01-06-2005, 02:45 PM
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Registered User
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Join Date: May 2003
Location: Sydney Australia
Posts: 4,073
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 Quote:
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Originally Posted by Mareksliwinski
Hi, im new to this forum, and i am considering buying an alfa as my first car - In particular a 156 or 164. Here in Brisbane Australia i have sen plenty of 156's for under 30 grand and 164's seem all to be under 140,000. I have heard a lot about alfas being wonderful cars to drive, and i certainly love the looks, but i have also heard alot about them beign troublesome, expensive to repair and thus consequently not a good choice for a first car. How true are these criticisms? Thanks.
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Modern Alfa Romeos (particularily) are not of the same quality as say a BMW or Toyota. Thus things like trim do not age well, or get in and start everyday with no issues, etc.
This means that you will occassionally get a car that will drive perfectly until it's death, due to really high mileage of whatever, with out any issues at all ... and the owner loved it. Unfortunately this means also that the same type of car down the road has not been as perfect and has had issues and struggled to do the mileage ... and if the owner is not a die hard Alfisti they will never buy another.
Alfa Romeos IMO take a bit of love to own one and if you have the feel for them and appreciate the driving experience, etc. you will suffer these little issues and like a good Alfisti sort them out and finish off the car for Alfa Romeo ... Ducati owners will know what I am talking about.
Saying that I believe the 156's are pretty damn well put together and thus the quality would be a step up from the 164 ... but again if you are used to solid German and the almost no maintenance aspects of Japanese cars, the inside (particularly) of an Alfa Romeo will seem to light and weak, and extra love they need a pain.
Good luck, buy wisely, get checked by an Alfa Romeo dealer or service place ... never take it to a general purpose servicing place as they will be scared sh!t less (and thus charge accordingly) ... and check very, very carefully for rust. Modern Alfa Romeos do have a long rust warranty but it requires the car to be serviced by an Alfa Romeo dealer ALL it's life (I believe) and any issues to be repaired straight away!
Pete
ps: 164's have a reputation for front windscreen leaks ... which are apparently hard to resolve. Thus run away from one with evidence of this.
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ps: Remember it's all just opinions 
'71 1750 Series 2 GTV: http://www.alfabb.com/bb/forums/showthread.php?p=208078
Last edited by PSk; 01-06-2005 at 02:50 PM.
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