Shed of the Week: Alfa Romeo GT
A Bertone-styled Alfa for £1500? You have our attention...
You’ve got to feel sorry for Alfa Romeo. For years, the press has been categorising it as the ultimate disappointment brand, each new launch being greeted by the familiar cries of ‘oh no, not another Alfa that promised so much but delivered so little’.
Anyone who has ever had to deal with Mrs Shed’s stubble-chinned aggression (think Biffa Bacon’s mum) will understand why Shed has cultivated a half-full rather than a half-empty view on life. And that’s why he thinks the press attitude towards Alfa is not just unfair, but plain wrong. He reckons that, dynamically, and with the exception of the odd dud like the misbegotten Arna, Alfas have always been at least as good as – and often better than – the opposition.
The problem, if you can call it that, has been with Alfa’s stylists. They’ve been too good. Cost-controlled engineers at Alfa were always going to struggle to meet the gloriously high standards consistently set by the styling boys. They’ve had some damn good goes at it, though. You’d need a first-class degree in churlishness to slag off the spine-tingling Busso V6, the delicious delicacy of the Alfasud or the razor steering response of the humble 156.
Corporate confidence, or the lack of it, has played a part in Alfa’s history too. As exhibit number one, we unveil the GT in its first-time SOTW appearance.
The GT came out in 2003, five years after the Audi TT. Based on the 156/147 chassis, it was clearly meant to be a response to the game-changing German. The early 2000s were tough times for Alfa though, and that showed in the GT’s styling. Rather than giving Bertone an open brief to create what might well have been another ‘disappointing’ stunner, it looks like Alfa hamstrung the styling house by asking them to combine traditional Alfa values with some of the more stolid attributes of the hugely successful TT.
Caution usually comes across as compromise in the motor biz, and so it was with the GT. The flat-iron look Alfa and Bertone ended up with may have added visual strength, but it also subtracted allure.
In one respect at least the GT was a better grand tourer than the TT, as it offered seating for up to five, and for once the usual Alfa mismatch between style and performance wasn’t quite so marked: both aspects were genuinely slightly disappointing.
The engines on offer were the sublime-sounding but juicy 240hp 3.2 V6, a 150hp JTD Multijet 1.9 turbodiesel, and a 165hp JTS 2.0 petrol that gave a 15hp boost over the 156 2.0 on which it was based. From most perspectives, handling especially, the JTS was your best bet. The Multijet diesel didn't stack up so well against the smooth and torquey BMW Threes that were the default company car user-chooser pick back in the mid-2000. Those JTDMs later acquired a poor reputation for being troublesome in the catastrophic timing belt/swirl flap/EGR/DPF/dual-mass flywheel failure department.
The natural PH selection would be the V6, of course, but the weight of the metal up front made it just a bit too nosey in slower corners. It was too torque-steery too, unless it was one of the later Q2 models with the proper diff.
Q2 or not, those V6s are getting expensive now, but the 2.0 is still highly affordable as this example proves. And it should be fun to run too, with average fuel consumption in the mid to high 30s and a reasonable 8-second 0-60 time.
What about this particular car, then? Well, it’s a one-owner car, and we’re guessing that the solitary owner was a typical Alfisti who put a steady 5k or so miles on it every year, giving it all the love at his or her disposal before giving up and putting it up for sale with one of the UK’s best-known independent Alfa specialists.
The Stromboli Grey/black leather combo still looks fit bar the usual bolster wear on the driver’s seat. Most of the issues affecting this particular car have been to do with external moving parts, mainly misshapen or cut tyres, and dodgy suspension – a common Italian problem at the time. The MOT fail & pass record tells us that the long snagging list on last October’s ticket was all sorted, and the selling garage is saying good things about the service history, but what’s to fear in the future if you decide to take it on?
Door handles and ABS rings can fail. Early JTS engines could suffer from gunged-up valvegear, short-lived injectors and flaky sensors, but by the time Alfa got to our ’06 model, most of the major mechanical quirks had been resolved. Properly maintained with regular oil changes (ideally using 10W60 oil rather the factory-specified 10W40 to stave off cam wear), these can turn out to be very good, reliable units, if not especially exciting ones. So, no real worries.
£1500 for an ’06, low mileage, one owner, Bertone-styled Alfa coupé? You’d be mad not to. And of course you’d also be mad to. That’s the wonder of Alfa Romeo.
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff