Alfa 156 Sportwagen . Pleasure or pain?

[wombat rick]

Tricky one...
Some Alfas have the master brown key.
The newer ones don't.
I'm not sure of the cut off point either.
I will try and found out.

[Twin Turbo]

Cheers. I guess as long as I ask I should have some sort of comeback (it's a Mazda dealer we're buying from...)

[silverback mike]

Twin,
Yours will probably have the same keys as mine. It is a large fob with a spring that produces the key from within (flicknife style ) It also has 2 buttons on it. One for opening/closing the car. The other for boot release.

I had 3 with mine, so you should have a few as well as they are expensive to replace.

[dougal]

Mine is a late 2002 156, 150bhp revision model, we got two keys, asked about the red one and was told it shouldn't have one. One of the fobs broke and was replaced under warrenty, around £100 I think if we had had to pay for it.

[Twin Turbo]

Thanks all. When I test drove it the other day, there were two identical black key fobs(one of which didn't appear to unlock the car....so I might ask them to replace/fix it if it's going to cost £100!!!!)


Cheers

[wombat rick]

Just to confirm then... early 156's came with two identical bright red keys. Around the time of the Sportwagon launch the system changed to two identical black keys (foldable type) and the feature of the remote boot/tailgate release was introduced.
The 156 never had the brown master key system used on other Alfas and Fiats.

Thanks to David C for the info.

[silverback mike]

I dipped in with 3 of them then..

[Twin Turbo]

Thanks guys.

Good news. Test drove the 1.8 Lusso today (or rather the missus did). She likes it, but said it was underpowered!

Looks like it's the 2.0 Veloce then

One final check over on Saturday, and it will probably be ours

[silverback mike]

Good call from Mrs Turbo.....Keep us posted then.

[wombat rick]

Twin Turbo said:

but said it was underpowered!

All the Twin Sparks feel a bit like that as there is very little torque low down. You need at least 4,000 on the clock for things to pick up. If you get out of a "normal" 1.8 or 2.0, they do feel a bit flat.

[Twin Turbo]

Thought so. She didn't have the bottle to rev the nuts off it with the Sales Manager alongside

I'll make sure she gives the 2.0TS the full fury of her right foot tomorrow morning

[Twin Turbo]

Well..........we're now the proud owner of a 156 2.0 Twin Spark Sportwagen in Veloce spec

Very pleased with it so far, although I'll be claiming a few things on the warranty. Firstly, those front suspension bushes! Bit wierd as the squeeking/groaning isn't always present, but I'll get them replaced anyway. Other than that, theres a slow motor on the drivers side rear 'leccy window (not a major problem as we don't usually have rear seat passengers - and it's got climate control anyway )
Finally, one keyfob has a flat battery. Does this require "resetting" by an Alfa dealer. If so, any idea how much?

Other than that, she's just received her first Twin Turbo wash 'n wax

[silverback mike]

Well done fella

Batteries are a straightforward swap, no problems there.
I quite like my occasional creaky bushes, bit like my knee - creaks selectively....

I promised to put pics of mine on here, can't work out how to do it, you will have to beat me to it.

[wombat rick]

WhoooHooo! Nice one!

Another 5-door coupe driver.

[DinkyToy-boy]

wombat rick said:

WhoooHooo! Nice one! Another 5-door coupe driver.

Yes indeedy, welcome to the club. My particular poison ended up being the Sportwagen (2.0JTS Veloce),which I still find a thrill to get in and drive.

It's now a couple of thousand miles off needing it's 10K service and am thinking I want to take it to a specialist Alfa place, but the real specialists seem to be all in the south from what I can see. Do we know of one in the north west? Is it worth bothering being too fussy for a 10K service, or will my local Alfa dealer be able change oil and check brakes etc adequately

[Twin Turbo]

Bit early for me to comment on the dealer network

Still, to be honest I'll probably use the guy that looks after my 300ZX as he's as honest as the day is long (the longer the daylight, the less he does wrong - to quote Madness!!). Blimmin' cheap too!

I bought the car from a Mazda dealer (it was a trade-in) and I have a 12 month warranty with them. However, the car's only 2.5 years old, so still has 6 mths Alfa warranty remaining. Is this transferable? How's this done?

I'll be taking it back tomorrow to get them to look at the slow rear 'leccy window and try and convince them to replace the squeeky bushes

Pretty scary thought - 18 months ago this car retailed at a bit over £18k, and I've just paid £8.5k!!!!

[silverback mike]

Mine is a 2001 Y plate, all the toys, £5900 it cost me.... I pity the one previous owner...

[wombat rick]

DinkyToy-boy said:

Is it worth bothering being too fussy for a 10K service, or will my local Alfa dealer be able change oil and check brakes etc adequately

Not sure what happens to the warranty if you service it outside the dealer network. I don't know of any specialists in the North West since Westune closed down. Any garage should be able to do oil and filters etc. You could supply your own parts from EB Spares if you wanted to make sure it was good stuff. They might not be able to reset the service indicator without the Alfa Examiner though.
Servicing is 12,000 miles or 12 months whichever comes first. JTS needs 10/60 fully synthetic oil.