Alfa 156

[cannock172]

Am thinking of trading my Laguna Diesel in for an Alfa. Fancy a Sportwagon and would lean towards a diesel. I have about £6000 to spend.

Anybody let me know if they have good/bad experiences with a 156 and what I should look out for when buying,

Cheers in advance

[v6ter]

I would say the diesels and the v6 are the more reliable of the 156 range. Are you thinking of a 2.4 5 pot or a 1.9. Either way they are good engine with plenty of go.

Why not ask the question on www.alfa156.net - they seem an helpful bunch

[bint]

Loving my V6 - oodles of torque and a pleasure to drive. Plus I like wiping the smirks off boy racers
Cost of car (last October) = £3300 - she's a 2000/2001 156 manual V6 wagon - Veloce spec (ie leather and the works)

Niggles I've had with her so far (due to previous owner's mechanic);

Top end rebuild (bolts weren't tightened properly by mechanic so cue worn cams and heads ) - cost came in just under £1K - mainly labour. Thing was, she'd been like this for about 50K miles, and it didn't seem to affect her too much!

Don't try and change headlight bulbs unless you have child slaves - their hands will be small enough

Rear boot cover, if you pull it too hard it fubar's the mechanism

That's it really. She's done over 100K motorway commuting miles, and is really really nice to drive. Not economical but then I don't care, but for a V6 I think she is.

So you shouldn't have any niggles really - I actually bought the first one I saw as they are rare as rocking horse poo.