Alfa 156 as unrelaible as I think they are..?

[xpeterpx]

Curious so I thought I'd run it by you knowledgeable lot.
Always liked the style of the 156 this ones older on a 51 plate-low miles with basic history.
Never worked on one myself but do you guys see many of these and are alfa's generally as unreliable as people think?
Any advice on running and servicing costs etc appreciated

Pete

[AXracing]

My old work had one for years and it never had any problems. That did mega miles as well.

[Jazz]

Guy who sold me my old Type R went out and bought a 156 GTA. It leaked oil and eventually melted it's engine all within 6 months. This is a guy who is anal with maintenance, the car he sold me was mint. The Alfa courtesy cars also broke down and the garage tried to blame him for it. The GTA was one of his dream cars but 6 months later he got rid for a 330D Touring. He said his Alfa experience was a living nightmare.

[NismoSteve]

Generally the engines are pretty good, I've had a lot of fiat / Alfa stuff over the years. Its the electrics that's usually the biggest problem. Rust was a major problem years ago but they finally got on top of that in the mid 90s.
Parts are pretty expensive (genuine)
Owning an Alfa is all about maintenance really lol! But despite the negativity they are a great drive!

[swampy]

Have not long got the wife one as her daily drive
We got the 2.4 5 cylinder 20 valve diesel

Full grey leather which is rare
Full electrics

Lovely motor to drive plenty of torque in any of the 6 gears.

The main bug bear of the 156 is the suspension bushes dry out and squeak !!!

Our car is going back to the garage to have this rectified when we get back ontve country

We chopped a Mondeo tdci in for the car and I can honestly say the Alfa is a far better car, even gets better mpg at around 50mpg which is better than the book figure

[chinkostu]

Friend of mine has a 156, all owners had been anal about maintaining it, so despite its mileage its going good!

[rob_s]

Nice to drive wouldn't have one for myself!

I took a nice 03 plate lusso in p/x, full leather, a kind of b&w sat nav,all the toys!

Couldn't sell it so used it myself till tax ran out

In that time the body control modual failed! Gear selector went!

Ended up getting £550 on eBay! A lot of car for the money but very expensive when they go wrong!

Also a tell tale sign of the modual going is the o/s brake and side light warning coming up on dash but the bulb being fine! I had this for a few days,then it got worse and worse where it would constantly display error messages on start up

Tbh it handled and drove well till the selector went

Also had a 147, that was a 16k car in 2005 I sold it for 1500 7 years later!! Again it had electrical problems aswell

Some depreciation in them,id neverever buy a new alfa!

Also common for HG going aswel

[xpeterpx]

Cheers guys some good advice there

[potatopete]

Over the years, I've looked into buying an Alfa quite a few times, but reliability and repair costs ALWAYS come out to warn me not to get one.

They've always been known to break, and this is why I've never bought one myself.

(Nice looking motors tho!)

[Scott-jarvis]

If you like it Get it. lol. Ive got my Heart set on a Alfa GT.
Have you tried looking on Alfa Romeo Owners Club ???
Theres tonnes of Info on there !!

[vidal]

An Alfa - pah. Come back when you've had a Lancia as a daily driver, then you will know about unreliability.

V.