Alfa Romeo 159 Sportwagon | Shed of the Week

Yes, it's a 2.4 JTDM - but probably that's a good thing...

By Tony Middlehurst / Friday, 19 June 2026 / Loading comments

A buzz of excitement this week in the village, and indeed in Shed’s trousers, as a new butchers opens on the High Street. As you know, Shed always likes a good butchers, but he’s especially interested in this one because of the people behind the counter. Not so much the owner Lorenzo, more his steamy Sophia Loren-lookalike wife Carlotta. Shed can certainly think of a lotta cars he’d like to get her into.

Normally he’d never blow his hard-earned cash on anything as frivolous as steak, but in a rather pathetic attempt to show her what a high roller he is he has ordered a small ribeye for the weekend. Carlotta has said that she will tenderise it for free. He’s since been kept awake by the thought of her energetically beating his meat while a light film of perspiration forms on her heaving bosom.

It turns out that Carlotta’s transport is an Alfa 159 Sportwagon Lusso in ruby red with black leather, just like the one you’re viewing here. Unlike our diesel though hers is a 1.8 petrol which she likes to run as close as possible to the red line for as long as possible. While describing her drives to Shed she kept shouting a word which sounded like ‘forzer’. He can’t really remember much of what she said as his mind was elsewhere at the time, specifically about a foot below her face. If he’d been thinking straight he would have told her that the diesel 2.4 JTDM with manual gearbox would have been two seconds quicker through the 0-60 than her 1.8, with a much higher top end to boot of 142mph compared to the 1.8’s weedy 129mph.

Lusso means luxury, and not, as Shed stupidly stated in a previous Alfa story, light. The Italian for light, as in weight, is of course leggera. If you’re referring to the other sort of light, i.e. the one that’s supposed to brighten up the room when you switch it on, it’s luce, though that does tend to darken the room if it’s the Ferrari Luce you’re talking about. It looks better in the dark, you see. Anyway, a Lusso comes with climate control, auto wipers and a load of other gear. It’s a good spec to have and this looks like a more than decent example of the 159 Lusso genre.

Registered in February 2007, our shed was too early to benefit from the 2.4’s upgrade in the latter part of 2007 to 207hp at 4,000rpm and 295lb ft at 1,500rpm. Still, there’s not much wrong with what it has got, viz a meatylicious 200hp with the same 295lb ft of thrunge, albeit slightly higher in the rev range at 2,000rpm. A quick stage 1 remap will boost these figures to 240hp and 353lb ft.

Whatever the numbers, the 2.4’s 20-valve inline five engine design endows it with a mellifluous woofle. That’s assuming it starts. The glowplugs don’t last forever. They’ll be doing well if they’ve made it to 50,000 miles. Fortunately, unlike on some motors, they’re easy to change yourself, but you do need to be careful with the fragile connectors. Electronics generally can be dicky and the dual-mass flywheel shouldn’t be trusted beyond 75,000 miles.

This 159 has just been MOT’d at 142,000 miles so the prospective buyer will need to scrutinise the paperwork, if there is any, for evidence of works carried out. One of the two advisories from that test was for a slack handbrake. The other, more worryingly, was for some creeping (but so far not excessive) corrosion to the nearside front suspension mounting point and inner wheel arch. If that can be sorted and all else is well there shouldn’t be too many unpleasant noises coming from the owner’s wallet. Your average fuel consumption will be 40mpg and the VED is vaguely affordable at £360pa.

Altogether it seems like a stylish way to get around for a scant £1,989. Shed would like to talk a bit more about it but he’s just heard that Carlotta is making sausages this morning so he’s gone to watch that. Hopefully he won’t find out that meat tenderising is done with a spiky wooden mallet.

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