147 GTA are they any good??
Discussion
Looks and sounds nice. Mine couldn't get any power down, even in the dry. If you push on the transmission judders badly, so you have to lift right off. Sloooow pull aways are the only way. It's ok once it's moving though, however it wouldn't have a clue where an R32 Golf went cross country.
Just seen a repeat on Top Gear GTA vs R32 vs Focus RS. Must admit i gave some thought to getting a GTA - i took on one in my Audi S4. Its performance along a dual carriageway with roundabouts impressed me. Mind you it was bone dry - in the wet no contest.
JC was concerned about its power delivery - straight line awesome but traction was big issue in FWD. Good fun by all accounts and thats more important IMO.
JC was concerned about its power delivery - straight line awesome but traction was big issue in FWD. Good fun by all accounts and thats more important IMO.
Yep ive owned one. Great looking, gorgeous inside (momo seats are fantastic). Sounds lovely and goes like stink in straight line. Autocar had one in their 0-100-0 challenge 2 years running and it timed 0-60 in 5.7 and 0-100 in 14.1, alot quicker than the mk4 R32 it was up against. On twisties it would be a different matter though as the front tyres have ALOT to cope with (heavy v6 and powerful,torquey engine). They are pretty dreadful on fuel too (although i hear R32 isnt great here either). If you want to be different, and enjoy italian V6's go for it but i guess drive both.
>> Edited by davey68 on Friday 12th May 09:11
>> Edited by davey68 on Friday 12th May 09:11
davey68 said:
Yep ive owned one. Great looking, gorgeous inside (momo seats are fantastic). Sounds lovely and goes like stink in straight line. Autocar had one in their 0-100-0 challenge 2 years running and it timed 0-60 in 5.7 and 0-100 in 14.1, alot quicker than the mk4 R32 it was up against. On twisties it would be a different matter though as the front tyres have ALOT to cope with (heavy v6 and powerful,torquey engine). They are pretty dreadful on fuel too (although i hear R32 isnt great here either). If you want to be different, and enjoy italian V6's go for it but i guess drive both.
>> Edited by davey68 on Friday 12th May 09:11
That sums it all up quite nicely.
The engine is simply brilliant and seductive although it's pretty poor on fuel economy and the specific bhp output isn't that great either.
That makes it a great car when driven at 90%, but take it to the edge and it all falls apart.
I've had mine for 2.5 years now and it wasn't until I drove an old mildly tweaked Impreza GTT that I realized how lacking the Alfa was in driver involvement.
They can make FWD cars good these days, they can make them fast, but ultimately they're still no match for a good AWD of RWD car.
By the way, the turning circle is dreadfull making it virtually undriveable in cramped cities and making parking it a nightmare (it really is that bad) and the depreciation is quite a lot also.
Mine was €45000 new (+/- £32000, yes, cars are expensive over here) and now after 11000 miles it's probably worth a little over half that. Good thing cars are a hobby, otherwise that'd be annoying.
Best advice I can give you: arrange for a long test drive; I bought it after maybe an hour of enjoying that glorious engine, but I'd think I wouldn't buy it again given the choice. There are simply too much other cars on the market which also have good engines but a chassis that can keep up to go with that.
Having had one, I can say that the car is great, buold quality is excellent except fot the lumbar adjustment which tends to disintegrate, but ok if your gentle.
Turning circle horrendous.
Performance is adequate, if your a good driver you should more than keep up with an R32, and if you want more grunt bob it down to AUTODELTA.
Handling is lovely, although a bit firm over rough roads.
Brakes are good, although can eat disks.
Fuel economy was better than I got from my 1.6 Lusso, probably because I wasn't caning it everywhere.
Turning circle horrendous.
Performance is adequate, if your a good driver you should more than keep up with an R32, and if you want more grunt bob it down to AUTODELTA.
Handling is lovely, although a bit firm over rough roads.
Brakes are good, although can eat disks.
Fuel economy was better than I got from my 1.6 Lusso, probably because I wasn't caning it everywhere.
I've owned one (see it in profile 
) and it was pretty good fun, people go on about its handling not being much cop and this and that will be MUCH quicker etc, rubbish, the margins between some of these cars mentioned are so small, I covered thousands of miles in mine through some very interesting roads and never had much trouble matching almost anything I came up against on the twisties whether road or track, be it R32 or Evo, if you can't control your right foot you will end up in a hedge 
but otherwise its pretty capable, could do with firmer suspension IMO as rear end gets a bit wobbly but the car is mostly good.
) and it was pretty good fun, people go on about its handling not being much cop and this and that will be MUCH quicker etc, rubbish, the margins between some of these cars mentioned are so small, I covered thousands of miles in mine through some very interesting roads and never had much trouble matching almost anything I came up against on the twisties whether road or track, be it R32 or Evo, if you can't control your right foot you will end up in a hedge but otherwise its pretty capable, could do with firmer suspension IMO as rear end gets a bit wobbly but the car is mostly good.Its the same with the V6 GTV, your traction control is your right foot. I find motoring magazines exaggerate a lot, something is either AMAZING or TERRIBLE. They always slated the GTV against the Audi TT, but forgot about all the crashes and dead drivers in the TT when it first came out.
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