Alfa 156 - the worst car I have ever owned

Had mine 4 years now, starter motor, battery, air con died, love it to bits, ps eats front tyres, gt cloverleaf 2.0 due 01/10/2008 yippee. my 156 ?the best motor i have ever had xx

Originally Posted by percy5095

...discuss

You're just being controversial for the sake of it. Expand on your point or, alternatively, just don't be a dick in the first place.

As for the 156, best car I've owned - although coming from a Punto and a Saxo that's not hard!

best car my finance company has ever owned!!!!!

Originally Posted by symonh2000

All of my 156's have been great cars.(in fact all of my Alfa's have)
The worst car I have owned was a Rover Vitesse Sport, and the second worst a Nissan 200SX (s14)

What happened to your SR20DET did it go kaboom like most of them

Best car I have owned is a 1.4 engined Alfa lmao And I have driven loads of 156's and by god they are great fun. Loved the old white TS 2l we had on loan before some car.

ive never owned an 156 but ive driven a 2l t spark, awful interior, stormer of an engine, great looks,not as refined as my 166 but then its not suposed to be.

I don't have a "worst car I ever owned"..

Each one had good points as well as less good points. All of them were reliable and each one did what I needed it to do at the time.


Ralf S.

Originally Posted by Damien_C

What happened to your SR20DET did it go kaboom like most of them

Best car I have owned is a 1.4 engined Alfa lmao And I have driven loads of 156's and by god they are great fun. Loved the old white TS 2l we had on loan before some car.

It didn't go kaboom. Firstly the fuel pump packed in leaving me stranded. Then the turbo/manifold gasket failed leaving the car making a nasty farting noise on acceleration. Then the intercooler split. The aircon packed in, a rumble appeared from the rear diff on acceleration
I gave up after 3 months. I suppose I might have got a bad one but some of those are typical faults aparrently.
It also drank oil that to a point which made the worst of my Alfa's seem tee total.

Originally Posted by percy5095

...discuss

Should have bought a petrol.

Should have bought a petrol

Well, not sure about that! I have owned two 156s;

1) 1.8TS Lusso Sept 1998. One of my favourite Alfas I've owned, superbly weighted steering with instant response, a gem of an engine which revs freely with enough power to get you moving along quicly enough. Comfortable interior, lovely white dials that look even more impressive at night time, overall a superb package from Alfa that represented an 'iconic break' from all the dreadful dross that had gone before. Loved by the Italian Police. Drawbacks? The early 156s did have problems with trim falling off (superglue was always handy), variators did tend to go (got mine replaced under warranty), keen eye needed on the suspension bushes front and rear. Perhaps the most puzzling issue was the brakes: servo clearly not strong enough, and why solid discs on the 1.8 engine?

2) 1.9 JTD 16v Sport (150bhp), Oct 2005. ok it burns oil but after 1st and 2nd gears the car really flies with a relentless urge, and it does rev freely to 4,500rpm, not bad for a diesel. Build quality better than the earlier cars, everything holding together well (no superglue needed), lovely leather interior, very useful 6th gear for motorway cruising. Average well over 50mpg on long runs (have verified this myself recently on long run from Kilkenny to Cambridge). Only gripe again is the brakes, better than the 1.8 (vented discs at front, larger discs at rear), but still not enough 'bite'.

Despite all the niggles, the 156 has a charismatic presence on the road even today. You can forget the Mondeo/Vectra/Passat herd, this car has more personality in its indicator stalks than all these cars put together.

I've owned 3 cars.
The 156 is the middle of the 3.

Best - 200SX S13 - Modded. Stunning performance, great looks, wonderful noise and great fun with every single turn of the wheel. I miss the punch of the turbo
I'd have it back tomorrow. Was gutted to sell it.

(current) - 2.0 156TS Veloce - Good performance, tendancy to understeer spoils things when you push hard. Love the looks though, and red leather interior is near perfect. Rare enough to feel reasonably special, but common enough to have no aggro finding bits for it when needed

'Worst' - Pug 106 quiksilver - Cheap interior and very cramped cabin. Struggled at anything much above regular motorway speeds. That said, handling was brilliant, and really nippy around town. Would hang on the coatails of much bigger cars on the twisty stuff. From an era when Peugeot really knew how to build a chassis.

Well, I have to agreee - never really owned a bad car. Just different cars.

Student life was spent in a '92 Micra shared with my girlfriend at the time - drove like shoebox suspended in rubberbands, but it faithfully took me through 1500km of forest in Sweden to catch the WRC in -20C. And everywhere else, come to think of it.

Various company cars always ended up in the WV range - older and newer Passats, with the occasional long term rental of 3 series or A4's. They were nice, but so, so predictable.

Come now the 156 I picked up in Germany when moving to France. Changing a headlamp, it scrapes my knuckles more than my Micra ever would when working on the brakes... and dependable?

Thing is, I still love it to bits. Every part of it

I owned a VW Bora ,that was a bad car. Well, not technically - technically it was a good car. But boring. Really really boring. Idea to save the planet, give everyone VW Boras, then people would walk more

Rich

Originally Posted by percy5095

...discuss

Of course you could be the worst owner the car has had

Perhaps he is a millionaire, with loads of supercars, and the 156 was just the runabout.

I liked my 156 V6

Originally Posted by symonh2000

Perhaps he is a millionaire, with loads of supercars, and the 156 was just the runabout.

That'd be SMAKY then

Perhaps just a prankster

Well the 156 is decisively the best car I've owned.

Beautiful, stylish, practical, comfortable, luxurious, well built (really), totally reliable (honest), great to drive and still after all these years engenders a feeling of pride of ownership. To this day, even after five years, I still often look over my shoulder at it when I've got out after parking up.

To me the 156 is a modern classic, one of the finest car designs of all time and I love it! I still can't think of a suitable replacement so am keeping it.

Originally Posted by Camp Freddie

Well the 156 is decisively the best car I've owned.

Beautiful, stylish, practical, comfortable, luxurious, well built (really), totally reliable (honest), great to drive and still after all these years engenders a feeling of pride of ownership. To this day, even after five years, I still often look over my shoulder at it when I've got out after parking up.

To me the 156 is a modern classic, one of the finest car designs of all time and I love it! I still can't think of a suitable replacement so am keeping it.

I can only agree with you 100% - Except you don't seem quite as enthusiastic as me

Originally Posted by Fraser

I was going to agree and then I remembered my 166. Despite everything that went wrong (and I mean everything!) I still loved it. Difference was the after-market warranty I bought paid for almost all of the repairs.

Interesting.. who was it with? All those i've looked at look ****e

Originally Posted by jason156

I can only agree with you 100% - Except you don't seem quite as enthusiastic as me

Yes just looked back and read your first post in this thread. Well it seems we're in agreement