Alfa Romeo 156 Review

Quite nippy and not to bad on the fuel (If driven sensibly). Dealers are absolutely the worst 1st service was £200 - Services after were £300+ (to be fair I did 37000 miles in the car in 1 year)

Problems included constantly failing headlight bulbs (the now ex Alfa dealer charged £47 to replace a headlight bulb on a 2 month old car - needed the alfa tool. Took it to another Alfa dealer after that and bulbs were replaced under warranty.

More serious, a major rear suspension re-build at 4 months. Had to drive a squealing car for a month whilst parts were ordered in Italy - then got a loan car for a week whilst it was repair.

Depreciation was more than 50% in 1 year. Enough said

Very vast car 0-60mph 7.1, with a couple of mods eg airfilters, exhausts 6.5 to 60
Staggering performance
Unbelievable Handling
Brilliant comfort
Superb space
Fuel economy not great though what do you expect from a 193bhp v6.
Almost as fast as a Subaru Impreza though not as good on Fuel though alot more attractive.
Overall Atractive, Powerfull Spacious Saloon

I have owned 3 Alfa's in my time (GTV6 for 11 years) and I must say that this problem has left me at a loss to explain how I could ever purchase another Alfa again....

Now, I have heard directly from ex Alfa Romeo mechanics that early 1999 models had an design fault with the crankshaft, but Alfa will not admit to it. I was fortunate to find a 2nd hand engine from a smashed car and a third of the cost.. Yeeha....But I've had enough and the Fiat..oops Alfa is going.

I have heard from various sources that Engine blowouts are becomming more common, so if any of you enthusites still think yours is OK, then think again.

Gee, all I was doing was driving at 90km on the freeway and it just went bang! So you never know whats around the corner.

Please, someone, give me my GTV6 back......

I'm keen to know if "Stewart" (Review posted Dec 2002) eventually found the solution to this problem. As the fault does not show up on the diagnostic pc, the dealers cannot seem to fix the fault.

Regards

It's been a fantastic car - fast, comfortable, great looking and 100% reliable ....apart from the engine blowing up 3000 miles ago..! Luckily, it was fully covered under the 60,000 mile Alfa warranty so they stuck in a replacement reconditioned engine (at a cost to them of £3200 ...). I did, however, have to fight for it. It was only by having a full Alfa Service History AND all my oil receipts from Halfords (the thing was drinking 5 litres a month...!) did they eventually agree it was using excessive oil. Since then the new engine has hardly touched a drop.

So... I FULLY recommend the 156. If I did less miles I would get one again without hesitation. If you take the plunge you'll fall in love with its charms ......but just make sure you check the oil EVERY week. They do like the black stuff... you have been warned..!

The gearbox was fixed (broken bolt in the actuator apparently that cost $800Aus to fix and took the Alfa mechanics 2 days to find), but the tow truck driver or the Alfa mechanics had driven the car into a wall/car scraping down the front quarter panel. Got that fixed, thought it was all good.

Went for a longer drive on the weekend, and found that the heater worked brilliantly, whether the climate control was set on boiling hot or freezing cold. Took it back to the dealer (again) and the mechanics had a look, told me they needed to order in a new part, and gave me the car back.

What they didn't mention was that they had disconnected the heater now (I'm in Hobart, middle of July, about 10 degrees during the day, a lot less overnight) which meant we now had freezing cold air coming in. It was almost funny trying to demist the windscreen the next morning with my sleeve as you could see your own breath in the car!

We've now owned the car for 22 days, and have had it for about a week.

We bought a '99 156 Selespeed last week with 47000km on the clock, had taken it for numerous test drives and all looked good. On the way home from the dealer, the car put itself into neutral at some traffic lights, then refused to go into any gears in city or normal mode.

Luckily it's still under dealer warranty, so we're not paying, but we still don't have our car.

Apart from the fact that the car doesn't go, it's great!

I'll get straight to the bad points - it's the usual 156 things really:
1/ Squeaky suspension (yes it's a known problem, so it doesn't bother me.
2/ Variator is now in full tractor mode on initial start up - they all do that at some point!!
3/ Air-con has a mind of it's own (so what?, it still works!).
4/ Fuel consumption 26 mpg on average, 30 on a (very) good day.... probably down to me!!
5/ Pricey servicing.
6/ No torque (or anything else for that matter) below 3000rpm
7/ Depreciation - ah, I felt sorry for the person who bought it new for £17500 two years ago and sold it to me for £8800. I'll be lucky to get £7000.
8/ Bad radio reception (why worry, play cd's!)

