Alfa Romeo 156

This is a car built for drivers who love their art. The driving experience is dominated by the engine and gearbox and also the ride which can be a little on the harsh side. Reliability, especially on the electrical systems is suspect and you simply must get the car serviced every 6000 miles and the cam belt changed every 35000 miles. If you don't, a new engine is the order of the day and at around £3500 fitted, it isn't cheap.

The engine.

The engine is a 2.5 Litre V6 and loves to rev. When it does rev, the sound it makes is so sexy, so smooth and so addictive, you just can't get enough of it. It is one of the great experiences of life and once you have heard it and driven it, you will forever be smitten. With nearly 200 bhp, it is very powerful and provides excellent flexibility all through the rev range. I have heard reports that the engine lacked low end torque but I can tell you that is simply not the case. There is a nice solid pull all through the rev range and there is serious, push you back into the seat, pull at 4000 rev and beyond, all the way up to 7000. ( who needs a Ferrari )

The engine responds instantly to the throttle in any gear and at any revs and the engine will pull from a 1000 revs in sixth gear without any problems. In sixth gear on the motorway at 70 mph, you only have to think about the throttle and you are up to 90 so it is excellent on whatever road you are on. Talking of motorways, I did a flat out run in Germany recently and saw an indicated 160 on the speedo right on the rev limited so allowing for speedo errors and the calculation of the gearing verses rev, it is good for 150 mph. But I tell you what, the fuel tank empties even faster than that when you are at full tilt. I often drop it into top and cruise around because of the engines flexibility and also because the one down side of it is the fuel consumption.

I guess it will average around 25 mpg on a mixed bag of roads and you need to be getting into sixth gear to achieve this. Use the lower gears and rev a lot and you too will need to invade an oil rich country to pay for the fuel bills. I actually got it down to 9 mpg on one trip ( yes the one in Germany ) but to be honest, I didn't really car because the drive and car were simply too fantastic. You do have to check the oil occasionally ( it like a drink ) and listen for any odd sounds from the cambelt area.

This is the major weakness of this engine and the belt tensioner and various bearings wear out on occasion and always need to be replaced when the belt it which is around 35000 miles not the 70000 as suggested by Alfa. The cost to replace the belt and tensioners and if your millage is up around the 100K mark, the water pump as well, can be around the £500.00 mark so if you are buying one, use this to negotiate the price down if it is due a replacement belt.

But be warned if you are driving around without knowing when the belt was last changed, you better have some equity left in your house, because a remortgage will be required if the belt snaps.( and they most certainly will ). The bottom line is, if the car has done around 35,000 miles or more since the last belt was changed, don't hesitate, get it done now.  Gearbox.

As standard you have a six speed gearbox and the shift action and gear change as a whole is one of the best I have ever used ( and I have driven many 100's of cars in my time ) The ratios are a little on the low side which means outrageous acceleration in all the lower gears but also high fuel bills. Fortunately, with the engines flexibility, you can miss a few gears when changing up as you can go straight from third gear into sixth if you want to but for me, I use everyone and when you need to change down, you will find the gear lever goes straight from sixth gear right into third far too easily which means rocket ship acceleration when you hit the gas again.

First gear is very low and I find starting off in second is just as easy, no it doesn't wear the clutch out much quicker, and provides faster punch than first/second. Because first gear is so low, if you hit full revs in first, you literally have to change into second almost straight away. The gearbox ratios are very close so the difference between first and second gears is not that much but what starting off in second does give you is a huge burst or torque that throws you down the road. Just try it, you're love it. What I like about it is that you can cruise around if you want or really go for it, as the mood takes you. Not many cars like this around these days and forget all the paddle stuff, real drivers use real gearboxes.

Electrical problems.

Now no Alfa would be an Alfa if you didn't have a few electrical problems. Mine has been no different. I have had an earth lead break between the battery and body. The earth lead goes from the battery to the body ( where is bolts onto the car ) and then continues down to the engine. Believe it or not the earth lead had broken at the connection with the body but still continued down to the engine so the engine would turn over but not start but nothing else would work. Being intermittent, it took a while to find that one.

