RE: Shed Of The Week: Alfa Romeo 147 Selespeed

RE: Shed Of The Week: Alfa Romeo 147 Selespeed

Author
Discussion

pSyCoSiS

3,594 posts

205 months

Friday 29th August 2014
quotequote all
Not my cup of tea. I prefer the bigger, older Alfas like the 164 and 166.

A 3.0 litre V6 in one of those would be rather nice!

DMN

2,983 posts

139 months

Friday 29th August 2014
quotequote all
1878 said:
DMN said:
markmullen said:
The only issues I had in mine was the front suspension being made of chocolate, and its predilection for eating bulbs.
Thats an issue with this whole Alfa range, the 156, 147 and the GT. My 156 ate its way through upper wishbones.
Thankfully a fairly cheap fix, though still annoying.
Silicone spray was always the way to silence the noise, for a short while.

Alfa159Ti

827 posts

157 months

Friday 29th August 2014
quotequote all
I was only thiking the other day that these and the face lift versions have aged really gracefully.

Stick on a cheap private plate and they still look pretty current next to newer hatches.

Rumblestripe

2,926 posts

162 months

Friday 29th August 2014
quotequote all
Beautiful car, but not for me with that gearbox! I'm sure I could learn to use it but the tales of unreliability scare the life out of my wallet (poor little thing).

J4CKO

41,499 posts

200 months

Friday 29th August 2014
quotequote all
Funny how in 2000 that gearbox looked like a viable option, at the cutting edge of technology, until people realised it just wasnt any good and was woefully unreliable, I suspect some manage with it just fine, it cannot really be that bad.

Nice car otherwise, would need to get it cheaper so I would just scrap it if the box eats itself rather than spending more money on it, wonder how many people have sunk thousands into keeping something like that going ?




trashbat

6,006 posts

153 months

Friday 29th August 2014
quotequote all
I don't think I'd dare have one, but the unreliability of Selespeed as reported at the time was probably a little bit overcooked.

I remember seeing at least a couple being repaired at specialists where the owner had filled the Sele fluid reservoir with screenwash.

V8 FOU

Original Poster:

2,971 posts

147 months

Friday 29th August 2014
quotequote all
Ahhh. The wonders of the internet.

I cannot believe that I am alone in liking and not having any problem with a Selespeed. I wonder how many detractors have actually driven one? The change is very slick and great fun. Jeeez if it's a shed like mine, you can weigh it in if it gets too bad.

I guess it's the usual manual/auto PH thing. some of us need an auto due to a disability.

Anyway, keep on like this and it will make these cars cheap for those who appreciate them. Now, there were one or two GTA's with Selespeed. Now that would be my sort of car.....

trashbat

6,006 posts

153 months

Friday 29th August 2014
quotequote all
Incidentally, what was the system like when used elsewhere?

According to Wiki it (the Magneti Marelli system) got used in the F355 F1, the AM Vanquish and BMW's first-generation SMG.

It also wound up in the 159-era cars, by which point it'd presumably been further refined, but you never hear about those in the UK.

Motorrad

6,811 posts

187 months

Friday 29th August 2014
quotequote all
Selecting a selespeed is shed's way of trolling us.

TNH

559 posts

147 months

Friday 29th August 2014
quotequote all
V8 FOU said:
Ahhh. The wonders of the internet.

I cannot believe that I am alone in liking and not having any problem with a Selespeed. I wonder how many detractors have actually driven one? The change is very slick and great fun. Jeeez if it's a shed like mine, you can weigh it in if it gets too bad.

I guess it's the usual manual/auto PH thing. some of us need an auto due to a disability.

Anyway, keep on like this and it will make these cars cheap for those who appreciate them. Now, there were one or two GTA's with Selespeed. Now that would be my sort of car.....
I bought a brand new one and it was back at the dealers twice a month until I finally got bored of the free coffee.

Roma101

837 posts

147 months

Friday 29th August 2014
quotequote all
I drove my dad's 2.0 twin spark for about a year. It was great. The interior compared to contemporary rivals was amazing. It felt very luxurious. Sadly, the car spent as much time at the dealers as it did on the road, so it didn't last long.

Limpet

6,307 posts

161 months

Friday 29th August 2014
quotequote all
A good mate ran a 156 Selespeed as a company car. Spent four solid months of its first year in the dealer with transmission problems. In the end, the lease company swapped it out (for a Golf).

Prawnboy

1,326 posts

147 months

Friday 29th August 2014
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still feeling the pain of my Alfa experiance to get excited by another just yet.........i need time.

Luca Brasi

885 posts

174 months

Friday 29th August 2014
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I had GT with one of these boxes, lovely car ruined by a hateful gearbox.

soad

32,882 posts

176 months

Friday 29th August 2014
quotequote all
I've found located a number of 147 V6 GTA's in the ads. I was browsing. Damn you, PistonHeads! smash

only1ian

688 posts

194 months

Friday 29th August 2014
quotequote all
Had a 145 cloverleaf which was great and have always hankered after a 147 but think it would have to be a GTA, manual with a Q2 diff and afew auto delta upgrades

only1ian

688 posts

194 months

Friday 29th August 2014
quotequote all
Had a 145 cloverleaf which was great and have always hankered after a 147 but think it would have to be a GTA, manual with a Q2 diff and afew auto delta upgrades! Much like this:

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/a...

Ali_T

3,379 posts

257 months

Friday 29th August 2014
quotequote all
I like 147s but if I had a grand and a need to spend it on an Alfa, I'd find a 75, 33P4 or 145 Cloverleaf instead.

jimbro1000

1,619 posts

284 months

Friday 29th August 2014
quotequote all
I've driven three of these and each one was as bad as the last. The selespeed gearbox is terrible when it works and can only get worse. It might be an alfa with a "great" twinspark engine but I've never been so deeply unimpressed with a car.

Do yourself a favour and just buy a 145 or a 146 instead.

Better still buy an Abarth 500 and get something that actually works and goes better.

Not often do I criticise the shed choice but this one really is monumentally bad...

Chris Stott

13,342 posts

197 months

Friday 29th August 2014
quotequote all
I had a 156 Selespeed as a company car (2002-2006, 70k miles). The gearbox is a complete POS.

Typical example; Centre of Birmingham, 8am rush hour, pull up at a set of traffic lights, lights change to green, try to select 1st gear, nothing happens. Push car to the side of the road, phone AA, have car recovered to Surrey.

Mine was off the road almost as much time as it was on it. And the dealers were worse than useless.