Alfa Romeo 147 2.0 Lusso 5dr Review

Overall Rating

It's front is like no-other and very good looking. The leather interior is a must have and the cock pit overall is very pleasing. If you are fortunate to have one that Luigi didn't interfere with you've got it made!

Drinks oil, you need to check your oil every 1000 miles. The petrol cap is a menace for my man's big hands, which could probably explain why there's never any petrol left in it, that and the fact that you can literally watch the needle going down as you accelerate. Having been to Italy twice now I can confirm, that Italian men on the whole do infact have lady-sized hands.

The front electric windows were stuck, fortunately in the closed position and remained totally unmoveable for the first few months of the Alfa Romeo 147 2.0 Lusso 5dr sports cars life, we had working windows for a few weeks then they packed in again. Fortunately it has aircon or I may have melted to death on one or two of the hot days we have had this year but unfortunately the air con also had a mind of its own along with an occasional strange smell too.

The paintwork developed blemishes in some areas and the alloys caught an unexplained virus too, fortunately the garage we bought it from did a really good paint job, which totally surprised me since I would not recommend anyone to buy a car from them. Under Warranty we got 2 new alloy wheels which took 5 trips to the main dealers and several hours waiting around before they were finally both exchanged, and the same performance was had over getting a dead battery replaced. At less than 3 months old the car has also had to have a new computer. The main dealers told me it had been a danger to drive all the while I had been driving it, because it basically had a mind of it's own and the brakes could have failed at any time! this also meant that all the extra safety features would not have registered with the car. Which is comforting to know after having paid over £16,000 for it.

Prior to that we had a non-starter, 5 breakdowns, VDC failure, ABS failure, spontaneous and rather annoying electrical faults which included a flashing tripometer... Can anybody explain? I can't be bothered to read the hand book, it would take weeks. I am informed by the main dealer that apparently, if your foot slips off the brake pedal, like it sometimes does when you set off quickly, the car thinks it's brakes have failed and the pedal needs re-setting in order to off-set the ABS warning, (bet you didn't know that1)

Overall I believe that the car is way too intelligent for it's own good and having a brain (computer) in a car is not a good idea after all, going back to the days of a simple gearbox, steering, and pedals sounds good to me after 7 months of this, yet despite all this, I don't blame the car, I blame the garage we bought it from and the not so finger-on-the-pulse main dealers. It is a fabulous car and not just for its looks, it's a wicked-beast to drive but not so good for your front passenger. The large wheels, sharp handling and hard suspension mean you could easily break your Granny's neck,(not a suggestion).

Ps. if you do break down and like me you were not informed of the 2 years free AA cover, do not allow a man with big hands to push you out the way, as the body work pushes inwards very easily and then costs a lot to have it popped back out to perfection.

Members' Comments onnatalieflo's Review

• revvyman on 14th Oct 2004

  Totally agree with this review, my wife used to have a 147 selespeed and the electrics were a nightmare! Eventually it developed a very dangerous fault on the selespeed, it kept dropping into neutral when changing up, great fun if overtaking at the time! I reported the fault to Alfa UK and the Department of Transport after repeated attempts to cure it failed. The car was a lease car and eventually Alfa took it back without any early termination penalty. A real shame as when it worked it was great fun.

• natalieflo on 15th Oct 2004

  I forgot to mention it has less than 4000 miles on the clock now but most of the faults developed between 1000 to 2000 miles.