Just got my first car!

Cyrus

Unfortunatly no pics until tuesday need to pick her up!

Its a 99 Alfa 156, silver, 15 inch alloys, 48k on the clock, full alfa service history, timing belt changed at 40k, nct until feb 07. Interior is like new and theres a few minor scrapes on the exterior. There is a leather steering wheel and wood trim on the dash and gear knob (actually looks nice as its very dark, looks better than the carbon fibre imo), seats are a very dark navy almost black, couldnt get one with leather but id prefer low mileage and a good service history over leather seats!

Cost me the €6k and €1.5k (im 24) to insure im absolutely chuffed!! ill have piccies in a few days

My main question is tho, how do i best take care of my car and insure it remains in good running order? are there weekly checks i should do to make sure everything is running smoothly? anyone have like a checklist?

/edit looks the very same as this one, same alloys etc

lomb

rally the clappers out of it for a year until it is struggling to breathe, and then sell it in the buy and sell for 6k and advertise it as mint

seriously though, no real maintainence other than synthetic oil changes every 6k miles. enjoy the car

mike65

Congats on your first vroom vroom!

As for maintainence well its just the usual, obey your warning lights (water, oil etc) check tyre pressure every few weeks. Make sure you have enough water in the windscreen washers (sounds obvious but nothing worse than a semi wet day with loads of crap being thrown against your screen and running out of water). Look after your alloys, esp at the moment with treated roads...Sadly no Haynes manual for your car.

Mike.

Shing

Weekly checks may be a little excessive.

Warming Up:
Don't drive straight after ignition. Let the engine warm up briefly, especially on cold mornings. For the first ten minutes, keep the engine speed below 3000 rpm.

Every Two Weeks:
- Check Oil Level
- Check Tyre Pressure
- Check Tyre Threads
- Check Wiper Fluid

Regards,
Wai Shing

Cyrus

one alloy slightly kerbed is the only downer, but u cant get everything!

theres one minor scrape would tcut be of any use?

BrianD3

Sounds like a good buy. Nice to have a 156 as your first car

As regards looking after it most of that has been covered by previous posters. Give the car a quick check every week, only takes 5 minutes. Check the oil when the engine is cold and the car is parked on a level surface. The car will probably use a bit of oil between services in which case you should top it up. When topping up use the correct oil and don't let the oil level go above teh max mark on the dipstick.

Check the coolant level and condition every week too - car should not use coolant, if it does you could have a problem. If you do need to top up, buy the coolant from a FIAT/Alfa dealer.

Listen out for any unusual noises when driving along. If you hear any, don't ignore them.

After 48k miles, the car may be in need of a new set of front brake pads. Take off the front wheels and have a look at the pads, they will need to be replaced if they're down to about 3-4 mm thickness.

BrianD3

Squirrel

Sorry if its a bit off topic, but where did you get your insurance, and how long had you been a named driver? Very nice, enjoy it.

Cyrus

hibernian 4yrs as a named driver

Squirrel

Cheers Cyrus, nice car, have fun

ando

6k? You know the alfa's can be unreliable. 6k is a bargain, no?

Cyrus

plenty of cars can be unreliable, my friend has a 1.6ltr golf and hes had more trouble with it than i can remember, this alfa seems to have been trouble free and plenty of 156 owners seem happy so fingers crossed

6k seems like a very good price to be fair,

id have loved ur car but i couldnt afford it!

unkel

Cyrus wrote:

99 Alfa 156

Nice one

Not that many people that get a REAL car as their first car. Very good price as well and the insurance quote is great

Enjoy

AlisonB

nice first car.. mine was a ****ting 205 ... a T16 would have been nice but anyway .. best of luck with it!

alias no.9

Happy motoring, don't forget the oil checks, t-sparks do tend to use a bit between services.

curlywee

was goin to buy an alfa last year but got warned off by everybody including mechanics, Garage Owners even my brother who had a company a few years back

Gearbox apparently can give a lot of trouble so be gentle with her !

yop

Best of luck with it, keep her between the lines

qz

Congrats! Hopefully I'll get (either) a '88 BMW 320i or a '99 Honda S2000.

Tough decision :rolleyes: