The Honeymoon Is Over.
Discussion
Sadly all my worst fears have come true.
Set off the other day in the car, only to hear a loud bang & much smoke. Got a friendly mechanic in & after much sucking of inhaled breath through clenched teeth (& tails of woeful Italian reliability) am now advised gearbox is kaput.
Bugger I exclaimed loudly.
Previously said I wouldnt buy another Italian car after an earlier Fiat Coupe ingested its own engine & cost me a fortune.
Am afraid now its back to Swedish/Japanese or German reliability as despite loving the way the Alfa drove & looked, can no longer justify to my Bank Manager the costs incurred in running these wholly unreliable contraptions. Thats two Italian cars & 1 engine & 1 gearbox in the past couple of years.
Was going to get a Spider in the near future, but needless to sat thats now taken a backseat. Think Ill be replacing it with either a Celica Convertible, Audi Cabriolet or Saab Convertible. Rest assured, it will NOT be Italian.
Set off the other day in the car, only to hear a loud bang & much smoke. Got a friendly mechanic in & after much sucking of inhaled breath through clenched teeth (& tails of woeful Italian reliability) am now advised gearbox is kaput.
Bugger I exclaimed loudly.
Previously said I wouldnt buy another Italian car after an earlier Fiat Coupe ingested its own engine & cost me a fortune.
Am afraid now its back to Swedish/Japanese or German reliability as despite loving the way the Alfa drove & looked, can no longer justify to my Bank Manager the costs incurred in running these wholly unreliable contraptions. Thats two Italian cars & 1 engine & 1 gearbox in the past couple of years.
Was going to get a Spider in the near future, but needless to sat thats now taken a backseat. Think Ill be replacing it with either a Celica Convertible, Audi Cabriolet or Saab Convertible. Rest assured, it will NOT be Italian.
"pay the "£1200".
But the point is why ? (not withstanding that I am going to have to pay it in order to get a decent price when I sell it, which rest assured I will be as soon as it comes back from the repairers). On any other make of car (particularly a premium marque as Alfa so grandeously refers to itself now), you wouldnt need a new gearbox after only 88,000 miles & 6 years.
As Ive said before, Italian cars are just not reliable enough in todays market & its no surprise that both Alfa & Fiat are losing £100 of millions a year (& indeed Lancia decided to pull out of the UK full stop).
Whilst justifiably many people refused to buy British cars because of their shoddy construction, enthusiasts like myself have for years tried to convince ourselves that it was just "character" or an "idiosyncracy". Well sadly have had enough & whilst I may not get the same seat of the pants feeling driving a Celica as I would a GTV, equally I wont be stood at the side of the road watching my relatively expensive investment gently smoking its way to the scrappers.
But the point is why ? (not withstanding that I am going to have to pay it in order to get a decent price when I sell it, which rest assured I will be as soon as it comes back from the repairers). On any other make of car (particularly a premium marque as Alfa so grandeously refers to itself now), you wouldnt need a new gearbox after only 88,000 miles & 6 years.
As Ive said before, Italian cars are just not reliable enough in todays market & its no surprise that both Alfa & Fiat are losing £100 of millions a year (& indeed Lancia decided to pull out of the UK full stop).
Whilst justifiably many people refused to buy British cars because of their shoddy construction, enthusiasts like myself have for years tried to convince ourselves that it was just "character" or an "idiosyncracy". Well sadly have had enough & whilst I may not get the same seat of the pants feeling driving a Celica as I would a GTV, equally I wont be stood at the side of the road watching my relatively expensive investment gently smoking its way to the scrappers.
Well you don't know that a previous owner abused the clutch now do you?
I have only known one other non-selespeed 156 to need a new box, and that was GTA.
We have had more VW's in (bearing in mind we don't sell many) needing a new box in the past year, than all the alfas put together in recent years.
Your box blew up, you don't know why, but of course.. it's Alfas fault
I have only known one other non-selespeed 156 to need a new box, and that was GTA.
We have had more VW's in (bearing in mind we don't sell many) needing a new box in the past year, than all the alfas put together in recent years.
Your box blew up, you don't know why, but of course.. it's Alfas fault
I would tend to agree, unless it's a Toyota or Honda chances are the reliability of any European car will be very similar, certain models/components of Merc, BMW, Ford (includes new Volvos), GM (this includes the Swedes too), Renault, Citroen, VW group (Skoda, Seat, Audi) etc go pop every now and then and some go on for ever. Servicing and driving style play a big part in what happens to components also, but there are some inherent flaws.
A friend of mine works on the continuing development of Ford's Focus, funnily enough he sometimes comes home in a Volvo test mule, same car under the very similar skin.
I saw a CTR lunch it's transmission, which part I didn't hang around to see, at Le Mans this year, he was being a dick, reversing then sticking it in first, hitting the rev-limiter and side-stepping the clutch, after 30mins and roughly 3 miles it went bang, now was that Honda's fault?
So I would suggest you get a Toyota or Honda, good cars though they are, unless you get the top performing special edition chances are they will be boring as hell, ya pays ya money ya takes ya choice. Things break sometimes, it's life, even Toyotas and Hondas, just slightly less so.
