I've just bought an Alfa Romeo!

Wafoo

It's 3:30 in the morning,I'm like a kid at Christmas,pick her up in a few hours!
A lovely 2.0 litre Lusso,I know it's mad but they say everyone should have an Alfa some time in their life!
Guess I'll be back in the debt free wannabee club once the repairs start coming in!

david29dpo

my partner has had a 156 from new. sold a bmw to have it! mad i thought at the time but never had any problems with it. the servicing is a pricey at the dealers though.

epninety

Wafoo wrote: »

It's 3:30 in the morning,I'm like a kid at Christmas,pick her up in a few hours!
A lovely 2.0 litre Lusso,I know it's mad but they say everyone should have an Alfa some time in their life!
Guess I'll be back in the debt free wannabee club once the repairs start coming in!

Enjoy! You will love it. I owned a widebody 155 2L TS, in black, with black alloys and tinted windows :j. It was a fantastic car, awesome to drive, beautiful to look at. Not cheap to own though, but most won't have the thirst for tyres which that car had. They are in the main more reliable than their reputation suggests, but parts prices can make your eyes water at times. Spark plugs was my favourite - twin spark engine, so 8 spark plugs, at 24 quid each! Local motor factor got them for about 8 quid each. Fortunately they do last a long time (60K ?) - many people just don't bother changing them at all. Scoring one of the Alfa/Fiat parts catalogue CDs from ebay can be helpful.

See if there's an independent specialist near you - servicing will be cheaper and (IMHO) they are likely to take better care of your car. The cambelt snapped on mine at about 120K, due to an Alfa dealership not doing their job properly. When I enquired (at another dealership) about rebuilding the engine, their attitude was 'it's got 120K on it, why bother?'. (I got a specialist to rebuild it in the end.)

That Alfa was my last fast car - I bought a Land Rover to slow me down (and got nicked for speeding 2 weeks later!)

Wafoo

Yeah,I've jined the Alfa owners forum and the cambelt horror stories make my stomache churn,there's a full service history with it but will get the cambelt changed soonest I think.

nullogik

Nice car!

Alfas are notoriously unreliable, so its essential that you keep up with regular maintanence to minimise the risk of it letting you down. So regular oil changes, filter changes, and spark plugs etc.

Conor_3

Owning a 21 year old Ford Capri and running it as a daily runner including a 250 mile a week commute, I reckon I'm probably the only person on here who would actually see an increase in reliability if I bought an Alfa

JoeyG

david29dpo wrote: »

my partner has had a 156 from new. sold a bmw to have it! mad i thought at the time but never had any problems with it. the servicing is a pricey at the dealers though.

First rule of Alfa ownership - do not use main dealers

livinginhope

Don't rub my nose in it! we have spent the last 4 weeks searching garages for miles around for a lovely Alfa,but haven't found a good one :mad: we have p/x the chelsea tractor for a .....Punto :eek: hardly an Alfa,but I console myself it will be cheaper to run :rolleyes:
Seriously,enjoy it,they get under your skin and become part of your life,we have had quite a few,but always seem to end up written off :rolleyes:
LIH

epninety

Conor wrote: »

Owning a 21 year old Ford Capri and running it as a daily runner including a 250 mile a week commute, I reckon I'm probably the only person on here who would actually see an increase in reliability if I bought an Alfa

I do (or did until recently - still got the car but not the job) a 600mile/week commute in a heavily modifed 12 year old land rover. In the last 2 years I've fitted a new engine, 2 new gearboxes, 2 new clutches, a radiator, a fuel tank, and thats just the big stuff.:rotfl:

My 'spare' land rover has a 40 yo body on a 30yo chassis, powered by a 3L Capri lump.

I have a 'sensible' car, but thats been laid up for two years with a blown head gasket, and it just isn't interesting enough for me to bother to fix it.
My MSE pretensions don't extend to my cars