from the garage where I keep it, around 10 miles away.

Haven't had a chance to use it since the first week of June, but once
I'd disconnected the battery, it fired up pretty much instantly.

Who says Alfas are unreliable?

--
SteveH 'You're not a real petrolhead unless you've owned an Alfa Romeo'
Alfa 156 TSpark Sportwagon Veloce Selespeed - Alfa 75 TSpark Lusso -
Ducati 750SS - BMW R100RT - Toyota Prius T-Spirit

SteveH wrote:
Mind you I could never make it start with the battery disconnected.
That is a skill I do not yet possess ;-)

John Chapman <jchapman (AT) REMOVETHISclara (DOT) net> wrote:

Doh!

'Re-connected'.

The 75 is on 132k-ish miles now and has only once left me stranded at
the side of the road.
--
SteveH 'You're not a real petrolhead unless you've owned an Alfa Romeo'
Alfa 156 TSpark Sportwagon Veloce Selespeed - Alfa 75 TSpark Lusso -
Ducati 750SS - BMW R100RT - Toyota Prius T-Spirit

SteveH wrote:
and would
fail the MOT so I traded it for a GT.
I had hoped to cover at least 100k miles in it.
Why are brake pipes still made from metal that will corrode ?
I seem to remember replacing a fixed brake pipe with one made
up from copper many years ago on a Renault 4.

On Sat, 5 Sep 2009 18:00:17 +0100, steve (AT) italiancar (DOT) co.uk (SteveH)
wrote:

Well..in over 8 years of driving my Alfa, it let me down for one fault
- a dying crank rpm sensor. There were a couple of other incidents but
they weren't the Alfa's fault - like the time number one bairn decided
to put the rear courtesy light on before I parked the thing up for 10
days!! Up until the Alfa was 7, AA membership had been a complete
waste of money. :-) Not too shabby.

One thing that bugged me with the Alfa has been it's monotonous
ability to require large amounts of work *every* time it went in for
an annual service even though the mileage was very low. Last time it
was rear pads and disks, handbrake cable and rear brake pipes.
However, I don't think Alfas (or even my Alfa) is remotely unique in
this matter.

Having said that, I've never felt overwhelmingly reassured of the
quality of parts or build of my 156 (front door handles, exhaust,
alloys, deep pile carpets and leather excepted). The knocking and
creaking from the front suspension over the last 6 years that no
garage can (will?) fix plus the numerous rattles, clonks, creaks and
squeaks from the cabin depending on the day of the week! Yes, I got
used to them. But when in somebody else's car, the silence made me
feel like I owned a kit car some idiot had built in a hurry.

Stupidest/funniest thing was when I cam out of a Tescos on a seriously
hot sunny day here this summer (early on!) to find one of the side
skirts had expanded in the heat and bulged out from the bodywork over
half its length by about 10cm.

--
Z
Scotland
Alfa Romeo 156 2.4JTD Veloce Leather
'Oil' be seeing you..
(Email must have the word 'Alfa' in the
subject line to get through auto-filtering)

Zathras wrote:
I've been in Alfas only since about 82. Can count the number of
breakdowns on the fingers of one hand.
Indeed.

Now that's odd. SWMBO currently has the 'pleasure' of a Vauxhall Astra
1.6 from the insco of the idiot that took her roughly. It's a horrid
*horrid* thing. Apart from being dog slow, it's rough, plasticky and
generally very nastily built. Yes it has toys, but ewwww.

I also feel pretty much the same about my mother's C5, my boss's 9-5 and
some of my staff have Merc C100s. Even worse than the Astra IMHO. So
not sure what cars you are getting in to

That's unusual


--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
116 Giulietta 3.0l Sprint 1.7 145 2.0 Cloverleaf 156 V6 2.5 S2
Triumph Sprint ST 1050: It's blue, see.
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

On Sun, 06 Sep 2009 11:11:03 +0100, Catman
<catman (AT) rustcuore-sportivo (DOT) co.uk> wrote:


A BMW..sadly.

--
Z
Scotland
Alfa Romeo 156 2.4JTD Veloce Leather
'Oil' be seeing you..
(Email must have the word 'Alfa' in the
subject line to get through auto-filtering)

Zathras <webnewsgroup (AT) nospamthanks (DOT) hotmail.com> wrote:

Hmmm, which model?

I've tested a 120d and 320d - both were hugely disappointing in terms of
fit / finish / 'feel'. They're not actually as well built as BMW would
have you believe and the supposedly 'class leading' 2lt diesel is no
more refined than the old PD boat anchor I had in my Passat.

I actually think the 159 is a significantly higher quality car than the
3-series and the 147, although dated, is no worse than a 1-series - in
many ways it's better, as it is not only pretty nicely finished, but
also has usable rear seats and a half decent sized boot.
--
SteveH 'You're not a real petrolhead unless you've owned an Alfa Romeo'
Alfa 156 TSpark Sportwagon Veloce Selespeed - Alfa 75 TSpark Lusso -
Ducati 750SS - BMW R100RT - Toyota Prius T-Spirit

Zathras wrote:
SWMBO refuses to have one.

--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
116 Giulietta 3.0l Sprint 1.7 145 2.0 Cloverleaf 156 V6 2.5 S2
Triumph Sprint ST 1050: It's blue, see.
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

On Sun, 6 Sep 2009 17:59:03 +0100, steve (AT) italiancar (DOT) co.uk (SteveH)
wrote:

3 litre 325d. Not remotely pretty but it would be impossible to choose
a 2.4 JTDm over even that low tune 3 litre BMW engine..

The current 2.4 JTDm is, frankly, embarrassing due to it being
unbelievably clicky/rattly - far, far worse than my 2001 car. :-((( I
compared one to a black taxi the other day and the taxi sounded much
more refined! This sad state of affairs was brought to my attention by
an Australian review of a 2.4 TI. Great car but they were particularly
scathing about the sound of the engine. I had to find out for
myself..and they were right. :-( I *really* fancied a 159 2.4JTDm TI
as well!!

That doesn't surprise me - I tend not to believe anyone related to the
motor industry. I think blind press repetition doesn't help either. I
don't think Alfas are as bad as they say or BMW/Audi/Merc are as good
as they say. Also, some manufacturers are undoubtedly cheapening their
product to maximise profits (or is that minimise losses?!).

I've never liked the sound of any 4 cylinder diesel. That's why I
bought the 5 cylinder JTD - I still love the sound it makes. It's loud
but tuneful and the diesel rattle only becomes bad when more than a
few degrees below zero.

I think it's quite difficult to tell real 'quality' until you've lived
with a product for a time and seen how it copes with the ravages of
use. Superficially, you can like the look and feeling of surface
materials but can you really tell how well are they held in place?

--
Z
Scotland
Alfa Romeo 156 2.4JTD Veloce Leather
'Oil' be seeing you..
(Email must have the word 'Alfa' in the
subject line to get through auto-filtering)