GT
 

As a regular owner of VW's, Audis and Mercs i really do appreciate
reliability. I have never owned an ALfa before but have heard the unreliable
stories. However, the 1.9 Diesel GT looks an outstanding car. Has anyone got
experience of this yet or is it too new?
Looking to change my VW Golf 1.9TDi at the end of the year. Any advice
appreciated.
Thanks

SteveO wrote:

> As a regular owner of VW's, Audis and Mercs i really do appreciate
> reliability. I have never owned an ALfa before but have heard the unreliable
> stories. However, the 1.9 Diesel GT looks an outstanding car. Has anyone got
> experience of this yet or is it too new?
> Looking to change my VW Golf 1.9TDi at the end of the year. Any advice
> appreciated.
> Thanks
>
>

Good choice for starters. How many Golf's do you see on the road, let
alone the whole VW marque ?

Reliability all comes down to one looking after the car. There is also
always the case that your one specific experience many not go so good.
Maybe you end up receive one bad car from an otherwise good batch of
100. It doesn't help, but generally speaking I feel Fiat's and Alfa's
are simply cars that are more sensitive to poor maintenance. And rightly
so - why should one expect a car to just keep going if it's poorly
maintained?

Go for it. Just look after it properly :)

T.

My standard answer again.
I drive Alfa's since 1972 (no other cars!!)
In over 2 million km's only twice I have been standing still.
Once in the 80's my Guillietta 1.8 had a flat battery on a rainy Christmas
eve after midnight (left the lights on!!) and in 1993 my new (!! only
1500km's / 1 week old) 156 1.8TS had a total engine failure due to a
material fault causing a valve cup to break and jan in between the camshaft.
Many of them went over 150,000km!!
Hardly any oil consumption.
(but a lot of rust in the 70's & early 80's)

So from my point of view, and based on problems colleagues and friends had
with their BMW's/Merc's/Audi's/VW's etc, go for an Alfa!!

And, personally, I N E V E R heard of a factory re-call for Alfa's due to
quality flaws.

Maybe they are more sensitive to regular maintenance, but you like to get
your meals in time as well don't you??
--
Ciao from Holland
AlfistaGJ (Gert-Jan)
Alfa red 156 SW 1.8 Madeno tuned (2000)
Golden Montreal 1428700 (1973/4)

"SteveO" > schreef in bericht
...
> As a regular owner of VW's, Audis and Mercs i really do appreciate
> reliability. I have never owned an ALfa before but have heard the
unreliable
> stories. However, the 1.9 Diesel GT looks an outstanding car. Has anyone
got
> experience of this yet or is it too new?
> Looking to change my VW Golf 1.9TDi at the end of the year. Any advice
> appreciated.
> Thanks
>
>

Well

I had two Alfas, a '93 164 V6 Turbo and this, a '01 156 V6, both bought
used. The 164 had 145.000kms, and surely she wasn't well mantained. In fact,
she wasn't mantained at all. But no big problem. The power steering fault 4
times, but 'cause a pipe touching the chassis. The exhaust went completely
down at 180.000km, 'cause massive rust. She had a little oil leak, in a
place harder to find like Hell so I decided not to repair, but just put oil
in the engine every 15.000kms.
She was scrapped with 220.000kms. Now the 156 is perfect; the air mass flow
meter fault one time but was under guarantee, and I've heard that VW's have
same problems.
The GT 1.9 Multijet is a pretty pretty car, but I don't like diesel noise.
But it's a different story with me, I hear every day 'La Musica' ;-)

Bye

--
Jacopo
Bolzano, Italia
--
Sportwagon 2.5 V6 24V Distinctive

"SteveO" > ha scritto nel messaggio
...
> As a regular owner of VW's, Audis and Mercs i really do appreciate
> reliability. I have never owned an ALfa before but have heard the
unreliable
> stories. However, the 1.9 Diesel GT looks an outstanding car. Has anyone
got
> experience of this yet or is it too new?
> Looking to change my VW Golf 1.9TDi at the end of the year. Any advice
> appreciated.
> Thanks
>
>

On Tue, 29 Jun 2004 16:53:31 +0000 (UTC), "SteveO" >
wrote:

=>As a regular owner of VW's, Audis and Mercs i really do appreciate
=>reliability. I have never owned an ALfa before but have heard the
unreliable
=>stories. However, the 1.9 Diesel GT looks an outstanding car. Has
anyone got
=>experience of this yet or is it too new?
=>Looking to change my VW Golf 1.9TDi at the end of the year. Any
advice
=>appreciated.
=>Thanks
=>

You're going for an aoutstanding car with an outstanding engine. But
it's a new model and the little problems known so far are typical of
new models. They're all repaired under warranty and Alfa Romeo's
customer care has apparently given more attention in following up the
satisfaction of GT buyers, at lesast in Italy.

As a regular owner of german cars, I understand that you appreciate
reliability and distance yourself from those brands. Their service and
reliability to price ratio has become little far from large scale
theft, while I've had no important problem in these last four years of
Alfa Romeo. I compare this with the previous four years of driving
german stuff.

However, you must accept with Alfa the same risk that you take with
ANY other brand, that your model might be the one in a hundred that
has all the troubles you can make. Be firm with service as it appears
that this is THE mother of all problems at the Fiat group. Especially
if you're in the UK.

Just be very very demanding and careful with delivery, read this NG
and any other forum very closely and you'll be just fine.

BTW, I'll be probably doing just the same as you end of this year.

Neuropean

"Alfistagj" > wrote in message
news:AMkEc.547$vH5.153@amstwist00...
> and in 1993 my new (!! only
> 1500km's / 1 week old) 156 1.8TS had a total engine failure

Wow... you had a 156 in 1993?? That *sure* was brand new! ;)

--
Regards, Hans
Alfa Romeo 156 Selespeed - 1999
Alfa Romeo Spider 3.0V6 - 1997

oups.............. should have been 155 ofcourse ;-(
--
Ciao from Holland
AlfistaGJ (Gert-Jan)
Alfa red 156 SW 1.8 Madeno tuned (2000)
Golden Montreal 1428700 (1973/4)

"Hans de Heer" > schreef in bericht
...
>
> "Alfistagj" > wrote in message
> news:AMkEc.547$vH5.153@amstwist00...
> > and in 1993 my new (!! only
> > 1500km's / 1 week old) 156 1.8TS had a total engine failure
>
> Wow... you had a 156 in 1993?? That *sure* was brand new! ;)
>
> --
> Regards, Hans
> Alfa Romeo 156 Selespeed - 1999
> Alfa Romeo Spider 3.0V6 - 1997
>
>