[benskia]

Hey everyone,

I waved goodbye to my 159 at the weekend after approximately 7 months of ownership.
It's a relief its gone.

I didn't get it at all I'm afraid.
In fact, I'd put it down as being one of the poorest cars I've ever owned.

I'm sorry to say that I've retreated to the German marques, and the difference in build quality is striking.

Maybe, I got a bad 159. A Friday afternoon one perhaps. But, the experience has put me off Alfas forever.

This is why the Italians need to improve their quality control. Once bitten twice is shy, as they say. So it's goodbye from me to this brand.

My advice for anyone looking at the 159...Try another prestige(?) make side by side.
If you still like the 159, make sure you get a petrol.
Boy that 2.4 diesel takes some effort and noise to get it rolling.
And boy, does it feel like you're having to pull that big heavy engine about when going into a corner.

Bye bye 159. I'm glad I tried you because I can say I had an Alfa. But I'm also glad that I got out when I did.

Kind regards,

 

[wardpaa]

Benskia,
Sorry to hear things did not work out for you, in fact i am travelling in the opposite direction towards Alfa ownership. I do expect some issues, but then again my mercedes had issues when i did not think Mercs went wrong.
I have owned 3 beemers and 1 merc.
Had a look at lots of Audi's recently (A6 is nice inside) but come away with the same impression with all of them. The Beemers are just bland and boring, especially inside, nice if you like black dakota and silver. Mercs more imteresting but more 'old man' and expensive for E or S class and also the bottom 100 in the reliability index. Audi's are only nice inside if you get a well spec'd one, so the majority of A3's and A4's are just plain inside.

What did you get ?

 

[Alfa.Romeo]

Ive been through most marques, and have yet to find a manufacturer that builds a car that doesnt go wrong here and there. Doesnt appear that you had any major issues, just niggles (unless im wrong) Hope you get on better with the new car, but not sure i share your analysis of the 159 2.4

 

[benskia]

I went for a BMW, and it's petrol, and its got a lot less horses than the Alfa.
But it drives soooo much better, that the lack of torque or power is compensated for 10 fold by the quality of the thing.

The BMW might be sparser/more compact with regards to interior. But, it's nice and functional. The leather is much nicer than that hard, old man type stuff in the 159. The seats are far more comfier (I just could not get a good driving position after constantly attempting to adjust the seat in the Alfa).

Make sure you have a proper go in the 159 you plan to buy first. I bought it after reading all the good stuff, and wished I had taken more time to test drive it first. The fancy dashboard gets old really quick after you've gotten used to it. And the 159 seems terribly small inside. Perhaps that's just an illusion, but it seemed more cramped than my missus peugeot 307.

I took a week off work not long ago, and the 159 was that much of a chore to drive, we reverted to driving her 1.6 peugeot all week!

My 159 had 2 major problems:
1) It totally crapped out after 2 weeks of owning it. I think it was the EGR that went wrong, but they replaced all sorts of other stuff too.
2) The hand break (all though put on tightly) didn't hold it and it ran into the wall of my house - £1,000 for new front bumper.
Nothing else actually went wrong, but it always felt like something was just about to go wrong. Every time I drove it, I expected it to conk out.

Good luck if you buy one. I hope it just was mine that was particularly crummy.

 

[dpat]

Shame about yours benskia but good luck with the BM. I'm on 159 No.4 by the way; so far so good

 

[foofighter]

I totally agree with you - I was relieved to get shot of my 159..

Oh and yes I never ever got comfortable - after a long journey I could hardly walk

Those leather seats look nice but they didn't hold you in (which when a car rolls as much as the 159 is bad) and just aren't supportive enough..

Enjoy the BMW - the chassis will be in a different league and it will be worth more than buttons when you come too sell...

 

[foofighter]

oh and yes the room inside is unbelievable ! I've gone back to a Leon FR and it has loads more leg room than the 159 despite being considerably smaller !

 

[turbonutters]

Good luck with your new cars and now you can go of into the world and tell all the people you meet that Alfas are crap.:thumbs:

The rest of us prefer enjoying our cars and appreciate that you allowed a more deserving person the opportunity to drive a brilliant car without having to fork out loads of cash for a new one.

Didn’t you know that Alfa use uninformed people to buy new cars so that true Alfisti can get them at halve price secondhand. :cheese:
So all of us want to thank you for your part in ensuring that we can get good quality Alfas at acceptable prices.

