Alfa's any good?

mike65

Save me from this! eoin_s Pm'ed me with a bunch of Alfa threads covering all possibilities sugesting they be stickied. Its tempting but the best I can do (cos everyone would want one for different marques) is include them in The Knowledge thread. So if anyone asks thats where to send them.

Mike.

bazz26

unkel wrote:

Wasn't there a Korean / Japanese manufacturer offering a 5 year warranty?

Hyundai I think.

I think I read somewhere that they offered a 10 year warranty in the US a couple of years ago. :eek:

colm_mcm

prospect wrote:

I am curious,
If they are so unreliable how come all Opel, Suzuki, Saab & Volvo are switching to the fiat/alfa diesel engine.
If what you guys say is true, GM have a death wish.....

Fiat was part owned by General Motors

unkel

bazz26 wrote:

Hyundai I think.

I think I read somewhere that they offered a 10 year warranty in the US a couple of years ago. :eek:

Yeah I think it was Hyundai too. They don't seem to do it any more over here, but their warranty is still an impressive 3 years, unlimited miles

Quick google: the warranty in the US is still 5 years, max. 60,000 miles full warranty and 10 years / max 100,000 miles on the powertrain. Impressive, wha?

@ds20: warranty on Focus is 2 years unlimited mileage. BTW FIAT now have a 4 year max. 100,000km warranty. Best in Ireland?

Sorry for all the O/T

junkyard

Most of the companies giving guarantees do so provided you take the car back to the main dealer for servicing so you really pay dearly in the end for guarantees. As far as I'm concerned Alfa's are crap, I'm not complaining by the way I make a lot of money keeping them on the road. Just last week I repaired a 03 156 that the drivers door fell off which is common according to the dealer that I got parts from. I'm still looking for an engine for a 156 I towed before Christmas send my a PM with the details if you know of one.

kdevitt

Think there should be two sticky's - 1: Why you should not touch an Alfa with a barge pole and 2: Things you're missing out on if you don't buy an Alfa...

Anyway - I personally know 4 people who've had 156's, 3 had horrendous problems, 1 didn't - he's just gone out and bought a GT, two of the others have sworn never to touch an Alfa again, the other 1 blames himself for the engine popping and is undecided.

From what I've heard they're getting things right at last, but they don't offer anything I'd personally be interested in.

lomb

junkyard wrote:

Most of the companies giving guarantees do so provided you take the car back to the main dealer for servicing so you really pay dearly in the end for guarantees. .

theres an eu law though isnt there junkyard that if u can prove its been done according to manufacturer intervals, and have receipts for oem parts, then they have to honour warranty. alfa do seem to have alot of issues from timing belts snapping. they thought the solution was to halve the recommended interval:rolleyes:
their GT is a beauty though, i dont think anyone would deny that.

junkyard

I'm not sure about that lomb but I'd say you'd have your work cut out for you if something major went wrong. The GT is nice looking alright but the only one I'd buy would be diecast 1:18 scale, at least they don't fall apart.

lomb

junkyard wrote:

The GT is nice looking alright but the only one I'd buy would be diecast 1:18 scale, at least they don't fall apart.

lol:D

Eoin

junkyard wrote:

I'm not sure about that lomb but I'd say you'd have your work cut out for you if something major went wrong. The GT is nice looking alright but the only one I'd buy would be diecast 1:18 scale, at least they don't fall apart.

lomb wrote:

lol:D

Yes, my sides are positively splitting as well.

All I can say is that I have to do the lotto more. Not only have I gone just over 2 years with not one incident with my Alfa (a lot less incidents than I had with my rock solid teutonic veritable rock of engineering VW Gold Mark IV), but it appears that the vast majority of other Alfa drivers on this forum have had a positive experience with their Alfa also.

I'm not too sure what the lesson is: sign up to boards, and you will have a better chance of having no problems with your Alfa OR maintain and enjoy a lovely car and ignore the standard comments from the bland-mobile driving posse.


ANYHOW - this has been done to death, not only on this thread but in countless other ones, and at this stage the OP has already bought and sold two cars while this debate has been raging on

ds20prefecture

junkyard wrote:

The GT is nice looking alright but the only one I'd buy would be diecast 1:18 scale, at least they don't fall apart.

Mooo!

junkyard

eoin_s, if you've read any of my previous threads you'll see I have no time for the VW/Audi/Seat/Skoda/Mercedes company either, they had it all on a plate one time and blew it with s***e components in their cars. They were under the impression that they could give their customers any old s***e and expect their dealer network to fog them off. I can't understand how people pay good money for cars and accept this kind of treatment. I'm not into bland cars myself either.

Eoin

junkyard wrote:

eoin_s, if you've read any of my previous threads you'll see I have no time for the VW/Audi/Seat/Skoda/Mercedes company either, they had it all on a plate one time and blew it with s***e components in their cars. They were under the impression that they could give their customers any old s***e and expect their dealer network to fog them off. I can't understand how people pay good money for cars and accept this kind of treatment. I'm not into bland cars myself either.

Fair enough, I think this argument is just going round and around. I just find it frustrating when seeming flippant comments are made about my car, which has proved itself to be a great car with no problems - the same experience for most of the other Alfa drivers I have spoken to.

prospect

No offense to anyone here but,


Can we PLEEEEEEEAAASE close this thread?:o

dmck

Folks,
Thank you all for the responses, sorry for reigniting an already contentious issue! Anyway, she bought the Alfa!! I will post back to this if there are any problems/issues with the car in the near future.

