2000 Alfa Romeo 156 150 Veloce 2.4 JTD turbo diesel from UK and Ireland

Summary:

Amazing car that seems to go on forever

Faults:

New clutch and belt @ 200000.

Wheel alignments.

Shockers.

Sunvisor fell off and slapped me in the head.

General Comments:

I've had this car 7 years now, and have racked up around 140000 miles.

It has been an excellent car, very comfortable with a very muscular 2.4 diesel engine, and in all this time I have spent 3000 pounds on repair bills, which I think is excellent for the mileage I do. Price of parts are not the cheapest, the wife had DMF and clutch replaced on a Mondeo last week for 650, so it's not really any different.

So it's now done 250 odd thousand miles and I just can't justify getting rid of it, my wife has had a plethora of other cars; Fords, Audis etc. and had a fair share of problems, but the Alfa keeps chugging along.

To sum up: Pros.

Smooth and powerful.

Reliable.

Good looking to me.

45 mpg.

Fun to drive.

Cons.

No cup holders.

Wing mirrors too small.

Not quite as sharp handling as BMW.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 26th August, 2011

12th Jul 2015, 09:05

"No cup holders." LOL, what is it with people and cup holders?

In reply to 12th Jul 2015, 09:05

12th Oct 2022, 18:18

They can be quite useful...

2000 Alfa Romeo 156 2.0L from Australia and New Zealand

Summary:

Lovely, but bloody expensive to fix!!!

Faults:

Dies out between 1 & 2000 rpm. Took it to the mechanics to get a diagnostic report done. There were two faults; 1- air flow meter, 2- throttle body. Does anyone have a suggestion for me to try???

Where can I get cheap parts from other than the dealership?

General Comments:

It's a sexy car. It goes just as well as it looks. Fantastic car, but when it comes to fixing them, it's not so funny anymore.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No

Review Date: 18th May, 2010

24th May 2010, 03:18

Only the usual places - scrapyards and maybe auctions for smashed up cars. But bear in mind that you would be getting essentially 2nd hand parts. There's not much of a pirate part market, unlike some other makes. Unfortunately Alfas ARE expensive to fix, similar to BMW, sorry mate.

14th Jul 2010, 15:52

Check the connections to the sensors (the second fault is probably the throttle position sensor, not the throttle body itself).

In my experience, defective connections are far more common than defective sensors.

2000 Alfa Romeo 156 Selespeed 2.0 Twin Spark from UK and Ireland

Summary:

Amazing car to drive, and superb performance

Faults:

Selespeed wiring came loose, and caused a lot of aggro with fixing it, Also the actuator ram (bar for clutch) popped out of place and stopped the gear from working.

General Comments:

Lovely stylish car. Definitely a drivers car, very economical for the engine size, bad point is Irish road tax, but when ya overrule it, you see the beauty then.

Stylish and comforting interior, warm car inside, regardless of the weather, and really smooth drive, no rattles or creaks from it, and the handling is superb. Not friendly with my age and insurance, but definitely worth the extra money.

Really robust and safe car to drive, surprisingly very fast for the weight of it, parts aren't too hard to come by, really under-rated car in the Irish market due to some cars encountering silly speed problems.

All in all, an excellent car, and I will be buying a new one soon.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 5th April, 2010

6th Apr 2010, 03:20

Excellent! Another addition to the Alfa family! :) I too have a 156 TS Selespeed, and am also a happy owner. Here in South Africa one can also pick them up cheap, and I agree that they are very under-rated. Where can one get more car for the money? In a couple of years I may be looking at adding another Alfa to the stable. Just a pity they stopped making the Arese V6, that's quite an engine...

19th Apr 2010, 09:42

I was also a proud owner of Alfa Romeo 156 Selespeed.

The problems started when it was diagnosed with leaking actuator, which around R27 000.

I believe that most of the car dealers needs extensive training to produce quality mechanics. I have had multiple misdiagnosis, which I spent lots of money for. I also think that every leak can be repaired, so why not repair my leak for R500 rather than spending R30 000 on the car. Or maybe this is just a business decision?

Why does the manufacturer also not do anything about this actuator problem?

22nd Apr 2010, 04:33

I really couldn't answer those questions, only speculate.

I know that some car dealers like to drag out problems in order to make money, or replace parts that don't need replacing. Perhaps this was such a case. I agree that it would be easier to fix a leak than to perform all manner of expensive repairs.

On the other hand I've heard that Selespeed problems can be tricky if you don't know what you're doing. I send my car to an independent garage. So far there hasn't been a problem that they haven't been able to solve.