>> Edited by dougal on Saturday 25th June 13:28
A friend of mine works on the continuing development of Ford's Focus, funnily enough he sometimes comes home in a Volvo test mule, same car under the very similar skin.
I saw a CTR lunch it's transmission, which part I didn't hang around to see, at Le Mans this year, he was being a dick, reversing then sticking it in first, hitting the rev-limiter and side-stepping the clutch, after 30mins and roughly 3 miles it went bang, now was that Honda's fault?
So I would suggest you get a Toyota or Honda, good cars though they are, unless you get the top performing special edition chances are they will be boring as hell, ya pays ya money ya takes ya choice. Things break sometimes, it's life, even Toyotas and Hondas, just slightly less so.
>> Edited by dougal on Saturday 25th June 13:28
Sorry to hear of your woes. But my experience has not been that Italian cars are unreliable. Over the last 20 or so years I've had 5 Alfas and 2 Fiats, including a Fiat Coupe for the last 5 years. I've never had a major failure. One Alfa - a 33 - had an engine rebuild at 85,000 mls, and had covered 192,000 when I finally sold it (for £50!). So I think you've had bad luck. Mind you, I'm just going to touch some wood now in case it's catching...
I regard italian mechanicals as extremely robust actually. Look at my profile and see how old the italian cars ive owned are. Now, out of those, 1 has had serious mechanical work, the sprint which had an engine and gearbox rebuild under the same owner who went through a massive amount of tyres over low mileages, had upgraded suspension fitted, the engine tuned etc, its not difficult to figure how that happened.
Given the kind of cars they are and the capability of the engines (the x1/9 redline was at 7500rpm!), I think that is an exceptional record.
Given the kind of cars they are and the capability of the engines (the x1/9 redline was at 7500rpm!), I think that is an exceptional record.
Same problem happened to me with mine - just under 90k miles and kaput - away goes the gearbox.
Alfa fitted one - recon, cos apparently you can't get new??
All three alfa dealers I dealt with left something to be desired - particularly the ones in N Wales who did the gearbox.
Sold my Afa 156 last year and now have a Merc for me and a BMW for the wife.
Selling my Merc to buy another Alfa 156 because despite the problems, they are individual, and much more fun than a Beemer or Merc!
Alfa fitted one - recon, cos apparently you can't get new??
All three alfa dealers I dealt with left something to be desired - particularly the ones in N Wales who did the gearbox.
Sold my Afa 156 last year and now have a Merc for me and a BMW for the wife.
Selling my Merc to buy another Alfa 156 because despite the problems, they are individual, and much more fun than a Beemer or Merc!
The TopGear / JD Power surveys tell us that in fact it is VW AND MERCEDES that sit around the bottom of the reliability tables.
In fact, the official WORST car for reliability and customer satisfaction is the Mercedes M Class. The VW Golf and Polo are in the bottom 10%.
Italian cars are not much better, but it is incorrect to single them out.
Honda's are other japs remain at the top however.
In fact, the official WORST car for reliability and customer satisfaction is the Mercedes M Class. The VW Golf and Polo are in the bottom 10%.
Italian cars are not much better, but it is incorrect to single them out.
Honda's are other japs remain at the top however.
I had a 1999 Saab 93 convertible, bought it from a Saab dealer at 2 years old, at three years and 3 months old the engine went bang and as far as Saab were concerned it was out of waranty and needed a complete new engine. A new engine (out of the crate and fitted) was just shy of £4500. I got the engine rebuilt locally for £2800 sold the Saab and bought a 156 GTA, 70k miles later with not a hint of trouble I would never buy a Saab again. Just goes to show how different peoples experiences affect their perceptions of cars
R reg VW passat 1.8t was my bug bear. The thing was a liability. It was only a couple of years old.
Only my wife's unswerving devotion to VW's would mean I would contemplate another one again. (Mind you, I have had shed loads of 'old' vw's which seem to go on and on.)
Lemons everywhere apart from japanese cars it would seem.
Only my wife's unswerving devotion to VW's would mean I would contemplate another one again. (Mind you, I have had shed loads of 'old' vw's which seem to go on and on.)
Lemons everywhere apart from japanese cars it would seem.
silverback mike said:
Lemons everywhere apart from japanese cars it would seem.
Don't be so swift Mike - I seem to remember Mitsubishi in seriously hot water a couple of years back over their reliability record. They had faked the statistics because the reality was that they were so badly screwed together as to defy belief.
Hmmm...driving an Alfa I kind of accept it might go wrong. My wife's MR2 roadster is the stinker, case bearing went in gearbox just out of warranty. Flaky wheels, useless expensive dealer etc etc.
The worst feeling is when you buy a 'reliable' make and it goes wrong. For me it was the last piece in the jigsaw of Alfa ownership, all cars are machines which may or may not fail. You may as well have a gorgeous, sonerous, characterful one, then giggle at seething Passat owners when their floors leak and VW can't fix it etc.
The worst feeling is when you buy a 'reliable' make and it goes wrong. For me it was the last piece in the jigsaw of Alfa ownership, all cars are machines which may or may not fail. You may as well have a gorgeous, sonerous, characterful one, then giggle at seething Passat owners when their floors leak and VW can't fix it etc.
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