Thanks again

D

Anan1

Good luck with the car. By the way, I'd highly recommend bringing it to Gerry Campbell in TI Autos for servicing. The main dealers, in my experience, are a bit of a joke.

dts

Hi,
good luck with the 156, hope you enjoy it as much as we have.
I love Alfa's and so far have had three a 146 2.0TS A 1561.8 Sportevo with all the extras and a 1471.6 sportevo with all the extras for the wife. No real issues with any untill the last service.
I have been told that the wishbones need changing because the bushes are squeeking. Is this nessasary for safety or is it just because on the noise?
Still love the car but if its going to cost me money then its time to change for another Alfa.

SouperComputer

I have been told that the wishbones need changing because the bushes are squeeking. Is this nessasary for safety or is it just because on the noise?

Safety and noise. That said, the Passat and A4 had the same problem.

dts

Dont think is a problem with the cars, just these crap Irish roads.

dts

Are they easy to change or would you recomend putting it through a main dealer?

Anan1

Don't EVER put an Alfa through a main dealer.

ds20prefecture

dts wrote:

Are they easy to change or would you recomend putting it through a main dealer?

Cost me €400 from a main dealer. Not too bad, when you consider that was parts and labour.

bmoferrall

Apart from dodgy cambelts, suspension is the main achilles heel (and ongoing expense) with the 156 (and 147 presumably), and wishbone bushings in particular. Unfortunately, Alfa only supply the wishbones as units, making it relatively expensive to deal with. I believe you can reinforce the wishbones with polybushes.
I guess these highly-strung Alfas were only roadtested on smooth Italian tarmac ( I believe Toyota make a point of refining their suspensions on Irish roads :rolleyes: ). Sometimes, you just have to tip-toe like a ballerina over the crumbling surfaces - rally-bred they certainly ain't.

I had passenger front wishbones (upper and lower) replaced for e375 last year at TI Autos (upper: e175, lower: e45).
I believe they typically need replacing between 30 and 60K, depending on driver style and road conditions. Mine were replaced unnecessarily at 20K, due to a misdiagnosis on my part. However, squeakiness over ramps is the usual symptom.

Another weak point is the ARB droplink. When this starts to fail you get a pronounced knocking/crashing, particularly over ramps. It feels like something more serious has gone wrong (I thought a shock had failed). My driver-side droplink was replaced in December (32K) at Alasta Autos for e117 (part e28), thanks very much.
A squeakiness on the driver side developed soon afterwards. I assumed the wishbones needed replacing so I dropped it back to Alasta a few weeks ago. They gave it a clean bill of health...but the problem persisted. Today, I checked and tightened a couple of bolts myself and the squeakiness disappeared - happy days.

lomb

dts wrote:

Dont think is a problem with the cars, just these crap Irish roads.

Unfit for purpose intended? i dont think alfa are of merchantable quality personally in this day and age. they would want to cop themselves on and start qcing there products.

bmoferrall

dts wrote:

Are they easy to change or would you recomend putting it through a main dealer?

If you're handy with a spanner, here's a useful guide to replacing the wishbones.
It should save you between €150 and €200.

bmoferrall

lomb wrote:

Unfit for purpose intended? i dont think alfa are of merchantable quality personally in this day and age. they would want to cop themselves on and start qcing there products.

A bit over the top Lomb, I feel. Don't most cars have a flaw or two in their makeup that will eventually cost the owner?
The flaws of these particular Alfas are well known at this stage. If driven with sufficient mechanical sympathy, however, the running costs can be minimised. In any case, second-hand prices (and driving pleasure) more than compensate for any such risks.

IMO, the 156 just wasn't designed to cope with our standard of road. Hopefully, the 159 and Brera will change that.

prospect

lomb wrote:

Unfit for purpose intended? i dont think alfa are of merchantable quality personally in this day and age. they would want to cop themselves on and start qcing there products.

*cough* TROLL *cough*

green-blood

Well we run a Focus 1.6 hatch and are looking at a coupe of156 1.8 sportswagens this week so I'll keep yee up to date as we run both

Put it this way the focus has needed 2 failed wheel bearings, a snaped handbrake and new disks at 52K. Serviced by Ford last week, brake disks/pads, bearing and basically an oil change = €515, so its not cheap to run now is it!!

anyway fingers crossed the FSH on this sportswagen really is!!

ds20prefecture

green-blood wrote:

anyway fingers crossed the FSH on this sportswagen really is!!

Nice one green-blood. The Sportwagon is a beautiful car.

SterlingV6

Ye Alfas have improved in recent years but tend to have poor residuals, so if your buying to keep then they aint so bad, but if your planning to sell later steer clear. Someone posted top gear survey, most surveys never show a true picture! and with the likes of jeremy clarkson hosting it, I've never heard so much BS in my life.

If your looking at reliability then I would go diesel, obviously not the sporty driver option, but

1) In general they last longer
2) Higher MPG

I remember hearing that the new DCi engine was a poor diesel engine.

All depends what your wife/you are looking to buy, a fun car or a workhorse?