Alfa 159 as a daily commuter?

g'day all.

mulling over what cheaper car to get as my daily commuter (80miles a day, so a diesel it needs to be)... we've been looking at a focus, it was a 60plate 1.6 tdci titanium. nice spec car, but my god slow!

so then last night i had an idea! an alfa 159! lovely cars, wanted one before I got what I got now. it's a good car, with plenty of spec and look like cheap cars but great looking! winner!

anyone got as a daily commute? how is it for fuel? is it fun? worth a re map? much difference in economy between the 1.9 and 2.4? budget of around 6k-7k.

what sort of problems?

Is it not the vauxhall engine?

If so, floating flywheel goes at around 80K, DPF problems.

Kind of defeats the purpose of running a diesel for a daily commuter?

Passat will do 50-60mpg easy over an 80 mile return commute. In fact 60mpg+ wouldnt be much of a stretch these days

I agree to a certain extent but the torque made it an excellent motorway cruiser. Just depends what you want from a car, I was willing to take a bit of a hit on mpg. Thankfully it wasn't a Passat

OP, please ignore this poster his comments are unhelpful and inaccurate.

The Diesel engine in the 159 is not a Vauxhall engine, it's an engine developed by FPT Fiat Power Trains. It's a tremendously reliable engine which was first used in the 156. There are 4 states of tune for the 4 cylinder car including; 1.9 8v, 1.9 16v, 2.0 140bhp and 2.0 170bhp. The later two engines are the latest generation JTDM-2 power plants which are more powerful, economical, smoother and quieter.

The 1.9 16v is good but not particularly quick, if you are able to stretch to the 2.0 16v it's a better bet in my view, this doesn't mean I would buy a 1.9.

On higher mileage cars make sure they've had the all important cambelt change. A lot of people have been changing them at 4 years or 60,000 miles or there abouts.

Reports seem to suggest that the water pump should be changed at the same time; do you agree?

Also (slightly off topic, and I'll probably get mauled for mentioning the A-word on PistonHeads), do you happen to know if the Q-tronic gearbox a conventional automatic with a torque convertor, or a robotised manual? I presume that if it's the former it would obviate any issues with dual mass flywheel, but are there any other reputed issues associated with it, do you know?

Really?

Whilst i may be slightly incorrect in the absolute ownership of the engine rights, with regards to the 1.9 JTD / 1.9CDTI

"Most of the Fiat, Alfa Romeo and Lancia range has JTD engines. Ownership of some Fiat JTD designs is shared with General Motors as part of a settlement of the failed merger between the two auto conglomerates. GM Powertrain Torino group in Turin, Italy manages their interest in these engines."

"The Multijet second generation features a common-rail design and is available with seven different power outputs. The 8-valve version has 100 PS (74 kW; 99 hp), 120 PS (88 kW; 120 hp) or 130 PS (96 kW; 130 hp), the last four with variable geometry turbocharger; and the 16-valve version have 134 PS (100 kW; 136HP), 138 PS (103 kW; 140HP), 150 PS (110 kW; 150 hp) or 170 PS (130 kW; 170 hp).

Opel also uses a version of this engine. Their CDTI engine, manufactured in Pratola Serra, Italy and Kaiserslautern, Germany, is the product of the half-decade joint venture between GM and Fiat. It is used in the Vectra, Signum, Astra, Zafira, Cadillac BLS and Suzuki SX4 as well as some Saabs marked as TiD and TTiD (twinturbo version)."

Also, with regards to my comments being "unhelpful", i'm giving the O/P options to consider, sorry if you as an Alfa "advocate" find that "unhelpful".

Speaking as a motor trader, i personally dont like that 1.9 engine, no matter which engine bay it is situated in, based on reliability issues that i have seen.

I bought a 2.4 a couple of years ago purely because it looked awesome, a couldn't live with it after a month or two a horrible car so got rid, they maybe transformed after remap but standard it was pitiful!

If your preference is the alfa and you're more interested in style over substance then go for it.

Its not like i havent done the same before myself. I bought a 3 year old 156 2.5 v6 Veloce from a main Alfa Dealer when the sensible money would have bought a merc or bmw. Had a wail of a time with it and loved the car. Wasnt without its fair share of problems though.

Then bought a 147 1.9JTD Ti new (well, pre-registered). Again, loved the car but took a bath come resale time.