The good
1/ Looks.....
2/ I still love the door handles
3/ ....and the offset number plate
4/ ....and the (Veloce) wheels
5/ ....and the noise when you (eventually) get past 3000rpm and the variable valve stuff wakes up.
6/ the fact that despite all of the bad points listed above I still cannot fault it. Yes if I were to think rationally, then yes perhaps I would of had a 3-series or an A4 - but why?
7/ driving position
8/ interior styling
9/ comfort (how many times have you ever read that about an Alfa?) I'm lying - the sports option suspension gives awful ride in town but handles superbly out of it!!!
10/ the steering - so what if its turning circle is that of an oil tanker - it's very quick and precise above 10mph.

To summarise, if you want one you'll already be aware of 90% of the faults I've mentioned, so when they come you'll have been expecting it and be prepared for it - if not you've definately bought the wrong car. Please read up about this car before you do buy one. The Alfa 156 is a brilliant car but if you do want value for money, reliability and cheap servicing, go buy a Mazda6, Toyota/Lexus thing (if you must!) or a dull Audi A4. It's not a trip for the unweary, but for as and when you do buy a 156 - please enjoy it... it's a wasted opportunity otherwise!

- 350km and two weeks and later... I had to tow it!! No need to tell you why as I read on your site that we are all facing the same problem!! I wanted to return it back but Alfa said that a part was defectuous (the actuator) and that it has been replaced.

- 20000Km service.. the same part has been changed without informing me about this repair. I learnt it later from an other frustrated 156 selespeed customer who saw by chance the customer list whose actuator has been changed.

- 44000Km, Christmas, 3:00 AM.... same as 350Km!! I went back home with friends.. and had to tow it at 7:00am the next day. No more guarantee: Alfa asked for $1800!! After a long an tough discussion I paid $350.

- ????? Km : Based on my experience, same problem is forecated for Km65000 :) I am now at 50000km.. expecting more..

Almost 4 years that I have this car, I have, as an average, one fight per year with Alfa trader; the real problem is that it is a real pleasure to drive this car. I consider myself lucky as I always had this gear problems when running at a low speed in the city.. hope it will never happen on the highway as it can become very dangerous!

A frustrated lebanese Alfa customer

The problem was fixed by the replacement of the steering wheel which was done under warranty. The problem occurred 2 months later and another steering wheel was fitted. The problem then became intermittent until last week (10th Feb 03) when I lost all gears in the middle of peak hour traffic and had to wait 3 hours for a tow.

The Alfa dealership explained that the transmission motor had failed and was replaced. Imagin my suprise when 2 days later the same thing happened on the way home (Valentines Day!) in peak hour traffic.

Any ideas on how to take this up with Alfa in Australia or overseas?

All was well for the first six months and then things started to go wrong when in CITY mode. The gear change became jerky, whether cold, warm or hot. Slight lift off the throttle made no difference. The handling was no longer sporty and sure. It would wallow around corners and handled like a 10 year old car.

The gearbox was slow, and then very slow, when crawling in taffic or it would loose power when changing up from first to two. When you wanted to "take off", the car did not respond. This resulted in pressing more on the LOUD pedal. This had two results; you were either stuck in the middle of a roundabout waiting for the car to sort out the gears OR the ECU would kick in, drop the box into first and you would find yourself 2" fom someones rear end!
The problem with this was that it was intermittent and very difficult to reproduce for the garage.

Nine months into ownership, my wife had an accident, smashing into the rear of another car during slow moving traffic. I now realise that the gearbox was probably the cause of the accident. My wife's words that the car appeared to stall and then shot off!!!!

To make matters worse, the police threatened to prosecute for driving withour due care and attention, but that's another story.

Before I go further, the car had covered 8k miles at the accident, has had 1 and 2 years services in line with maufacturers recommendaions and has now covered 24k miles.

Since the repairs, which is yet another story, the problems with the car have gone on and on.

The car will:
- drop the box into neutral, whether in CITY or manual mode. This is very, very annoying when you are doing 90 on the motorway!

- refuse to up shift from two to three.

- stall when you are driving. Very, very annoying when you are doing 90 on the motorway!!

- lock the gearbox so that the car cannot start!!!!

- wait up to 10 seconds for the car to start.

- Wait 10 seconds for the car to engage gear.

- low rumble and shudder when waiting at lights/stopped in gear

Finally, the garage thinks it's teh selespeed pump that is faulty.

Presently, the car is a semi-
automatic...and therefore semi-manual.
On slowing down, the gearbox changes
down by itself ( automatically ) and it
sometimes clashes with me changing down
manually at the same time, resulting in
the car actually changing down a couple
of gears, instead of just one gear that
was intended. This is especially
unnerving when 1st gear is engaged
instead of the 2nd gear that was
intended.
Perhaps, Alpha Romeo could provide an
overide button, to be operated by the
driver if so he wishes, to cancel the
automatic changing down so that the box
can be considered a real 'fully manual'
box.

