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Alfa Reliability

3K views 22 replies 11 participants last post by  Ian Lusso 
#1 · (Edited)
:furious::irked:So I have been alfa-less for just under a year now. I had a few 156's and they were all 2lt T.S. models. I also had the privilege of driving my father's 2.4 JTD 10v for a little bit.

Living in Triomf and travelling to Pretoria for work everyday is pretty strenuous on a car's suspension, brakes, cooling system, and thus the engine as well. And so when my twinnie got slower the one day, I tested and fixed and prodded, but no joy. Only to sell the car as a non-runner even though the car still moved and could drive short distances. I kept in touch with the new owner and he decatted the car and it was perfect after that.

The 2.4 JTD 10v I drove was in desperate need of a clutch master cylinder for the longest time, and then later needed a boost pressure sensor. But in the FIVE years of of post 250k km motoring the car never left us stranded even once. The twinnies I drove and owned, all kept being bumped and being written off because of their ridiculously low value, but not once was I ever in need of a tow home.

I recently bought a 1991 Honda Prelude and it repeatedly left me stranded with alternator issues. Then I bought a Volvo S40 T5 and overhauled the engine after it overheated with the PO. Drove the car around and it was fine. Decided to come to work with it, and on the way back from lunch it just stalled. No Temp problems, no spark problems, no fuel problems, not a single fault on the "intelligent" OBC.

This is also not the only Volvo I know of that just quit when the going got tough. My Prelude was perhaps just old, so I could almost excuse that. But it is a Honda for crying out loud. Some would say that they are the Mercedes of Japan.

Now, the cars that are supposed to be unreliable have proven the most reliable with me and the brands that are supposed to be reliable are proving otherwise. So I want to know, am I the only one who has had this experience?

I also know that the older, pre-2001 cars were a little temperamental so I can hear them out in that regard, but surely the dark ages are over now. I have yet to see a 2007 GT for sale with bent valves, or a blown head gasket, or a bearing knock for that matter. So what are these people on about when they say "Alfa's ARE unreliable"? Maybe they were once upon a time in years gone by, but get out of the past.

If so I will gladly swallow every time the h@ters bash Alfa for its poor reliability. If not, the next time some ignorant sap tells me anything about my next car I will give them an earful about their stalwarts of toughness. This is my rant... Mic drop.

Please share your stories.
 
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#2 ·
In my years of car ownership I have had MANY Alfas.... but also 1 Honda, 1 VW Jetta Cli, 1 Corolla, 3 Nissans and a BMW.
I got my license in 1989, and have been left on the side of the road a few times .... only once with an Alfa, and that was with my 2.4 Alfa 159..... reason, blocked Cat..... so nothing mechanical with the car.
The Honda , which I owned for 9 months, worked properly for only three of those months. I ended up selling it running on 3 cylinders(again) and the recurring electrical gremlins drove me insane. Most unreliable car I ever owned.
The BMW comes in close second.... with less than 100 000 km it sounded like a diesel, the turbo had gone and there was a crack in the tappet cover.

All that said, I do baby my cars somewhat.....
 
#3 ·
One just needs to visit the online forums of other manufacturers. They all have the same or worse issues that Alfas have. Over the years the issues with Alfa was not due to Alfa Romeo design issues but rather integration issues. Alfa gives you that special feeling inside your car because it uses some quality components with regard to electronics, but these components are often not well integrated into the rest of the electrical system. The components used are amoung the best in the world (Names like Jaeger; Veglia Borletti; Magnetti Marelli; Bosch; TRW; etc) but because the individual components have not been well integrated, they sometimes do cause faults.

One very good thing about Alfa Romeo is that they are probably the only manufacturer that will bring out a "facelift" that looks exactly the same as the model it replaces, but with vastly re-engineered details to improve on faults of the first model. For example the pre-facelift 156 had a very poor fusebox cover design that needed to be replaced every time you opened it to check fuses. The facelift fixed that issue without even mentioning it. And they fixed alarm issues by moving away from the original supplier and fitting a more integrated system, and they fixed the ABS system and improved it with ASR/VDC, and they added canbus (amazing since this requires a virtual redesign of the electronic system but the original 156 also was THE first production car with a bus system, all be it very primitive).

Of all the Alfas that I owned, the only issues I'm having is because of a failed thermostat which is entirely my fault because I went with the "what they say" logic, meaning that if enough people say the same thing the it is truth. Absolute BS. Cost me over R38k to fix a failed thermostat. But the point is none of my other cars ever gave any problems.

The day I drove my 156ts off the showroom floor in 2006 the airbag light went on and I wanted to cry, thinking here we go with endless problems. The scan showed a loose connector for the rear curtain airbag and this was corrected within 5 minutes and it NEVER happened again, ever. No airbag light in 5 years of ownership. No ecu light. No maf failures. No thermostat replacements. No cambelt issues. Nothing.
 
#4 ·
I wouldn't call my Alfa's the most reliable cars I've owned but they certainly weren't any better or worse than any of the German cars myself and my family have owned. In fairness I've never owned a new Alfa though.

Volkswagen's and Audi's in my experience are by far and away the most unreliable European car brand (granted I've never owned a French car) We've never owned a BMW but my mum's Mercedes hasn't really been more reliable than my 147 but it's definitely more reliable than her previous B7 A4 Tdi.

The most reliable cars I/we have ever owned have been Rocam engined Ford's. Those were pretty much indestructible. An old Ford Laser and Ford Escort Si were also up there with the best of them when it came to reliability.
 
#6 ·
The most reliable long term runner is the 2001 156 Sp0rtwagon V6, now handed down to my son, it justs start up every day and go.

