Yeah now I've had a drive in it I'd stick to the Celica.
On first looks the spider is a very pretty car, its styled by italians so looks gorgeous. It definately turns heads and the interior is lovely too. Leather seats, the plastics feel expensive, leather on the inside of the doors, and the whole center console in brushed aluminium with everything positioned really well, its once you start driving the story turns worse.
I've never driven a car and felt less connected from the road, in a celica you can feel exactly what the wheels are doing, every bump they go over, how much grip you have and I love this in a car. I love stiff suspension set-ups and feeling exactly what the front wheels are doing. But in the Alfa the suspension is too soft to allow for any of this, it takes too much of the fun out of driving and if feels like the whole road is made of foam and it doesnt inspire confidence at all. It does have VSC and TRC systems though and its full time 4 wheel drive, maybe Im just not confident enough as I don't want to stack a courtesy car. Then there's weight distribution, the engine is mahusive and so heavy that it feels like a dead horse is tied to the front end, and I dont like that at all, in the celica I feel the weight is much better distributed front rear and the handling is much better for it. The spider is also taller than the celica, and as such has a higher COG and body roll is much more apparant around tighter bends.
I have certain country roads near my house that I'm very experienced in and I can put a celica down there at National Speed, but in this I dont feel as comfortable and I feel I have to go slower and I've even had traffic waiting behind me a few times as I'm traveling at 40 which would never happen in the celica. I can do faster speeds in a 1.2 fiat punto down these roads than I can in the Alfa, but again that could just be fear of stacking it.
Then theres the engine, its a 2.4 litre turbo diesel and the lag on it is awful. If your sitting stationary and need to move in a hurry you havent got a chance. 0-60 may be 8.1 seconds but 0-10 must take at least 3 of those, but once the turbo kicks in its pretty responsive as long as you have it in the right gear, but thats the same on any car with a turbo. Fuel ecomomy is stated as 46mpg and this is pretty realistic, when booting it around town it can get as low as 7mpg during acceleration, but when your doing 60 on the motorway it will give you a constant 70-80mpg (according to the computer) which isnt bad at all. One other thing that lets this engine down though is exhaust noise, I love a little bit of a roar when I plant my foot, this has what looks like 4 exhausts at the back but is silent during operation, the only time it makes any noise is at idle, and it sounds remarkably similar to a ford transit I drove once.
So yeah, its a beautiful car with some poor handling, but it has other things going for it.
Its got a computer system that would make Bill Gates proud. I've never driven a car with this much computer kit on it. Ok I doubt its as good as iDrive on the BMW's but I'm still fascinated by it. It all comes up on a screen on the dash and you can customise and view loads of stuff on the car like how the doors lock, how the engine is doing, how far you can get on the fuel you have, lights, how the wing mirrors fold in everything and I love it. You can also turn off both the VSD and TRC systems through this computer and I love it. The car is also keyless.
Storage is pretty well catered for, storage boxes behind the seats, big glove box, massive boot for a car with a roof that folds in, and door pockets.
So to sum up, I definately wouldnt classify this car as a sports car, you wouldnt want to take it on a track, and its just pretty boring and comfortable. I'm a 20 year old and I'm still getting my fix of sport and speed. This car would be better for someone that has got their fix of sports cars and wants a 2 seater convertable that is confortable to drive. I'd love to try it with one of their big V6 petrol engines though, possibly lowered with stiffened suspension and larger wheels which I'm sure would really improve the experience.
