Should I buy?

antodeco

hey all,

honest opinions on this. thinknig of buying it.

http://www.carzone.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car&carID=453766

thanks

Thomas_S_Hunterson

May suffer from reliability issues. Not sure though

antodeco

thats what i was thinking. Ive heard that there are 2 types of alfa's, ultra reliable, or **** reliable, luck of the draw. Theyre such nice cars tho, and u dont see many of them around.

lomb

lovely looker, a bit pricy no? should be under alfa warranty i think possibly.

antodeco

lomb wrote:

should be under alfa warranty i think possibly.

good point, didnt think of that. whats the resale like on them tho?

Eoin

antodeco wrote:

good point, didnt think of that. whats the resale like on them tho?

It's shite resale.

Check out the long list of alfa threads in the sticky - seriously, this has been covered to death and beyond at this stage.

hosi

Looks nice, but Alfa Romeo isn't really reliable.

JohnCleary

Why the fsck are you asking us? If you want to buy it, buy it. Seriously like, you're asking us to judge a car on pictures!

Eoin

hosi wrote:

Looks nice, but Alfa Romeo isn't really reliable.

For fùcks sake, here we go again. The usual trolls are en-route I'm sure.

OP, check these threads out - the chances any questions you might have, have been covered before.
Are Alfas Any Good?
Alfa 156 thread
Alfa 156 buying advice thread
Alfa 147, any good?
Owner feelings towards Alfas
Positively the final Alfa Thread

antodeco

eoin_s wrote:

For fùcks sake, here we go again. The usual trolls are en-route I'm sure.

OP, check these threads out - the chances any questions you might have, have been covered before.
Are Alfas Any Good?
Alfa 156 thread
Alfa 156 buying advice thread
Alfa 147, any good?
Owner feelings towards Alfas
Positively the final Alfa Thread

cool cheers for that. I wasnt able to search earlier!

Eoin

antodeco wrote:

cool cheers for that. I wasnt able to search earlier!

No worries. It's come up so many times, Mike65 put them in one of the stickies.

antodeco

eoin_s wrote:

No worries. It's come up so many times, Mike65 put them in one of the stickies.

sh!t, didnt see that! Me just being lazy I suppose! I think ill take the plunge and get it. Its one sexy car..

cantdecide

i'd have it. it's a lot to spend though. you could probably get a '02 A4 tdi for €20k.

antodeco

i have a 2006 almera at this point in time. very boring car. Im only 24, so cant go for anything too powerful, insurance and all. The alfa is 120 bhp, which is nice in a small car. kick that in with traction control and ur laughing. it has alot of features on it, but my concern is the reliability. Saying that pre 02 cars seem to have the issues. Plus it will still be under alfa warranty for at least another year

Santa Claus

Have you looked into buying a similar age/milage from the UK ?
It should be a lot cheaper and the warranty from alfa UK would be valid over here AFAIK.

Mike2006

I had an Alfa 147 for 4 years from new and here is my experience.

Spec: '02 Alfa 147 - 1.6L - Lusso - 3 Door - Alfa Red

Good points:
Great looking car especially 3 door version.
Extras - Had steering wheel controls, aircon, 6 cd-changer, cruise control etc... as standard. Unheard of in other models.
Great drive. Even though it is a 1.6 it had plenty pepp especially in 3rd gear.

Bad Points:
Dealer was crap if there was a problem.
Bulbs - Went through about 15 bulbs in 4 yrs.
Service costs: Because timing belt has to be changed every 36k this worked out to be costly. A general service with Gerry in TI Autos was about €300 and every 2nd service cost about €500. Service every 10k miles.
Oil: These engines 'use' oil. 1 litre every 1,500miles. Make sure you have a drum of oil and keep an eye on it. I used to dip every time I filled the window washer reservoir.

After ~65k miles and 4 yrs I traded the car in for a VW Passat.
I purchased the car for €22,500 and traded it in for €12,700.
That was 56% of the initial price after 4 yrs. Not bad at all.
Saying that, the worst offer of a trade in I got was €8,500 !!

Mechanical Problems:

4th Gear had to be replaced after 1.5 yrs under warranty. (kept slipping out).
Bushings were worn and I did not replace as they are attached to arm which requires engine to be removed to get at!!!
From what I have read, stay away from selespeed.


Overall:

I found it to be a reliable car but I did look after it carefully which is a must.
I did not buy another Alfa because the 156 would have been the natural progression and I did not feel that that particular model was up to scratch at the time.
Peoples perception is 'They are unreliable' but you will meet people from both sides of that fence.

Hope this helps.

Mike.

pbergin

That car does seem a bit expensive, I had a 156 and I had no complaints about it, I only went through 1 bulb in 2.5 years !!
As previously said, timing belt needs to be changed every 36k miles and another thing to check is the service history, if any service is not in the book or was late (i.e. 12k miles between service) then the warrenty in invalid, so make sure the service history is fully stamped up.

prospect

That price could be negotiated down a bit.
The 147 actually holds its vales fairly well.

There is still a full two years warranty on that car, as they come with 3 years from new.

Fey!

Is the warranty owner transferable?

prospect

Manufacturer warranty, yes, always.

antodeco

prospect wrote:

That price could be negotiated down a bit.
The 147 actually holds its vales fairly well.

There is still a full two years warranty on that car, as they come with 3 years from new.

Cheers!! I was looknig everywhere on their site to see it, couldnt find it anywhere. Well thats alot of piece of mind already. I know it has a FSH will again eases the mind a bit. There are alot of extras on the car and its such a good looker. Whilst there is a chance of unreliability, there is also a chance it wil lbe perfect. I worked with phones for several years, and id prefer not to buy a Nokia phone. Simply because there is a 60% return rate. If this was made public, would peolpe still buy them?

I think with everything you have to take a chance. Luckily, this chance will be covered for another 2 years under Alfa's warranty

PauloMN

cantdecide wrote:

i'd have it. it's a lot to spend though. you could probably get a '02 A4 tdi for €20k.

What does a diesel engined 4 door saloon which will have about 60k on it have to do with a petrol engined 3 door hatchback with 12k on it?

As for the reliability issues - in fairness, it's a 2005 - not a 1998, it's a 147, not a 156. A lot of the issues have been sorted out from what I have read.

Push them on the price, and if it's in good shape, go for it.

antodeco

PauloMN wrote:

What does a diesel engined 4 door saloon which will have about 60k on it have to do with a petrol engined 3 door hatchback with 12k on it?

As for the reliability issues - in fairness, it's a 2005 - not a 1998, it's a 147, not a 156. A lot of the issues have been sorted out from what I have read.

Push them on the price, and if it's in good shape, go for it.

Exactly. Its a new car, and alfa have made alot of improvements to their cars. From what Ive read, it does seem to be the 156 that has the issues. Oh well, I will find out tommorow if Im getting it or not. They are offering me 16.5k for my car. If I can do the whole deal for another 2/2.5k ill take it