The other thing is that the car needs
to be completely stationary before 1st
gear is selected by the ECU. Sometimes
when I need to accelerate rather
quickly at crawling speeds, the 2nd
gear that the car would be in is too
high for the slow speed. The 1st gear
is required. Perhaps, Alfa Romeo can
come up with some software upgrading as
to allow the box to select 1st gear
when the car is crawling very slowly
and not only when it is stationary.

Even internally, only the different steering wheel gives the game away that this is not a run of the mill Alfa (if there is such a thing) 156.

1) Alfa's new sequential gear-changing system 'Selespeed' makes it's first appearance in the 156, claiming to add a touch of Formula One to what's fast becoming one of the most desirable motor cars in the market.

2) Alfa didn't dare go quite the whole hog mind - there is also a button which converts the thing to fully automatic, should moving your thumbs prove to be too difficult.

3) Should you need further options, the gear stick can be shifted by hand-tiptronic style.

Actually, the two-pedal clutchless system in which gear changes are controlled by a pair of buttons on the steering wheel (once your rolling above 6 mph) aren't all that Formula One since F1 shifted to the paddle system; it's no big quibble though - it's still pretty advanced and exotic stuff in this market sector. A liquid-crystal display in the instrument cluster gives a visual indication of what gear you're in - for those who are tone deaf, but they'd better make up for it with damn good eyesight as it's non too clear.

One of the main problems with this design is that unless the steering is very high geared, your hands are not always in the conventional positions and the buttons get out of stabbing reach thru tight turns .

The system works pretty well on upward changes, as long as you back off the gas slightly as you change, otherwise the car lurches slightly as the engine and gearbox catch up with each other.

Down changes though are perfect, as the electronics give the engine a little blip to help the gear home.

Alfa claim normal changes are made in 1.5 seconds which is pretty decent if compared with a good manual box. But if you're loading it up and making bigger demand, then change-times speed up to about half of that. Certainly, while you're hard charging thru the box, stabbing the button as the engine approaches its high redline peak, the car's performance is top-notch.

This not being a track car, safeguards to prevent over-revving and neutral being selected above 25mph are manifested electronically and at a standstill you can't engage gears without pressing the brake.

Having suffered at the hand of Italian electrics in the past, I still hold reservations about allowing Beppe's Spagetti quite so much control. I have a horrible vision of a throttle stuck wide open and the car screaming down the motorway its electronically controlled ABS unable to stop the raging beast that you can't stick in neutral. But then maybe I'm just paranoid and maybe Alfa quality has improved as far as people claim it has and Italian electrical gremlins are consigned to history.

In theory the only downside to choosing a Selespeed is that it is only available with 2.0-litre Twin Spark engine, and in some eyes the performance falls a little short of the V6 version. But the Twin Spark is suprisingly torquey, whilst still having the brute force to power the 156 to 60 mph in just over 8 seconds and will carry on going close to 135 mph.

Make use of all this performance, mind and the claimed 33 mpg combined figures will seem like some ridiculous fairly tale. (Not that any of you believe those figures anyway! .. do you ??)

But realistically the lazier V6 doesnt need all these cogs and can make pretty fine progress even if you have to change gear by hand.

All the rest is normal 156 - the deep rear shelf and small mirrors still make reversing a bit of a pain, but unlike Italian tanks, this car is primarily for going forward not backward and go forward it does extremely well. The rear suspension claims to effect rear-wheel passive steering which stabilises the rear end under heavy cornering. I can't say I noticed it, but to me it's just something else to go wrong as the car gets older. Either way when new, the handling is one of the 156's plus points. It handles well and maintains it's composure perfectly right up until the point when you're probably going too fast anyway and the tyres start to lose their grip on the road. Unlike many past Italian cars though, it's not been achieved by giving the car a ride like an unsprung donkey cart and all in all is probaly as good a combination of handling/ride as you can expect from a front driving saloon.

Alfa/Fiat make big claims about the safety of the 156 and it is fitted with many novel and well designed features to give the security you expect from a modern car. But if you were really interested in that aspect, you would be looking at a Volvo instead. Its enough to say the 156 claims to be as safe as a comparably sized Volvo, but no Volvo claims to be as good looking as the 156. For all those family men who really want a 2 door coupe but need 4 doors the Alfa comes as close as it can to fixing your dilemma by hiding the rear doors with a touch of inspired design

The Alfa's not cheap but if we are all lucky it will depreciate like all Alfas before it, before everyone realises what a fine car it is, and we can look forward to some great second hand ones. And as Alfa's range continues to expand, I guess this gear system will be available on other engines too. The really perverse could go for a common rail diesel "Selespeed" with the big wing sports kit. Me, I'll stick to a Twin Spark with a normal gear stick and no picnic tables stuck on the back thanks.