P.S. Next time you have a urge to Buy a Alfa just sponsor a true Alfisti with 50% of the purchase price and spare yourself the bad experience.:thumbs:

 

[dpat]

oh and yes the room inside is unbelievable ! I've gone back to a Leon FR and it has loads more leg room than the 159 despite being considerably smaller !

You did test drive the 159 before buying it and made sure you knew exactly what you were buying into

Just remember this forum isn't representative of all Alfa owners, it's a cross section. There are plenty of people out there happily driving their Alfas who aren't aware of this forum and are happy with their cars.

Unfortunately it seems as with a lot of car forums that people only join up when they have issues with their cars therby giving a slightly skewed angle on the owner experience. Look at any BM/Merc/Audi forum and you will see plenty of people with car issues on there too. Equally there will be plenty of happy German marque drivers.

I'm on my 6th Alfa and 4th 159 as I already said. I've had two mechanical issues: EGR valve on my '56 plate 2.4 159 and a clutch replaced under warranty on my last 159. A couple of niggly, small faults and that's it.

Good luck with your new cars but don't go off thinking that all Alfas are rubbish.

 

[colins]

I owned various makes (German, Japanese and Italian) over the last 20 years. My last Alfa 147 has been on tow truck 3 times. Never had any tow truck experience with German or Japanese cars.

 

[Guest]

They are unreliable cars. in the 2 years I have had my 159 I have paid over £3,500 on repairs ( it's a long list!) Considering it's only just gone past 80k miles it just gets silly.

I can see benskias point. I can never fully relax because I'm not sure what will go wrong next...

 

[Guest]

Seem to be you got the wrong engine.

To say the 159is a bad car with only 2 issues (handbrake and the usualy DERV issues)
is a bit unfair.

It's not the best Alfa I've had, but I wouldn't say it's the worst car or
more unreliable than any others. (Again, maybe it's a DERV thing.)


Fit an finish is okay (the Brera was better) but to say it's old/dated/not
as good as the teutonic interiors is a bit hard also. (I can't stand the
current crop of fussy German interiors. Especially if you remove the leather option.)


Hope you have more luck with the Beemer.
(I know many people with Audis and Merc which had numerous issues,
but so far not much reported on the Beemer front.)

 

[Cuzz]

Glad to see you moved on... now how are we going to convince all the other forum members to buy reliable German cars...

 

[dpat]

foofighter seemed to share my views a few weeks ago.

http://www.alfaowner.com/Forum/4277049-post94.html

I also own a 2003 VW Golf - it gets serviced & MOT'ed once a year and that's it - 80k on the clock and still fine; I am not biased towards Alfas, to me it seems all car manufacturers produce good ones and bad ones. It just annoys me when people constantly bring up the 'Alfas are unreliable' line.

Nev don't forget the 2.2 stutter

 

[turbonutters]

100%

 

[GCDBONES123]

I wish i'd kept some of the massive repair bills from my 'ultra reliable' German cars ive owned.

 

[merlin]

Had my 159 2.4 ti for 8 months now. Engines a bit noisy and I don't realy like the diesel but I wanted an auto so I can't complain. I find it very comfy on long drives the steering isn't as heavy as some people say ( perhaps the wrong tyre pressure was used ) but it goes like stink when I want it so, so I have no complaints. And it's still the best looking car on the road IMOP.

 

[Top Down]

Its interesting the OP remarks about the 159 seats, I've driven/owned many cars including BMW, Merc and Audi, and I find the 159 seats very comfy. In fact, IIRC there has been mention on the 'other makes' forum as to how the BMW seats are 'like a park bench', also comments on the 'unforgiving' BMW suspension. I guess though once you've made your mind up, theres no turning back.

 

[Scruples]

Its interesting the OP remarks about the 159 seats, I've driven/owned many cars including BMW, Merc and Audi, and I find the 159 seats very comfy.

The seats in the ti are the most comfortable i've been in inside a car, and look smart as owt.

Not really sure what to make of the 'old man leather' comment? Did your seats come with wooden arms as well as tweed patterning? :lol:

 

[dpat]

The seats in the ti are the most comfortable i've been in inside a car, and look smart as owt.

I'll second that. Mine are half leather and half alcantara, coming from full leather in the Lusso I was a little worried I wouldn't like them but they are great better than the Lusso seats which were comfy anyway.