Alfa Bashing At Their Ownership Club

[KnightUnit]

The last straw when I had my alfa 155 (before the lexus) was the drivers wiper arm coming off at 70-80 on the motorway in the pouring rain, not the blade, the whole wiper arm.

I was shocked to say the least! luckily no cars where behind me, just remember looking in my mirror for a second and seeing this wiper arm spinning through the air.

[swfcdan]

Just looking at those interior pics and i dont think there a fair comparison, the BM and Merc are speced up to the max by the looks of it and yet the IS is still looks as good as any of them!

[Gord]

Just looking at those interior pics and i dont think there a fair comparison, the BM and Merc are speced up to the max by the looks of it and yet the IS is still looks as good as any of them!

To be fair, all are speced up to the max B)

[Manps]

Unfortunately the original alfa thread I started posting on has been removed by them… I think due to the limited intelligence of some of the alfa owners, as I kept on mocking there cars and they had no response (apart from the odd personal digs at me -which I said to them ‘is very easy to do on the net, not so when your face to face’ hehe)

From now on when I see an Alfa on the Hard Shoulder with it’s hazard lights on (which happens at least once a week lol) I’ll have a wide grin on my face!

[Noel]

Unfortunately the original alfa thread I started posting on has been removed by them… I think due to the limited intelligence of some of the alfa owners, as I kept on mocking there cars and they had no response (apart from the odd personal digs at me -which I said to them ‘is very easy to do on the net, not so when your face to face’ hehe)

From now on when I see an Alfa on the Hard Shoulder with it’s hazard lights on (which happens at least once a week lol) I’ll have a wide grin on my face!

ya ;) and give him a big beep as you go past ...

[DJ Wozza]

what spoil sports, why remove it ?

You would have thought someone who bought an Alfa must have a sense of humour in the first place ?

:P :P

[dazz32]

Alfa`s great to look at.....well you have to look at it ALL the time coz they tend to do nowt...always breaking down.

And you look at ALL the rust you get..

And you look trying to find ALL the electrical problems as to where they have come from.. :P

i think ill stick with my boring realiable LEXUS thanx... :P

[The Transporter]

Ha!!! MY Lexus can be just as unreliable as ANY Alfa.... I clearly remember the horror of discovering a spot of corrosion on one of the wheels and the dealer made me drive round in an IS250 whilst they changed the wheels...Oh the shame!

[Noel]

Ha!!! MY Lexus can be just as unreliable as ANY Alfa.... I clearly remember the horror of discovering a spot of corrosion on one of the wheels and the dealer made me drive round in an IS250 whilst they changed the wheels...Oh the shame!

at least they could get your wheels off

my mates 147 needed new tyres but he couldn't get any off the wheels off and the local fast fits were afraid to force them off, as the car was fairly new so he had to take it to the main dealer.... thankfully they had the specialised tools needed to remove the wheels.... a block of wood and a big mallet oh how we mocked him :P

[gitaman]

Thought you might all like to read a review of the current model of the Alfa 156 GT. This is a direct quote from The Dog & Lemon Guide to Cars... a New Zealand publication profiling every car on the market (here).

"Oh dear; another lemon from Alfa Romeo. Unreliable in the extreme, owning a 156 has been an unpleasant experience for many people. The 156's only redeeming features are those two qualities that have kept Alfa Romeo in business for decades: style and sheer driving pleasure. That's when it's not in the garage, of course. Owners tell a sorry tale of crook engines, gearboxes, steering, brakes, heaters, and electrical accessories. That's the major *****-ups, then there's the minor ones like rattles, poorly fitting trim and water leaks. Even as a 'driver's car' we have a few gripes: the turning circle is poor, the manual gearbox whines noticeably at motorway speeds, there's no grab-handle on the boot, and the standard stereo is pretty crummy for a vehicle that costs this much. Further, the 156 is expensive, it will plummet in value and cost a king's ransom to fix when it gets old. Despite what you may think, we take no pleasure in pointing out another Alfa debacle (sigh). The Italians have a saying which goes something like: "take what you want and pay the price". It was probably written about cars like this."

Dog & Lemon's overall rating: "Avoid like the Plague!"

Dog & Lemon's IS 200 rating: "Recommended"

The other Alfa reviews are just about as bad. Hope you enjoyed.

Gitaman.

[philoldsmobile]

LOL at your comments manps, Alfa's have such poor build quality

well, coming from an alfa 166 to a lexus GS300 i feel both unbiased and best qualified to comment here..

first, (cirtainly for the flagship 166 anyway) some myths...

rust. no.. not for a long time, my 2000 model didn't have a spec on it, paint finish was notably better than the lexus too, far less prone to stone chips (both cars are within 1000 miles of eachother)

electrics, nope, not in the slightest, everything worked perfectly.

build.. awesome, in the 166 (dont know about the lesser models) its easily equal to the lexus, the door shut sound for example is definatley better, and nothing was loose or fell off..

reliability, hard to say, mine suffered a couple of very major expensive failures, all down to past neglect, but the opinion on carsurvey.org is the 166 is a fantastic car. will i own another? definatley, its a fantastic drive, responsive comfortable (better seats than the lexus) well built, its not as quiet or as quick as the lexus, but the key is how its been looked after. treat it as a mondeo, and its going to break, treat it like a baby maserati, and you should be fine.

i really like the lexus, and i have greater confidence in it, but i am going to be really sad to see the alfa go.

[Tango]

Hertz provided me with a Alfa 159 Diesel in Italy recently...I was quite impressed, looked good, drove well, no rattles and absolutely flew. However, it was fairly new and I handed it back after 3 days so can't comment on the reliability. I'd certainly pick the Alfa over the 220d on performance.