Thread: Alfa Romeo 156 opinions?

I'm going to look at an Alfa Romeo 156 1.6 TS LUSSO tomorrow I've read alot about them having reliability problems but have also read about them being some people's best car owned just thought I would ask on here for some people's opinion on them and what to look at before buying it any opinions?

We had one, it was a 51 plate, 1.6 TS and we were never quite sure of the trim level as there was no badge. As far as we could tell it was a base model and it had lots of options fitted like leather and big alloys.
We had it for 3 years and sold it about 3.5 years ago. At the time we also had a Hyundai Coupe which was nice but after the sale we regreted not selling the Coupe and keeping the Alfa.
It was completely reliable except for the mass air meter going which was replaced free of charge under the used car warranty we had with it.
It was a great car to drive. It handled really well and was very comfortable. The engine needed to be revved to get the power out of it but it took that with no complaints. Its a 1.6 in a relatively heavy car so that was to be expected. As I remember the red line on the rev counter was around 7250 rpm.
Still miss it a little.

oh well if you don't mind dodgy italian electrics then but they really do have some problems.

I had one a few years back and in my experience it was 100% reliable and a fantastic car to own for 4 years.
HOWEVER... they are all very old cars now, and most of the ones you'll see advertised are in very poor condition.
The thing about these cars is they don't tolerate abuse or neglect, so the chances of someone who owns one as a £1000 banger being prepared to chuck £500+ at it at major service time, or cambelt replacement time (3 years/36k miles on the petrol twin sparks) are slim.

You'll get the usual idiots coming on here saying 'OMG Alfas are terrible and they rust etc... The 156 certainly isn't terrible and it doesn't rust unless it's been neglected. You'll see far more rust on a Mercedes, Audi or Saab the same age but the German car apologists don't want to hear that, but like and 10 year old car, Alfas can be a risky used buy.

Final word, I wouldn't buy the 1.6. It's just not quick enough, the 2 litre is by far a better engine. Actually the best engine to have in a 156 is the 2.5 V6. If your answer to that is that you can't afford the insurance/fuel consumption, then you can't afford an Alfa 156, they take money to run.