RE: Shed Of The Week: Alfa Romeo 147 Selespeed

RE: Shed Of The Week: Alfa Romeo 147 Selespeed

Author
Discussion

interloper

2,747 posts

254 months

Friday 29th August 2014
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You need brave pills before considering a selespeed. They were a disaster when they came out, there's nothing like being stranded on a roundabout with a box full of neutrals!

I suppose the surviving cars may have luckier gearboxes but I wouldn't trust one, especially as a daily. Its got to be a manual when it comes to 147s.

sinbaddio

2,357 posts

175 months

Friday 29th August 2014
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"Ensmoothen". Is that a real word? If not it should be.

Anyway. The up shift paddle on my GT Selespeed came off in my right hand. Much to the hilarity of my children. Aside from that little glitch, I quite liked it.

dinkel

26,889 posts

257 months

Friday 29th August 2014
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I think a drive in a 1.6 147 was the biggest dissapointment ever: I expected it to be 156-ish but it just wasn't.

Totally lacked the Alfafeel I was looking for.

Sorry ...

waynedear

2,158 posts

166 months

Friday 29th August 2014
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I would have that, not at that price though.

scottos

1,139 posts

123 months

Friday 29th August 2014
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I've got a 156 JTS Lusso going up in the next couple of days for around that price. I'd rather have one of them over the 147 tbh, especially in manual but cracking to see the alfas in shed of the week again, so much car for the money!

My Evil Twin

457 posts

132 months

Friday 29th August 2014
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people in the office are staring at the weirdo over in the corner, me (more so than normal) as I chortle away to myself at reading this article..

Nice article, made Friday afternoon a little better.
Nice looking car, but I wouldn't touch it with yours hehe

Gliaviate

23 posts

146 months

Friday 29th August 2014
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In my experience good examples of the older Alfas were really great cars and I still have a 115 S4 Spider. The 156, and to a slightly lesser extent the 147 (IMO), was among the beautiful mass produced cars since the dawn of motoring. However, the two I had were dreadful- nasty, brittle ride quality and the most unreliable cars I have had in over forty years of car ownership. Mine broke down more often than all of my other cars put together. There are specialists who understand the Selespeed but the 157/147 era of Alfa has too many bad memories for me to consider another one even at shed level.

voicey

2,453 posts

186 months

Friday 29th August 2014
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There's nothing wrong in principle with the selespeed system - it is the same as the Ferrari F1 and Maserati Cambiocorsa systems.

The problem is that you really need to get you head around how the system works and how to fault find when it goes wrong. Also, you need expensive diagnostic machines to set one up.

mrclav

1,281 posts

222 months

Friday 29th August 2014
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I owned one of these in my younger days and as many have previously stated it is a very stylish (if typically Italian spirited) car for what even not a huge amount of money back then.

Mine suffered from all sorts of electrical gremlins which went from windows not winding down (or back up) to complete engine cut-outs whilst driving (on the North Circular and the A10 no less - fun times!) but I found that after I installed a new battery everything pretty much disappeared. I was sad to see mine go even though it was the most unreliable car I've ever owned.

With all that said I truly understand why people love Alfa's so much.

Motormatt

484 posts

217 months

Friday 29th August 2014
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Cant comment on the Selespeed 'box, but can only say positive things about the rest of the car.

My wife had an '03 147 2.0TS Lusso manual for a couple of years, which we bought at 7 years old and 50k miles for not a lot. It was a great little car.
Fun to drive, lovely engine and completely reliable. The only thing wrong with it was a dodgy seat height adjuster. Interior held up well and the heated leather seats were particularly nice in something so cheap!
Sold it to a mate who still has it and it is still running faultlessly, now 11 years old.

I'd agree with others on here that say they need looking after properly though. It has always been serviced and maintained by the book. Anyone averse to spending on maintenance would be better in something dull and japanese or korean.

The Don of Croy

5,977 posts

158 months

Friday 29th August 2014
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I understood - probably wrongly - that the selespeed system was used by (whisper it) BMW on the E46 325 option.

A similar (but more reliable?) system is fitted to my MR2, and has similar warnings from armchair officionados (whereas in 3.5 years it's been 100% reliable).

And heated leather seats...the very height of opulence. Want.

muppet42

326 posts

204 months

Friday 29th August 2014
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Driven two 147s - a 1.6 and the 2 litre, the latter being a manual rather than SOTW's Selespeed. I have to say, they were pretty awful. Maybe the two I did drive were a bit broken but I was thoroughly disappointed by them compared to the 1.2 Stilo I'd owned long term, which shares many of its underpinnings with said Alfa.

Been behind the wheel of a few other Alfas of this generation...GTVs and a 156 and I enjoyed both greatly. The 147 though just wasn't there for me. Now the GTA may be a different matter but I doubt it'll be SOTW any time soon lol

Edited by muppet42 on Friday 29th August 15:52

MadDog1962

890 posts

161 months

Friday 29th August 2014
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Looks to be in great condition, and those seats look very nice.

However, some reading through the forums suggests that this one is due for a potentially expensive service (belts and bushings every 36,000 miles...), plus there's the dreaded Selafield gearbox which I view with suspicion.

Having fond memories of my '79 Sud 1.5 Ti and mother's '82 Giullietta always draws me towards Alfas. Despite their quirks. I'd be tempted to take this one for test drive and if it drove well make a cheeky offer. It has to be worth £500 for spares alone.

