Alfa Romeo 156 Sportwagon 2.5 V6 Lusso Review

Overall Rating

- Drop dead gorgeous. Without doubt the best looking "estate" on the market.
- Superb V6 engine - smooth as silk. Sounds fabulous.
- Very good 6-speed manual gearbox. Positive, and very, very nice to use. Reverse has one of those little collars, so despite the number of gears you never change into reverse by mistake.
- Goes like a rocket when you want it to. In most speed conditions the engine is just ticking over.
- Excellent handling. Rock steady at high speeds. Very positive in all conditions.
- Great level of equipment, but mine was ex-demo so was fully loaded.
- I'll single out the Bose speaker system, with the Blaupunkt radio/CD for special praise.
- Excellent SECOND HAND PURCHASE. For pity's sake, make sure somebody else takes the depreciation hit!!
- Very comfortable for long journeys. Sports suspension is a reasonable compromise between comfort and handling.
- Reasonable service costs. My 12 month services are around £150.

- Supersonic depreciation when new. Rule one - DON'T BUY A NEW ONE!!! Rule two - SEE RULE ONE!!!
- Very thirsty. My trip computer is reporting a lifetime average of 26 mpg, and despite the occasional spurt I'm not a boy racer.
- OK, I've tried hard, but I just can't get used to the stupid position of the front number plate.
- The fat tyres mean a lot of road noise - need to turn the stereo up pretty loud on the motorway.
- Below 3 celsius (ie. most winter mornings) the compressor on the AC does not work (it actually says so in the manual). So getting the climate control to actually de-mist the windows can be a challenge.
- The "handbrake on" and "low brake fluid" sensors share a warning light. Since one is a simple status message and the other a critical emergency it's surprisingly irritating.
- Build quality is poor. I had my rear suspension bushes changed three times in 2 years (under warranty, fortunately).
- Another build quality issue - whenever I vacuum under the driver's seat, jiggling the airbag sensor cable turns on the airbag warning light on the dash. Even if you re-seat the cable the warning light has to be reset by the dealer. Cost £80 for an hour's labour. Solution - don't vacuum under the driver's seat.
- Turning circle is poor, but that's because of the fat tyres.
- Despite three tries, the dealer cannot get the radio aerial to get decent reception.
- This may sound trivial, but the filler for the washer bottle is far too small.

This Alfa Romeo 156 Sportwagon 2.5 V6 Lusso Estate is a car you buy with your heart, not your head. In my opinion it is absolutely the most beautiful "estate" car on the market. And the 2.5 V6 is a fabulous engine.

On the downside, you do have to come to terms with the depreciation. I bought an ex-demonstrator, and thought I was getting a hell of a lot of car for the money. But when I came to part-ex the car three years later, it had still dropped alarmingly. But the person who ended up buying her got an executive car at a bargain price.

I wanted to comment specifically on the washer refill. This may seem like a trivial complaint, but most of you will have been in a situation where your washer bottle runs out, and you end up staring through a sheet of gunge until you can get to a service station. Since it's probably cold, windy and dark, the last thing you need is a washer bottle with a neck that's smaller than on a beer bottle. Even under ideal conditions it's impossible to refill this thing without a funnel. How many times have I watched my mixture of expensive de-icer and water just pour onto the floor because I can't find the funnel? This is why, on other cars, the washer bottle has an over-sized neck. On a car that is so beautifully designed (and has some nice attention to detail in other areas) this is a strange aberration that could so easily be fixed.

You'll note I've said I wouldn't recommend this car to a friend. That's absolutely true because I did talk one of my friends out of buying one just by describing my experiences. However, if you really are looking for something a bit different, but still in the luxury bracket, look for a good, second hand Alpha 156. Make sure everything's screwed down, and if there's still a bit of warranty left you'll probably need it.

OK, you're going to spend (un)happy hours in the dealer getting the bits stuck back on, but you'll also have a lot of driving pleasure. If Alpha could just get their build quality up on these cars, and improve the fuel economy a bit, they'd have a real winner on their hands.

One final remark. I did not buy another Alpha (despite falling in love with the Alpha GT). Alpha would have to do a hell of a lot of work on their build quality, which I assume would eventually have a positive effect on resale values, before I would consider buying another.