

Cheers
Ross
 
Oh snap. Been looking at these too. I've read the 1.9 and manual gearbox have serious issues when coupled together and a lot of gearboxes have been replaced under warranty.
Personally I'm looking at the 2.4 with the Qtronic gearbox, they seem a lot more reliable especially if you get the DPF and EGR removed and then remapped. The cam belt and tensioner needs changing on the dot; some people change every 40k miles.
 
Are e92's that cheap now?! Bloody hell.

The 159 is an awesome car, the sound (I guess the petrol only though) and the looks! I never want to leave the inside whenever I get in. Can't comment on reliability or anything of substance really though, I'm afraid.

Good luck in your search.
 
I nearly bought a 2.4 manual in TI spec. They're beautiful cars but seem to cost rather a lot to run, and aren't hugely economical either. I'm still tempted by one but I wouldn't be happy paying the same running costs as my Jag on what is effectively a standard diesel saloon.
 
[TW]Fox;26748158 said:
How come? It would seem ideal and you bought it for entirely the purpose you now want a rubbishy Alfa :p
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The problem is I do a lot of motorway miles and I have a toy, Rs4, I have a off road car Disco 2 and I had the 335D for buisness.

The 335d was lovely but I sit at 70mph with cruise on and generally the car was stupid to have totally underworked. It was quick and looked smart but not needed. It was devaluing at 3k a year which was another bug bear had 90k on the clock too.

I sold it and bought a real cheap car but I just have a hankering to do something different.

The other reason is I get bored far to quickly.
 
Sitting in the doctors the other day and read an article on them and about just how good value for money they are.

I really want to replace my 156 with one next year. For some reason they released them then kind of got forgotten about. No particular horror stories reliability wise and still retain some of the Alfa flamboyancy.

I would probably go for the 2.2JTS rather than the more popular 1.9/2.4 diesels.
 
panthro said:
I've read the 1.9 and manual gearbox have serious issues when coupled together and a lot of gearboxes have been replaced under warranty.
Personally I'm looking at the 2.4 with the Qtronic gearbox, they seem a lot more reliable especially if you get the DPF and EGR removed and then remapped. The cam belt and tensioner needs changing on the dot; some people change every 40k miles.
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Yep! I bought myself a red Ti spec 1.9 diesel last month (which obviously makes it the best looking 159 spec around!) ;)

There's a good buyers guide here with things to check for.

What that guide doesn't mention is the weak M32 gearbox (as also used in Vauxhall 1.9 CDTi's and Astra VXRs I think). It's only rated at 236 lb/ft and suffers bearing wear causing a whining noise.

Because of this I'd say a 2.4 diesel and/or the Qtronic auto would be a good idea. Or a very late model with the 2.0ltr diesel engine which uses the same gearbox as the 2.4.
 
panthro said:
Oh snap. Been looking at these too. I've read the 1.9 and manual gearbox have serious issues when coupled together and a lot of gearboxes have been replaced under warranty.
Personally I'm looking at the 2.4 with the Qtronic gearbox, they seem a lot more reliable especially if you get the DPF and EGR removed and then remapped. The cam belt and tensioner needs changing on the dot; some people change every 40k miles.
Click to expand...

The 2.4 diesel uses a different and stronger gearbox, it's 5 cylinder as well and would be my choice of oil burner if I was after a 159 diesel
 
geekman said:
I nearly bought a 2.4 manual in TI spec. They're beautiful cars but seem to cost rather a lot to run, and aren't hugely economical either. I'm still tempted by one but I wouldn't be happy paying the same running costs as my Jag on what is effectively a standard diesel saloon.
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Care to elaborate on these costs?
 
sigma said:
I've considered one too but I'm a bit dubious as to how well they age.
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Apparently very well apart from the obvious diesel niggles and the diesel gearbox issue.

The petrols have very strong engines although not as Alfa-ish of old. Alfa bought in the bottom end and fitted their own JTS designed heads. The major breakthrough was it put a stop to the 36k cambelt changes of the original Twin Spark and JTS engines as they now have chains.

The V6 is again a GM based unit from Holden. Again with the Alfa reworked heads.

Rest of the car seems to have much improved build quality. I have taken a few out at the bottom end of the price range and apart from one obviously neglected example the others were extremely clean and very tight to drive.
 
sigma said:
Care to elaborate on these costs?
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Off the top of my head: cambelt, clutch, DPF, steering rack and water pump were the main trouble spots. For some reason they seem to eat clutches - almost all of the ones I'd looked at had a replacement clutch and they were only on 60-70k. There's plenty of buyers guides on the forums which give a lot more detail, so if you're interested it may be worth looking at them.
 
I owned a 159 TI 1.9 for a year or so. I ended up having it remapped and dpf removed as the engine was asthmatic without it - the 159 really does feel like a heavy car.

The ride is terrible on 19 wheels and the road and wind noise once you get up to about 60 is intolerable. The interior is pretty dated (switchgear). Pray that you never need to change a headlight bulb, particularly on the near side.

They do look gorgeous though, even so many years after first being designed. But I'd never have another one.
 
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