Well, I Got It....

JimG43 · 22 Oct 2006 at 20:07

Bri said:
New Alfas are a lot mre reliable than those of the past. Just need to keep up with the service intervals.

I agree that Alfas are great looking cars but if you want turn-key reliability look elsewhere, the above statement is not validated by the JDP, Warranty Direct and Which stats. My mothers 147 leaked water into the cabin in even light drizzle. My hire car GT, while it looked fantastic, lasted 50 miles before i lost fifth and sixth. Deactivate the alarm by opening the cabin locks before opening the boot, your neighbours will appreciate this. Best of luck.

Bri · 22 Oct 2006 at 20:13

JimG43 said:
I agree that Alfas are great looking cars but if you want turn-key reliability look elsewhere, the above statement is not validated by the JDP, Warranty Direct and Which stats. My mothers 147 leaked water into the cabin in even light drizzle. My hire car GT, while it looked fantastic, lasted 50 miles before i lost fifth and sixth. Deactivate the alarm by opening the cabin locks before opening the boot, your neighbours will appreciate this. Best of luck.

Of course, if I'd wanted Ford reliability, then I'd have bought a Ford & been 1 of 6 Focus owners in the works car park as opposed to the only Alfa owner.

I can pop the boot without opening the door locks & the alarm doesn;t go off, thanks for the advice

F355 · 22 Oct 2006 at 20:34

Bri said:
Power Output 150 bhp

Yours is actually the 155 bhp version

Great choice in car, just make sure you keep it well maintained. The TwinSpark cambelt interval is 36k or 3 years and don't even think of going over that

Also make sure you check the oil regularly (every few weeks at least) and keep it on max otherwise your variator will start to rattle.

triggerthat · 22 Oct 2006 at 20:43

Was expecting abit faster to 60. How heavy are they?

Bri · 22 Oct 2006 at 20:49

F355 said:
Yours is actually the 155 bhp version

triggerthat said:
Was expecting abit faster to 60. How heavy are they?

1270 kg apparently. Although by the looks of it, that infor may be slightly worng, along with the 0-60 time.

Morba · 22 Oct 2006 at 22:18

interior looks lovely especially the clock layout (would be nicer in something other than orange tho).

exterior is not to my liking tho, not a fan at all

:]

Bri · 22 Oct 2006 at 22:25

Morba said:
interior looks lovely especially the clock layout (would be nicer in something other than orange tho).

exterior is not to my liking tho, not a fan at all

:]

Yep, it's a lovely place to be sat

With regards to the exterior, I love it, I really do! The world would be a dull place if we all liked the same things

PyroboyUK · 22 Oct 2006 at 22:34

Always like the interiors in Alpha's. Top quality stuff, Nice buy :cool:

Morba · 22 Oct 2006 at 22:36

Bri said:
The world would be a dull place if we all liked the same things

so true!
which is a good thing, as if everyone liked the same thing people would soon become bored with it

panthro · 22 Oct 2006 at 22:41

Along with Freefaller, Im a massive Alfa fan and think the 147 is great. Congrats, hope you're pleased with it. Ross Noble is quality too!

Andybtsn · 22 Oct 2006 at 22:42

I like that! Nice buy

jimblowscash · 23 Oct 2006 at 10:48

top job chap welcome to the world of the alfa owner.....
just keep it serviced

davidstone28 · 23 Oct 2006 at 10:56

Lovely car, great colour, superb detailing. Looks in good condition from the photos. Out of interest, how much did you pay for it?

Just remember (if you don't know already) that cambelts on these cars routinely snap at 35-40k, so if the last owner hasn't already changed it....

How you getting on with the ridiculously tiny increments on the 160mph speedo?

Oakesy2001uk · 23 Oct 2006 at 10:57

nice jsut be carefull with it! hope you got a good one, bad ones are truely scarily unreliable.

36k cambelt interval! for a modern car that is pretty shocking!

Tesla · 23 Oct 2006 at 11:00

Oakesy2001uk said:
36k cambelt interval! for a modern car that is pretty shocking!

I think the engine design is quite old. Maybe 10-15years?

davidstone28 · 23 Oct 2006 at 11:04

Oakesy2001uk said:
36k cambelt interval! for a modern car that is pretty shocking!

Officially, I think its 60k but Alfa were doing so many engine rebuilds under warranty under 36k/3 years that everyone who owns these cars doesn't take the chance of the belt snapping now.

F355 · 23 Oct 2006 at 11:05

Oakesy2001uk said:
nice jsut be carefull with it! hope you got a good one, bad ones are truely scarily unreliable.

36k cambelt interval! for a modern car that is pretty shocking!

You have to remember the TwinSpark engine is an engine design which is well over 10 years old now. It's still a great engine and only just being phased out. The problem is that faulty tensioners were used in the early engines, which have given the engine a bad name. You can get uprated metal tensioners now for them which should mean a 64k interval, but I don't think anyone has been brave enough to check yet

[TW]Fox · 23 Oct 2006 at 11:13

F355 said:
You have to remember the TwinSpark engine is an engine design which is well over 10 years old now.

Not really an excuse is it when in 1998 Ford were shipping Zetec engines with the same capacity and 100k cambelt intervals.

jimblowscash · 23 Oct 2006 at 11:20

heres my baby, 156 v6 with 11k on the clock for 7.5k

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kitten_caboodle · 23 Oct 2006 at 11:21

Lovely car. Everyone should own an Alfa, at least once in their lives ...

btw we saw Mr Noble on Monday - did he do the 'bumming in the face' routine?