Confused about the Brera 'S'

[redten]

Hi guys - I came very close this weekend (after putting the GT in for a service) to getting an 09 plate 2.2 brera 'S'. I had the test drive and worked out a price etc and loved it! However I am currently in the process of maybe moving house so decided to wait a little but longer until finances are all sorted etc.

However after much mulling and thinking about the car it looks to me as if it is not really a full 'S' version - it doesn't have the 'S' badge on the window pillar and I also thought the Prodrive exhausts were 'u' shaped with the logo engraved on them and this has the square ones?! it does have the plates inside the headrests on the seats but can't remember if it had any edition numbers on it. It also has the solid red paint 19" horseshoe wheels and red calipers. It was also originally from meridian milano who have a few in stock which are described as having the 's' interior but not actually being the 's' - again with square exhausts but called the milano edition - I was wondering if these have standard suspension as well as the exhaust - coming from the crashy GT on 18s it was hard for me to tell on the testdrive as most cars feel smoother. It just feels that there are few of these end of line 2.2 'ss' knocking around at the moment from the 19k to 21k mark, oh it is an 09 plate with only 200 odd miles on the clock - Can anyone shed any light on this?

Cheers

[Morte]

Hi there, I was similarly confused a while back when I was looking at some pre-registered no mileage Breras. These had the S style interior, no blue and me and no sky view, like an S, but did not have the wheels or the rest of the S bits.

These were cerainly not Brera Ss. As for the one you've seen, it has the wheels, but if the exhaust looks std, then I would think it unlikely that it has "S" spec suspension, unless all the new ones do of course.

I haven't helped much have I?

[redten]

Thanks for the reply - I think they are end of line rhd 2.2's with some stuff added - its a shame cause at least meridian milano market them as not 's's whereas at my dealership it is marketed as an 'S' with prodrive exhaust which it isn't

Amersham Alfa Romeo Brera Coupe | Used Cars | Alfa Romeo Used Cars Dealer | Perrys

I think I might wait for the TBIs whenever that might be?!

[Badly]

Wow! What the hell are Alfa thinking... Partially converting standard Breras to S's.

My S has no edition number on the car, only a number on the certificate.

You can easily see the Bilstein shocks through the wheels with Prodrive stickers:

Other things that make the S different:

Lowered, sit better on the 19"
Prodrive mud flaps
Pedals (I think)
Steering wheel
Seat stitching & leather used
Brakes on 2.2 (I think)

I'm sure there're more

[Badly]

Looks like they've had a few wheels, seats and dashboards kicking around.

[redten]

Hmmm - I thought the sound was underwhelming under acceleration the whole point is that prodrive put a resonator on the 2.2 to make it sound great - oh and the mudflaps as well!

cheers - oh well at least I know now

[Commanderfish]

Thing is, if they put the wheels and other bits of S trim onto a normal Brera SV with Blue and Me, that would be great, even though it's not a "real" S. You can always get harder suspension after market if you really want, I'm sure it would improve the handling, but given the UK authorities' obsession with adding speed humps instead of fixing potholes, I personally think it's better with the standard suspension.

[redten]

yeah I guess I need to try an normal SV as well or a true S version?!

[Commanderfish]

Originally Posted by redten

Hmmm - I thought the sound was underwhelming under acceleration the whole point is that prodrive put a resonator on the 2.2 to make it sound great - oh and the mudflaps as well!

cheers - oh well at least I know now

Mangoletsi's air induction ("Mod 4") makes these cars produce a wonderful sound Not sure that the S sounds that different to normal, I know the back boxes are slightly different but not sure there's an extra resonator...

[redten]

yeah I was looking at mod 4 sounds great for quite a small outlay

[cas]

They shouldn't really be advertising it as an 'S', and certainly shouldn't state that it has the Prodrive exhaust.

I'd say it's probably one of the unsold ones that were eventually sold off to dealers, Meridien Milano tarted them up as a "Milano Edition", and Mangoletsi more successfully as a "Modifica" (which also received the Mod 4 treatment).

They arrived in this country with the interior (dash, seats, steering wheel, pedals), but never received any of the Prodrive kit (backboxes, suspension, badges, wheels).

It's a non-SV Brera with 19" wheels and stitched leather dash. Which is fine if that's what you want

[redten]

It looks like its been changed on the website now to a JTS which is better!

[m.barn]

IIRC there were more than 500 S's made which whilst why not sure why had to be converted back to non S trim. This meant removing the exhausts and maybe a couple more bits like the badges. I think they also swapped the wheel colours around ie you could get a Black one with the silver S wheels.

Its what Cas said - As I understand it the Brera S was modified to the S spec at the docks in Bristol using a kit of parts applied to a pretty bog standard Brera.

When sales were disappointing, there was a time when it looked like they would be stuck with a load of unsold cars - so some of the S kits were partially split and sold off as accessories - hence some wheel sets appearing on eBay. It also explains why standard Brera wheels with delivery mileage were available, as they came off the donor cars.
They are now presumably finishing off the "end of line" cars in preparation for the TBi coming in - but haven't got the right number of full S kits anymore - hence you get the half-breeds.

I don't think any cars were converted back from S to standard spec - more like they were never converted TO S spec.

What lies beneath? Anyones guess - you need a ProDrive build spec and tick off the bits you've got, and negotiate over the bits that are missing.

PS - if you own a genuine S it must now be worth more as there will no longer be 500 made

[Badly]

Interesting thoughts, as you say it may increase the values, on the other hand it's an Alfa...

[Skydiver]

Mind me asking how much it was? I have a 2.2 S in Touring Grey and love it but might need to sell as I'm moving jobs and not sure if I can afford the fuel bill!

Western Glasgow, where I got mine were selling them pre registered for £19995.00.
The mileage on mine was 50 miles when i got it.
The dealer never once said it was an S but it had all the kit bar the suspension and exhaust mods.
Mines even has the leather dash with the red stiching.
Cannot beat it

[lovelyred159]

Piccadily had a couple as well, I'm sure David will be along soon to explain what they were!