On Sat, 31 Jul 2004 20:27:53 +0100, (SteveH)
wrote:

>Zathras > wrote:
>
>> On Sat, 31 Jul 2004 07:54:41 +0100, "Graeme Cosgrove"
>> > wrote:
>>
>> <Snip>
>> >Question 3 is "isn't (potentially) £800 a lot of money to spend to service a
>> >two and a half year old car?"
>>
>> It is. However, it's not unusual with Alfas and Main Dealerships.
>
>It's not unusual for any prestiege brand to cost that much at 30 months.

Ahem..it would have cost more than that at 11 months if Alfa hadn't
picked up the bill for suspension work at 9000 miles. At 24 months it
cost a mere 450UKP. This car EATS suspension bushes front and rear
like they're made of putty.

The biggest service bill for servicing my Vauxhalls (eek!) in 12 years
(double eek!) of driving their top of the range models came to less
than my smallest Alfa bill. Alfa have not made the 156 a low labour
quick fix car. IME, cheapest VX service = 70UKP. Cheapest Alfa service
315UKP both from full dealerships within miles of each other.

Even the simplest Alfa maintenance tasks are miserable (e.g. change a
headlamp bulb with big hands?!). I need to jack up my car to change
the oil..etc..etc. I asked one of the dealer mechanics (who was on a
home visit recently to replace a leaky fuel filter) if anything was
easy to fix on these. "NO" he replied. "Great engine though.." :-)

--
Z
Scotland
Alfa Romeo 156 2.4JTD Veloce Leather
'Oil' be seeing you..
(Email without 'Alfa' in subject are auto-deleted..sorry!)