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Australian newby questions!

2K views 9 replies 7 participants last post by  147GTA 
#1 ·
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.
 
#2 · (Edited)
Mareksliwinski said:
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.
Some honesty is required from this Alfisti.

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 **** 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 **** 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.
 
#5 ·
David,

Your costs seem excessive. Who does all your work? Do you always use Alfa Romeo Original spares? Try ordering your spares from The Spare Place in Adelaide and getting a local Alfa-wise mechanic to install them for you.

Down here on my 75 3.0 I just paid $500 for a new set of uprated springs supplied & fitted and height adjusted to be correct, CV boot replacement (got from the Spare Place for $55 cheaper) and torsion bar adjustment so that car sits exactly right and level. The handling is a lot better now. That was with about the most expensive Alfa place in Melbourne because I wanted the suspension done correctly.
 
#6 · (Edited)
Well, my car isnt a 'new production car' and like you I don't (won't?) be doing the work on my car myself, I'd love to but I don't want to ruin a car thats been looked after very well for the past 17 years.

I have spent ~$10,000 in the past 14 months, this includes tyres and registration etc.

The large part of this cost was labour.

I've had the following done...

- New radiator.
- Foglights fixed. Button was broken and only one light was connected.
- Replaced Fuel Filter.
- Replaced Injectors.
- Few new gearbox bearings.
- New clutch (Whoops )
- R&R'ed a few things
- Lots of little adjustments/fixes.
- Scratched the front bumper :'(

Gearbox:
- Gear lever was hitting tail shaft, replaced 3 couplings
- R&R Gearbox, replaced four synchro rings, seals, nuts, clip, synchro sleeve, S&F Dogteeth for first, Nulon treatment for box and dif

Brakes & Clutch:
- Clutch Master cylinder replaced
- Brake master cylinder 'holed up'.
- Rear caliper's overhauled.
- Brake limiting valve replaced

Suspension:
- R&R lower control arms
- Replace caster arm bushes
- Replace rear panard rod bushing
- Replace dampers (Koni Yellows)

-Got another spare rim (warped the other one) and a wheel alignment. Usual oil replacement (Mobil 1 now, 15W-50).
-Was in an accident in which I bent my DeDion tube :O and subsequently a few other parts within the rear suspension area (incl one of the stub axles). And yet another rim.
-Clutch pedal kept loosing pressue, still havent figured this one out
-Shifter rattle.

A fair bit of work but the car has done over 250,000km's and I wont be seeing too many more problems I hope!

PS: Wouldn't trade my car for anything else worth $15k (My car is insured for $5k, I'm only insured till I get my rating 1 for three years :)).
 
#7 · (Edited)
Bernard when replacing the clutch master cyclinder I recommend replacing the clutch slave cyclinder and the rubber remote reservoir hose all at once. Also make sure you give it a really good flush out. I flushed my brakes at the same time. Perhaps as you did not replace the slave that could be your clutch pedal problem?

Beware of Gommet tubing stamped as Fuel hose but being sold as brake hose. I fitted some and it perished in a month, so I think it really was fuel hose. Demand something else if it has fuel hose printed on it even if the manufacturers are absolutely certain it is brake hose. :D

Why didn't you get a dog cut second gear aswell? I am thinking I might need to do some gearbox rebuilding soon. Where did you get your S&F dog cut gear from. Is it any good?

Oh and your car has travelled just under twice the distance of mine! :)

Simon
 
#8 · (Edited)
Well, atm the car is at the mechanic's (The replacing of the clutch master was to fix the problem, so now the slave might be being replaced too? Btw, the clutch system was bled like 4 times :S I'll tell you what comes up, I'm also sure the tubing is top quality) getting the clutch thing and shifter rattle aswell as new suspension parts put in (28.7mm torsion, 24mm adj rear sway, new rear springs [all Beninca gear]).

My gearbox is very odd right now, I can rarely shift into first without going into second beforehand. Third doesnt feel like "its in" until at the very end of its travel upwards. The gates feel very abnormal re first and second gear, but I have feeling this would coincide with the gear stick rattling [Read: Lower front shift linkage (assumed)] as it rattles like mad, I'll report back once I've driven it with that all better.

I'll find out where my first gear was done, it would have been somewhere around the Gold Coast. To be honest I'm not 100% on what a dog-cut is (I feel like a newbie :) [Well, I am :S]).
 
#9 ·
dude, get a well documented and serviced car and you will be fine. alfas are not super expensive ferrari's, everyday cars like anything else.

their service intervals are more costly than average but other than the little annoying electrical fault, their pretty good, the V6 being robust.

the 164 is a solid car and if maintained quite dependable.the interior trim only has a few weak spots but is rather well made and durable, check them and youll see for yourself. just make sure the electronics function, also a sign that the car hasnt been tinkered with by nobody.

you can expect almost japanese reliability but not maintenance, thats the truth about Alfas.
 
#10 ·
"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."

Not true about the interiors of the new cars like the 147, 156, 166, Spider and GTV. The interiors are solid.
 
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