RE: You Know You Want To: Alfa Romeo 156 GTA
Discussion
I have owned a 156 GTA for a year now.
Yes, it has been expensive ownership, but once you have owned one, you will really appreciate them.
It has essential upgrades which improve the handling significantly compared to most which have been tested and written up about in the media.
It is still a great looking car with a fantastic interior, much nicer than z germans!
At the end of the day, it has built iteself into a specialist car, therefore will only truely appeal to those who have a passion for these cars.
Yes, there are faster and better handling cars out there, but the GTA never fails to put a smile on my face!
Yes, it has been expensive ownership, but once you have owned one, you will really appreciate them.
It has essential upgrades which improve the handling significantly compared to most which have been tested and written up about in the media.
It is still a great looking car with a fantastic interior, much nicer than z germans!
At the end of the day, it has built iteself into a specialist car, therefore will only truely appeal to those who have a passion for these cars.
Yes, there are faster and better handling cars out there, but the GTA never fails to put a smile on my face!
Dagnut said:
The 2.5 v6 is 80% of the car for 20% of the price
It really isn't.They are really bad on fuel around town, but they will do 30MPG on the motorway!
Upgraded diff whether it be a Q2 or Quaife is a must.
Also Eibach Anti roll bars sort out 90% off suspension problems.
I have the 147 GTA.
Cant speak for the 156 but a friend of mine had a 147 GTA and it was a great car, certainly not king of the hot hatch jungle but looked great and sounded superb .
As for reliabilty well it took us all the way from Bristol to Monaco and back over a weekend and only issue was a broken handbrake cable......
.As for reliabilty well it took us all the way from Bristol to Monaco and back over a weekend and only issue was a broken handbrake cable......
S10 GTA said:
TTwiggy said:
I had the 147 version. Epic noise from a beautiful engine, but by gods did it love a drink. I averaged 8.9mpg, according to the computer, and it didn't improve from that no matter how you drove it.
It must have had a problem then, because I average 28/30mpg.Most of my driving was/is around town.
TTwiggy said:
Do you drive exclusively on motorways? Because the only time I saw figures like that was on a run from London to Scotland.
Most of my driving was/is around town.
Curious.Most of my driving was/is around town.
I've owned mine for 2.5 years, the car itself just hit the 8 year mark overall. Drive (loose term, more battle) in Gibraltar, which means I rarely see above 30mph, drives are of the 5-20min mark, constant stop-start nature, car doesnt really warm up much. Mpg in town, pick a number between 15-19mpg. Motorway (Spain), rare to see 30+mpg, more 26-29mpg.
Been very reliable too, as long as you put up with the fact that the suspension will always have some sort of creak/groan/grumble.
Work i've done on it (apart from routine servicing/tyres), has been a split A/C pipe (£130 fitted), Front ARB Bushes (£40 + £100 fitting), new droplinks (£50 - fitted myself), and i'm about to replace the upper Wishbones (£160, not sure about fitting yet). Everything else - no problems. Oh, I ripped off the Undertray myself, got tired of re-fitting it every couple of months.
Great drive, CAN handle 250bhp once you fit the Q2 (or Quaife) LSD, though it remains nose-heavy. Engine note remains one of the best i've had the pleasure to hear. Interior is beautiful, built well enough I'd say as it's survived my 2 wreckless children so far.
TTwiggy said:
S10 GTA said:
TTwiggy said:
I had the 147 version. Epic noise from a beautiful engine, but by gods did it love a drink. I averaged 8.9mpg, according to the computer, and it didn't improve from that no matter how you drove it.
It must have had a problem then, because I average 28/30mpg.Most of my driving was/is around town.
The last 1500miles has been 28mpg.
johnpeat said:
Dagnut said:
The 2.5 v6 is 80% of the car for 20% of the price
and many people would argue that the 2.0TS is a better all-round drive/handler thanks to less front-end weight and being a bit more responsive where it matters...Johnboy Mac said:
The crap .......... dealer network.
That's the crux of he matter right there. With the older ones you can take them to good independents, when they are new and you feel you need to get them serviced by a main dealer, is when you get treated with the curtisy of a war criminal while getting shafted at every available opportunity. My old 156 wagon was a fantastic bit of kit, and as it was knocking on, could get serviced by my local guy. The fuse box cover constantly falling off I could live with...bought a nearly new GT and had to go main dealer, service was a disaster at all 3 that went to. Funny they are all not around anymore!
Mind I haven't learnt, the dealer I got the misses new Giulietta from are still s
t....Would love to be smoking round in the GTA though, just for e noise....
Johnboy Mac said:
Must try harder Alfa both with the product and the dealer network.
When the 156 first came out, Alfa UK decided they had to change the way they worked to get more volume.To do this, they purged the dealer network of the smaller specialist dealers and brought in the big guns at the time (big chains who'd not been Alfa dealers before).
This was a DISASTER, because you had dealers selling a product they didn't understand and didn't have the expertise to maintain. They didn't understand the cars and they didn't understand the customers and they built up a STAGGERING amount of customer hatred as they repeatedly failed to deal with relatively minor issues.
A lot of the specialists people use now were Alfa dealers before 1997/8/9ish but they retain the knowledge and understanding of the cars and they're the people to deal with even now.
I was within hours of signing-up for a 156 when I realised I was dealing with a chain of dealers who - frankly - had no f
king clue what they were offering me. This was proved to be the right choice as colleagues ran 156s which had the same problems and the dealers showed no ability to fix em.I'd still love one tho - it's just never been the right time since
s m said:
0-100 in 15 seconds seems pretty quick to me!
The 147 GTA does it in 14.0These FWD's are not very good off the line, but when rolling they do pack a real punch. Surprises many other cars on the roads.
What I love about mine is that no one has a clue what is under the bonnet and what it is!
Edited by OperationAlfa on Wednesday 7th March 11:13
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