Alpha Romeo 147....

Thinking of buying a second hand Alpha 147, probably 2001-2002. I hear their reliability has improved greatly but the resale value is very poor on them....? Any comments?

I know a man that would disagree! He bought a second hand Alfa 147 and has nothing but trouble since. Its probably a case of getting lucky. Like most cars some people swear by them and others swear at them!

www.honestjohn.co.uk/carbycar/index.htm

Then put in Alfa 147 and see what they have to say about it.

Heard a story about Alfa 147, he moved passenger seat forward to allow a passenger into the back, when he went to return the seat to its original position, the clank caused the engine to cut off, apparently the emergency cut off switch is under this seat and was activated by the motion above. Not sure exactly how true this is though......

Thanks for the replies.

From that website seems to have some serious reliabilty issues and more bad than good points. Maybe I'll stick to a 1.6 Comfortline Golf, they tend to hold their value quite well so if I decide to change again in a couple of years I wont take quite as big a hit.

I have heard some garages let you "borrow" the car they have for sale for 24 hours -i.e. an extended test drive - anybody heard of this practice?

Haven't heard of this practice no...but I think that if it's only Alfa garages that are doing this it speaks volumes about their reliability.

For what it's worth I spent a number of months looking at cars recently. Originally I was looking at a Focus or a 1.6 comf Golf like yourself.
Then I started looking at the new Laguna as well and the 156 & 147.

To cut a long story short my father knows a very reputable main dealer in Dublin. He basically said do not buy a Laguna or ANY Alfa Romeo. The electrics in the Laguna are just awful, as is the drive supposedly. They look great though.
Alfa's are very hit and miss. You can be lucky and get a good one...but if you're unlucky be prepared to spend about 70% of your time in the garage. I kid you not! They're a beautiful looking car...but just like any high maintenace girlfriend - just not worth it in the end.

I opted for a new Primera in the end - the hatchback version. Lovely car, extremely reliable and quite nice looking.

Oh...I drove a mark4 golf as well. A 01 1.6 comf from Ballsbridge motors. Not that impressive to be honest. Not bad but not that great either. A lot more problems with them than people might imagine also. Check out Honest John's take on the Mark4. The Mark5 scores much better.

This main dealer guy I was talking to said the same. The Mark4 is not all it's cracked up to be. He thought the Focus was far better. It's also nicer to drive.

Sorry to confuse the matter with so many cars. If it's return you're looking for then you can't steer too far wrong with the golf...but it's a badge car and not that much else. You'll get better for less in my opinion.

Brilliant comparison with the high maintenance girlfriend, thanks Gabriel, ill definitely bear it in mind!

Will give the Golf Mark 4 a test drive, I have a Mark 3 at the moment and its very standard to drive, comfortwise etc. Nothing special at all, was hoping the Mark 4 would be an improvement. Im surprised to hear about reliability issues.

I was considering a focus before, there seems to be a good few ex-rental/ex-salesperson Focus cars out there, only a couple of years old with high mileage.

Oh...one more thing I should add to that. I did extensive research into the Focus in Dublin a while back. There's a lot of low mileage, newish Focuses with all the trimmings out there. A lot of these are from back street garages. I viewded on that was going for 15k from a place up in Belgard. 03 and all the extras. Only 20k on the clock. I opened the bonnet and the engine was filthy. I mean really filthy. Main dealer told me that virtually all of these cars are clocked by back street garages once they don't need their nct. It's par for the course. Supposedly there's a group of kids going around with computers and the relevant software to clock them. Beware...especially Golf's and Focus's. Honestly...when you ring a few of the guys in the buy and sell you'll soon discover that they're selling multiple cars from behind their houses etc...

I was dead set against main dealers but you're safer with them and you'll get an honest car. Actually, your man reckoned as the car was only 2 years old and the engine was that dirty it might have been a different engine!!

I used to drive a Passat and would agree that VW are very average to drive. I also agree that an ex-rental Focus from a main dealer is a very good buy. My cousin had 3 golfs over the last 8 years and has just bought a Focus, he says it's a much better car to drive.
My Brother had a 156 1.8L and said it's a great drive. It was 2 years old when he bought it and 4 when he sold it. At that stage it was falling apart. Though he is a bit of a petrol head and would be quite hard on car.