Alfa 147's

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The wife seems to have adopted an Alfa fetish, she's seen a few 147's about and wants to know more.

Any 147 drivers about ? I have to confess I know nothing when it comes to Alfa's (other than the Top Gear jokes about reliability)

Petrol / diesel ? anything to watch out for in particular ?
 
www.alfaowner.com is the place to go for detailed information.

They can be highly strung, they are expensive when they go wrong... but it is a very nice car. You'll get a newer and better specified 147 than the equivalently priced Golf or A3, and it'll look nicer as well. Go for 1.6TS or 2.0TS, and Lusso ideally - no point getting anything else in my mind.

Check that cambelts have been done every 36,000 miles / 3 years. If it hasn't got full service history, i'd walk away. Steer clear of the Selespeed, stick to manual models.
 
daz said:
www.alfaowner.com is the place to go for detailed information.

They can be highly strung, they are expensive when they go wrong... but it is a very nice car. You'll get a newer and better specified 147 than the equivalently priced Golf or A3, and it'll look nicer as well. Go for 1.6TS or 2.0TS, and Lusso ideally - no point getting anything else in my mind.

Check that cambelts have been done every 36,000 miles / 3 years. If it hasn't got full service history, i'd walk away. Steer clear of the Selespeed, stick to manual models.
Click to expand...



Good infor there - cheers mate. How about the 1.9 JTD ?
 
The diesel - as much as I hate the concept - is probably the most reliable option.

You can only get the 1.9 4-pot, which like most other 4-pot diesels is going to provide all its power in a short lump. You want one of the later JTDm versions really.

Later production would also be good as the 147 was the 1st CANbus equipped Alfa, early ones often have ongoing annoyances.
 
I had a 2002 1.6 TS from new as a import from Monza Sport in Sussex, sold it @ 100,000 miles, never let me down was great to drive and always made me smile when I looked at it.

The only issues I had was it was expensive to service, used 1ltr of selenia every 1000 miles and needed a cam belt every 36k including tensioner, I averaged 36 mpg
 
Scores on the door from Warranty Direct's reliability index is...160, which is pretty abysmal.
For reference, lower is better, Focus = 64, Honda Civic = 28.
There's a good reason that Alfas are so cheap to buy.
 
Freefaller had an Alfa 147, I've only been in it as a passenger but it seemed fairly nice. The turning circle was only slightly better than a supertanker but aside from that I didn't notice any major flaws - he'll be able to advise in more detail though of course.
 
Friend had a 07 147 1.6 i think, hate to stereotype but it had a multitude of electrical issues and was in the dealership for warranty work often. He traded it for a Focus 1.8 TDCI (bleh, this coming from another tractor driver lol) last year.
 
Mr_Sukebe said:
Scores on the door from Warranty Direct's reliability index is...160, which is pretty abysmal.
For reference, lower is better, Focus = 64, Honda Civic = 28.
There's a good reason that Alfas are so cheap to buy.
Click to expand...

"Reliability index" is a bit of a misnomer - it's not that the car is ridiculously unreliable, it's that it is expensive when things go wrong. The top 10 worst cars on the reliability index are, apparently:-

1 Audi RS6 686.98
2 Jaguar XK8 370.63
3 Mercedes SL 361.39
4 BMW Z3 358.32
5 Jaguar XKR 326.51
6 Land Rover Range Rover 314.17
7 Audi Allroad 287.78
8 Mercedes V-Class 270.50
9 Mercedes S-Class 262.94
10 Jeep Cherokee 259.2
Click to expand...
 
daz said:
"Reliability index" is a bit of a misnomer - it's not that the car is ridiculously unreliable, it's that it is expensive when things go wrong. The top 10 worst cars on the reliability index are, apparently:-
Click to expand...

BMW Z3 isn't unreliable by any means.
But fixing things that break is rather expensive :(
 
That's kind of my point. :) Whilst you can use it as an indication - scratch beneath the surface and find out what the numbers actually mean.

E.g. 13% of the issues on the Alfa 147 are apparently transmission related - i'd guess that this is entirely the Selespeed models, which you can avoid by going for a manual.
 
daz said:
That's kind of my point. :) Whilst you can use it as an indication - scratch beneath the surface and find out what the numbers actually mean.

E.g. 13% of the issues on the Alfa 147 are apparently transmission related - i'd guess that this is entirely the Selespeed models, which you can avoid by going for a manual.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I was agreeing with you, although I didn't make that evident in any way, shape or form :p
 
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