Faults:

Crankshaft bearing failure.

Oil pump failure.

Due to a badly made repair by one the previous owners.

General Comments:

First things first it looks great!

Great to drive, brilliant sound.

Good handling simply fun to drive.

The only problem is that the 2 litre 16 valve twin spark is not a reliable engine.

The 1.8 TS is a much better choice.

The driving position is not bad, but could be better, a bit to high.

The steering wheel is to far away and the pedals are too close.

Yet the driving experience makes you forget all those things once you take it out on a curvy road, it's pure driving pleasure.

As only the Italians are able to build.

Faults:

Very little in 5 days!

Exhaust back box has a hole in it.

Engine lumpy at tick-over. Just needs a good service!

Alarm doesn't work.

Gear change is very sloppy, but that is due to gear cables being worn. Bit expensive to replace at £50 a shot.

General Comments:

This is the first Alfa I've owned, and I love it.

The car was bought at auction for £280, as the garage that owned it last went bankrupt, so it was an absolute steal!

The exterior was covered with decals, and with it being a works vehicle, the interior was really grubby and oily.

With a bit of elbow grease, the body work has polished up very nicely, and the insides are very hard wearing.

The boxer 1.7 makes a great sound, and likes to be revved hard to get some go out of it. At 70 the engine's doing about 3500 rpm, which is a bit high, considering the red line is at 6500.

I was quite surprised to find the engine being longitudinally mounted and driving the front wheels (i.e. old Saab model style).

I'm getting about 40mpg, which is real good, I though it would drink fuel, so this is a nice surprise. Usually Alfas have a knack of bad electrics, but so far (Touch wood) nothing has gone really wrong apart from the alarm going off after being set.

Inside, the car is quite airy and light, and things are fairly close at hand.

It's taken a few days to get used to the 'Italian' driving position. Knees bent, arms stretched, but it's still comfortable.

Steering wise, it's pin sharp, it's nice to feel what the wheels are doing, and not being left feeling-less, like my old Saab.

The ride is quite hard, so you do feel a lot of bumps and holes, and the car leans when cornering hard, but that's down to a possible sports kit, that may have been fitted.

Overall, I'm very pleasantly surprised, and have grown very quickly to love the car.

Faults:

Airbags failed to protect occupants in a minor collision after 53,000 miles. Luckily nobody was seriously hurt.

Broke down six times in the space of 2 years due to ignition problems.

Both electric window motors failed after 70,000 miles.

Interior trim was very flimsy and breakable.

Tailgate catch broke 2 weeks before I sold the car.

General Comments:

The Alfa 145 was great to drive for 1.6 hatchback, but it was let down by terrible build quality and sub standard reliability.

It was 4 years old when I bought it for £5,000. I had always liked the look of the 145 so I jumped at the chance to buy one. But I was really let down by its quality and the dealer service was expensive. So I sold it for £2,500 after 2 years.

Faults:

I bought the car in October 2001 with some faults, and so relatively cheap. It drove well, but had to repair the following:

Thermostat (Engine coolant temperature too low)

Rear brakes locked-up (Brake pressure distributor was stuck)

Back of the drivers seat was broken.

After this was repaired (by myself) I had the following problems:

Drivers door will not lock.

Windscreen wiper arm broke off.

Sometimes the airbag light will come on.

Broken off ball-joint in the suspension. This happened while taking a roundabout and caused the CV joint to brake down also. This failure was partly my own fault, because I felt some play in the suspension for weeks. However, I never thought that it would crack. Also, the car just passed the yearly mandatory inspection with this play!!!

Replaced lower suspension arms because of clattering. (bushes worn out).

General Comments:

This is my first diesel powered car and also the last. I expected a good fuel economy and reasonable performance, but both are poor. Besides this, it is a nice car, good design, well equipped and pretty comfortable. Only the wind noise is bad and at high speeds, the engine is very loud.

The seats are comfortable and the ride and handling is OK.

It's a nice car, but it doesn't give me the driving pleasure I was used to with my previous Alfa Romeos.