Thinking of buying a Alfa Romeo Giulietta

mollybird

Looking for some sound advice guys. We are hoping to change our car in Jan. At the moment we have a Seat Leon and i have found it fantastic. No major probs with it but with my job i do quite a bit of travel with it going to different jobs as im an agency worker.

My husband has been keen for quite a few years to get an Alfa Romeo. He only drives the car once a month as he has a motor bike. I am worried about it as not sure if it would be a sound car to get with all the miles i do and also i would be looking to get a diseal this time round as i heard they are quite economical.

If there are any mechanics on here that can tell me in the long run would it be better to stay with petrol or go over to diesel for the miles i'm doing and if we do go with the alfa and diesel how does it effect getting parts if needed? is the alfa an expensive car go replace parts?

Thanks

MuppetCheck

I don't think you'll have any major issues to be honest. The mechanicals are proven at this stage and apart from a few problems common to specific makes all cars these days are reliable. They engines etc are used across Fiat models for years.

If you're buying used there aren't a lot to chose from relative to other cars so you might have to travel a bit to find one. There are much better cars in the class mind but there are a hell of a lot worse too.

Petrol or diesel...depends on your mileage and the type of driving. If it's mainly town driving I'd go petrol.

mollybird

Id be doing driving in Dublin/kildare area's and some in dublin city.

R.O.R

If it's start/stop city journeys mainly, then stay with a Petrol - less likely to cause issues.

If you'll be doing regular long ish journeys (30 mins at 80km/h +) then you'll be OK in a diesel.

We've a few Giulietta's on fleet (and some Chrysler Delta's, which are more or less the same car) so I've just had a quick look through the history. There's a 131 which has had a few issues with the engine "hunting" - booked in again (3rd time) next week to be looked at. There's a 12 which has had issues with a rear door lock, and service light keeps coming back on. Other 12 had all rear lights fail twice, and also had to go in to get "lights on dash investigated" (no further info on what it was though).

All seem to have had issues I'm afraid - most are approaching 100,000km at this stage, but they don't seem to be engine issues, mainly electrical. Not big things, but it's going to be niggly if stuff starts to fail.

I've driven quite a few - they are nice to drive, and very economical on long runs (the 1.6 diesel) but not noticeably better in any way than a Focus, and from our history, not as reliable as the Ford.

bazz26

My next door neighbour has a 1.4 litre petrol model for a few years now and has had no issues with it as far as I'm aware. Her only complaint is that her insurance seems to be a bit more expensive than on previous similar type cars.

coolbeans

Ugly looking from the front IMO. Seems like there's too much metal between the grill and the headlamps making it appear gormless and definitely not beautiful like an Alfa should look.

Also, Irish cars often have too small wheels which doesn't help. All of this is purely subjective though.