The worst was an Audi 500SE, it was the pits, continuously needed a dealer workshop, followed shortly by a BMW 325i, the dealers almost had to rebuild the thing.

No more German reliability on my driveway. On other makes if something needs replacement, it almost always ends up being a German made part (Bosch et al)
 
#9 ·
I owned a 147 2-liter Selespeed in 2001 and while it guzzled oil like you wouldn't believe it never let me down. Didn't have it long though, I couldn't live with the disappearing oil. I then had a few Opels, all extremely reliable, well engineered cars. Opel still is the only German brand I like and won't have an issue buying again. I also had 3 VW's, which were pathetic. Amazing how good advertising can sell crap to the sheeple. In my experience VAG is the worst for reliability. My 2012 GMA TCT was the most reliable car I've ever owned, not even a blown light bulb or a bit of top-up oil to report in 3 years and my QV TCT Seems to be the same. I've read a lot of owners reviews and it is interesting to see that the vast majority of Giulietta and Mito owners rate reliability 5/5. VAG sits around 2/5. German engineering is one thing, German reliability is something else altogether. Alfa's are beautiful, reliable, well engineered cars.
 
#10 ·
My sister had 3 tazzes and they all gave her trouble. A tazz actually has nothing in it to break, so when something breaks it is usually connected to the driveline which is terribly inconvenient and expensive.

White Tazz 1 had a top shock mount failure while she was driving on the freeway, and nearly killed her and the occupant of the car she hit. She got rid of it after her insurance repaired it and bought
White Tazz 2 with a gearbox that ate clutches for lunch. As she is a doctor and loccumed between Cape Town and Paarl daily she put on quite a bit of milage but in 80000km the car already had 4 clutches. So she traded it for
White Tazz 3 which went through batteries like White Tazz 2 went through clutches.

Aaaand then my sister still claims that her Tazzes were the most reliable cars she ever owned :cheese:

In that same period, my Alfetta 159i never broke down once, was never towed, and never needed a clutch, battery or shocks...

My 156 gave one problem: On the showroom floor the airbag light went on and was reset and never did ever again.
Blue GTV had the gear linkage replaced at a cost of R1500 and a maf at R1200. Never gave an issue again. Not bad for a car that did 140000km trouble free.
Red 159 had a turbo fail because Mr Borg or Mrs Warner (Both Germans) didn't tighten their nut properly causing the impeller to come adrift.
Silver 159 hasn't given an issue in 80000km.
Black GTV... We don't talk about that one though... :cheese:
 
#11 ·
Never had to have a car towed. I can't remember any issue where any of the cars I have owned left me stranded, except briefly when I left the lights on in a car without a warning buzzer and had to push-start it. And for about 50% of my time owning cars I have only had Alfas. The closest to being stranded was when my GTA's alternator gave up and I had to put a different battery in it to make it to the mechanic.

The Alfas have needed more visits to the mechanics than the other (Japanese) cars I have owned, but then you have to take into account that the Japanese cars I have owned have all been a lot newer than the second-hand Alfas at the time that I bought them. So then it's to be expected that more little parts like an engine mount here and a wheel bearing there would be required - these parts do wear on any car.

If I include experience with cars in the immediate family, the VW products have been the worst. One even threw a conrod through the block...
 
#12 ·
I bought a 3 year old Jetta in 2010. It's 9 years old now and never left me stranded nor had any problems besides an engine mount that had not been tightened properly after a cam belt service. The dealer was mortified when I called and since I couldn't get to them due to time constraints, they paid for another franchise to fix the problem and redo the cam belt service. Edit: I remember now that my aircon compressor's internals disintegrated this year. Other than that, flawless service.

VW still gives me excellent service when I buy parts at every dealer I've been at. And nice discounts. My car's also been software modded since end 2013. The 916 GTV has also given me excellent service. The 105 GTV on the other hand ?...


Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk
 
#20 ·
Count yourself very lucky! My Golf 6 was on its 3rd DSG box when I left it on the side of the road after another breakdown, never to see it again. It had just over 40 000km on the clock at the time. That last breakdown was caused by a failed diesel pump. By then it was on its 2nd turbo. When it did actually work every kilometer was a misery because I had rattles coming from absolutely everywhere, it was so bad it was embarrassing to have passengers in the car. Absolutely, utterly rubbish excuse of a car. Both my GMA and GQV are on a different planet, they have been faultless.
 
#16 ·
My 147 has never left me stranded but it has needed alot of 'maintenance'! My 916 Spider has left me stranded 3 times. Once was my fault (got the cambelt service schedule wrong), once was the dealer (they put in the wrong air filter which repeatedly blew the AFM) and once the fuel pump failed but to be fair it was noisy long before it went.

My 147 is now booked into Alfia for new engine mounts, a leaking oil cooler/or pipes and I've asked them to check the steering and front suspension because the steering and ride are rotten.
 
#18 ·
My GT is now at Alfia for a new 3 core radiator..... my OEM one sprung a leak....
I see Emmanuel's Flamethrower GT is also there for some TLC.
 
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#21 ·
A good mate of mine who loved ragging me about driving an 'unreliable' Alfa came to visit on Saturday. Before he reversed his E90 320d out of the driveway he says 'please excuse the noise my gearbox makes' When he goes to select reverse it sounds like he is pulling it into gear without pressing the clutch...really awful. It also pops out of reverse and he has to repeat the process. The BM has done less mileage than my 147 but sadly for him is out of motorplan.
 
#23 ·
The E90's are probably the worst BMW's since the 80's. The 320 is not particularly smooth in any way and neither does the engine sound pleasant. Well it actually sounds very unpleasant from inside. Like a GTI. Then the choice assortment of various little squeeks and ticks from the cabin...
 
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