I WISH

874 posts

199 months

Friday 29th August 2014
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I'm the guy who's selling the Alfa on behalf of a mate. Interesting article on the history of the Selespeed system. I have the driven the car quite a bit and would agree with the observations about needing to "drive" the box as if it were a true manual. It sort of makes it more fun than a "normal" manual to drive.
For what it's worth ... I have know the car since it was one year old. It's had a fairly easy life and the gearbox was overhauled about 4 years ago by an independent Alfa specialist at a cost of about £400 ... so not the end of the world cost wise.
Apart from that the box hasn't really been an issue ..... and the rest of the car has been pretty reliable too.
(Oh and there's £200 worth of road tax on the car).
Go on .... you know you want to!

Geoffcapes

670 posts

163 months

Friday 29th August 2014
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Great cars! I've had two! But wouldn't touch a Selespeed!

Here's my last one.


gaz9185

105 posts

170 months

Friday 29th August 2014
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MadDog1962 said:
Looks to be in great condition, and those seats look very nice.

However, some reading through the forums suggests that this one is due for a potentially expensive service (belts and bushings every 36,000 miles...), plus there's the dreaded Selafield gearbox which I view with suspicion.

Having fond memories of my '79 Sud 1.5 Ti and mother's '82 Giullietta always draws me towards Alfas. Despite their quirks. I'd be tempted to take this one for test drive and if it drove well make a cheeky offer. It has to be worth £500 for spares alone.
Please tell me who is keen on a used Alfa - yes, I bought another one! - but much advertising raised £250 for a 156 52 plate Sportwagon with leather and no damage: new owner got next MOT for rear brake shoes cost. Lots of usual front suspension problems while I had it, but the FIAT Bravo at some 75,000 miles has no knocks and drives like new.....maybe Alfa people could close their 'chocolate factory' and have words with the FIAT people........hope you have luck raising £500 from spares!smash

sef535

60 posts

186 months

Friday 29th August 2014
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getting alot of praise .... changed my opinion about them now ;-)

Subirony

6 posts

131 months

Friday 29th August 2014
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I had a 147 JTDM, the first diesel in 2003, and it was the first car I spent proper money on. The start of an Alfa love affair, and it was terrific - over 5 years, nearly 90,000 virtually faultless miles and good fun that still returned 50mpg.

The interior in particular was fantastic, and after 5 years still better than other new cars in the same price range. Needed big wheels to really look good, but a terrific car if you can find one at a good price.

Would love a GTA, have looked of late but I can only fit on on the drive and it's just not sensible as a daily commuter....one day!

Jujuuk68

363 posts

156 months

Friday 29th August 2014
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My name is Julian, and I am an alfaholic.

I started with a a little 33 Green cloverleaf. Mainly at weekends for recreational use. The little boxer engine was enough give me a buzz, and desperately scrabbling for grip in the wet could be sort of thrilling. Even my first and second near miss of a throttle cable stuck open on the A23, and a steering wheel that remained riveted to the boss by 1 sole rivet on an over enthusiatic cornering manourvre didn't dim my enjoyment. Then a friend offered me a Sprint. By then, Alfa ownership was slowly taking over my life. Money spent on spares, meant I stopped seeing my friends. Thats when the main active ingedient, Fe2 O3 nH2O really started to get its hooks into me. Hours beside the roadside waiting for strange men men to turn up in vans to "sort me out". with a fix. About then, due to my alfaholism, I fell into bad company, started hanging around with a Sussex owners club on wet tuesday nights. Some of them had way bigger problems than me. There was one guy with a barn find gulia 1600. He was into it way too deeply. Should have warned me.

Then my decent into madness really began. A Gtv2000 which flexed on humpback bridges, leaked badly through the sunroof, with sills mad motworthy with gaffer tape and parts generally falling off like it was a clown car at the circus. It almost killed me at 120ish on the Brighton bypass, when the engine imploded (thrown a conrod?)and the police were called who had to perform an emergency tow at the scene.

But it still wasn't enough. Always looking for something bigger,faster, with all the issues that brings. Then one day, I just found myself at an auction. Within minutes I was wheezing home in my biggest deal yet - £750 of Alfa 75 Veloce 3l, (It's street name is "Milano), which did sufficient mpg to get me from garage to garage, with the odd total breakdown on the way.

I realised it had to stop. That was it. One final breakdown, and it went to scrap. I cleaned my act up, and obtained a diesel Clio as a company car. I started to see my friends again, got into a relationship with a girl who actually expected me to arrive at the appointed time on dates. I even had money to take her out. I thought I was over it. I actually managed to start saving for the first time in my life, after paying the final installment on the blown gasket repair to that lovely 3l v6.

But your always an alfaholic. I can't help myself. An ad like this brings it back to me, and now I'm scouring the ads for another cheap fix.

Damn you Shed....


aarondbs

843 posts

145 months

Friday 29th August 2014
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I still have an Alfa V6 stuck in my garage! Not a 147 but a 156. Not a twinspark but a busso and not a selespeed but a 6 speed manual. So actually nothing like the shed. But as an Alfa fan I like the 147 but not this. They look great, are as good to drive as their contemporaries and have 'soul'. Alfas do that to you. Don't know why but they do. All of mine have been the 24v V6 but there is more to it than that. My 164 broke all my performance saloon rules, which my E39 530i manual had but it still didn't do it for me like the 164 Cloverleaf. Alfas get under your skin don't know why..