20th Nov 2006, 20:16

I've owned about 10 Alfas over the years. I love Alfasuds and my dream would be to have one in the garage for fun. The poor man's Ferrari! The worst Alfa I had was a 33, but that was due to the handling which was nowhere near as good as the suds I'd had before. And it was a 1.3 so not massively rapid. But... it did 40000 miles in 2 years and cost 2 wiper blades and 2 headlamp bulbs over and above normal service parts! That is reliability. I've had new Peugeots and Vauxhalls as company cars that have been far, far, far less reliable than anything I remember from any Alfa I've had. And most Alfas have been quite old. The secret with an Alfa is to have it well serviced, and drive it like Fangio would, as quickly as possible. They're not designed for low revs!! My current Alfa is a 155 2.0 Twin Spark. 11 years and 110,000 miles, no problems and I fall in love every time I drive it.

10th Dec 2006, 12:21

I too, must be a glutton for punishment. A Golf, a Fiat Cinquecento, an Orion, an Astra and a Corsa later, I have just bought my fourth 33. Different engine, different model, later year, but the problems are starting to rear their ugly heads. I suppose I am fortunate enough to have been driving it for three whole problem-free weeks, unlike my 1987 1.5ti s. Both constantly overheated, despite major cooling system overhaul, both had selective central locking, which left me in car parks armed with a wire coat hanger, fishing down the window seal, in an effort to gain entry. They both had constant electrical faults and their headlight lenses leaked... but I still loved them. The AA man, who picked us off the M3 on Christmas Day, a couple of years ago, remarked that in all his days, he'd never seen a sump gasket blow. This, I later found out, was not the car's fault... It was the fault of the imbecile I was going out with, who insisted the red oil light was on because it was empty, not due to high pressure. Without a mention to me, he had overfilled on oil the night before, then topped up 'just in case' before we left. He was soon my ex.

The only Alfa that never let me down, ever, was my 75 2l twin spark limited edition in metallic black. I had four happy, stress-free months with that car, until some little b****** stole it and wrote it off, yards from my house. I only had third party insurance and mourned it for weeks. The latest is a 33 1.7ie 8v. No overheating, no electrical problems-but the cat converter has gone after three weeks, as have two wheel bearings, front shock boots have split and I cannot get the boot open unless I pull lever and lift the lid at the same time. My arms are just not long enough. I could put it down to being a labour of love, I suppose and claim temporary insanity at the time of purchase, when my friends and relations commiserate me for such a poor choice of car.

I still love my 33 though. MANDY.

5th Oct 2007, 10:28

Some interesting comments.

From most of them, it seems a lot of you have at least one or more probs with your Alfas, which kind of vindicates me saying my car was very unreliable.

Poor old Mandy keeps trying with hers, but most sound like they've had all sorts go wrong! Mandy, buy a 164 2.0 TS or 3.0 V6 if you like old Alfas that much, I think they're pretty reliable.

Oh yeah, the bloke who said that its not the cars, but people can't drive when it comes to wet weather handling is speaking out his rear, up til last year I sold cars for 10 yrs and know if something handles crap in the wet, 33's do!

And his statement "what car dosn't have too much power through the front wheels these days?"?!---try most modern cars with esp and traction control, few examples : Focus ST, Golf GTi, Octavia RS and most other stuff, apart from maybe an Alfa 147 GTA!

Dan--original ed.