Another favourite is the alarm system which switches itself on and off as it feels like it. Again a loose connection somewhere but as life is too short to strip the car down to find it, I live with it. Only once did it embarrass me when it went off in a petrol station whilst I was in the car but I can forgive that. The other thing that always plays up is the fuel gauge. It is very inaccurate, the fuel light comes on most of the time and the gauge goes up and down as you go around corners so you have to watch it.

Typically you will pull up at home with around half a tank left, come out next morning only to find the fuel light on and the gauge reading empty. Of course you know it's not so you drive away as normal and probably about 3 - 5 miles down the road, the gauge will suddenly start working again. Flat batteries.

Now on occasion you may well get a flat battery. Nothing wrong with the car, these things just happen. With this car, though jump starting is not straightforward. The engine has an electronic throttle ( drive by wire ), there is no physical connection between the engine and the pedal so what happens is that when the battery goes flat ( light left on or something, etc ) the engines ECU shuts down.

Now when you jump start the car, it is best to charge the battery up for a bit, and then when you start it, DO NOT touch the throttle, just let the engine start and idle on its own for a few mins. If you do touch the throttle you will need to reset the electronic throttle otherwise the engine will not rev and you won't go anywhere. It is fairly easy to do but if you don't know how, you will be in big trouble.

The ride.

The ride is very harsh, especially on the back end where you will feel every road imperfection, bump and pothole, however, you will soon forgive this when you enter a fast corner at speed and drop down a cog and hit the gas. The suspension is built for fast driving and by definition has to be hard enough to cope. I know a few people who have fitted aftermarket suspension and improved things a little bit but at £3000 - £4000 a time, I am happy to live with it. What you get then is a car that can be firmly planted wherever you want on the road and one that will corner very flat at speed but also one that may just rattle your brains on occasion.

Steering.

The steering is very direct and you only need to turn it a slight amount when driving to turn, etc. It has a lot of feel and you always know where the front wheels are. There is one down side to this though, the steering lock. Quite frankly it is very poor and you really do have to do a lot of three point turns in this car which otherwise would not be required in any other car. ( especially on those tiny mini roundabouts. ) Brakes

There are discs all around and stopping power is reasonably high, however, you will find that you have to push pretty hard on the pedal sometimes to avoid those " oh my god I'm gona crash " moments and it does go through front pads quite often and requires new discs around every 40,000 miles to keep it in good condition. You may think that is a bit excessive and you probably could drive a lot longer, however, I would sooner be alive and have an empty wallet than be dead.......know what I mean?

Comfort.

With full leather it is very luscious inside. I am very tall and initially it does take a bit of effort to find the right driving position. Either the seats too low of the seat back to far forward but after a while, you will get is sorted. The heater is excellent as is the air con although having that on does hammer the fuel bills so only for the very hottest days. It will comfortably seat 5 adults and the boot ( trunk ) is large enough to take the weekly shopping and other stuff. I don't play golf anymore so not sure about getting golf clubs in there but you can get a lot of things in it.

The shape.

My car is silver which I think is the best colour for this car and it does have a very sexy, sensual shape to it. You also get a lot of looks from other people so lots of others think it looks good as well. In fact it looks gorgeous and you really feel good when you drive it.

Conclusion.

Well if you can afford to get it serviced on time and can afford the fuel bills and can put up with the odd electrical glitch, you will be rewarded with a very highly focused drivers car that will always leave a huge big smile on your face. You will also relish every opportunity to drive it just to hear the engine alone. It is expensive to run and with fuel prices forever climbing it could prove to be prohibitively so in the next couple of years but as you can buy one from the late 90's to early 2000's for just a few £000.00's you can offset the fuel costs against spending more money on another car and this really sums up the Alfa to me.  You so love it that you start to look at things in a different way so you can justify keeping it.

I know a car is meant to just get you from A to B, but come on, if it were really like that, we would all be driving the same cars. What the Alfa offers is something that makes the journey much better, it adds character, it makes the journey seem good even if you have been sitting in traffic all day and most of all, it makes the world seem a much better place and for that, I am going to keep mine for as long as I can. 

Posted in: Alfa Romeo