Alfa Romeo 147 1.6 Lusso 3dr Review

Overall Rating

Looks, obviously. If you consider that the main rivals for the Alfa Romeo 147 1.6 Lusso 3dr car are the Astra, Focus and Golf, the 147 stands out from the crowd. Sweeping lines and and glorious interior are easily the match of any car in its class, and will wipe the smile from any BMW compact owners you come across. Add to this a 1.6 engine that feels far faster than it is, never feels underpowered and you have a car with sharp handling, and loads of gadgets. The Alfa 147 is the finest car in its class, and if you don't believe this, try swapping it for a Golf & Focus (as i recently did while mine was being serviced), you'll soon realise thr error of your ways. As said before, the engine revs highly at motorway speed, but the noise is never intrusive. The pay off for the high revs is the ease of acceleration from 70-100mph. Build quality, while an issue on earlier Alfa's has been ironed out, leaving this car without a rattle or squeak, and the only trips to the garage are for services.

Members' Comments onRoss Britnell's Review

• revvyman on 3rd Mar 2004

  Hmmm, obviously I got the Friday car, useless piece of garbage with rattles everywhere. Also think it\'s a better car than Golf/Focus but only if they can get the build and dealers sorted which on mine was not the case. The dealers are almost the worst I have experienced(after Merc dealers, yes really they are awful)

• NewMan on 21st Jun 2004

  I bought my wife a new 147 1.6 lusso 3dr back in early May. So far very pleased, no rattles or squeaks [except from the kids]. Everyone comments on how quiet and 'comfy' it is, great list of standard & optional features too. I think it could do with a 6th gear or a different 5th gear ratio though ! Just to reduce engine revs at high motorway speeds and increase fuel ecomony.

• richard williams on 10th Jul 2004

  I've had my 147 for just over 2 years from new and done about 49K miles in it. For the second time this year it's in the garage for major repairs (cam belt went 24k before recommended change and power steering pipe disintegrated!!) and I've had very little support from Alfa. So far I've had to spend over £800 on hire cars and I've got no idea when I'm going to get it back. From new it's had a rattle in 2nd gear which both the Alfa garage and Alfa have been unable to fix. This is a real shame as it's a good looking car which is fun to drive. I was going to change to a 156 Speedwagon before this latest incident but I'm now looking at other more reliable makes.

• natalieflo on 12th Oct 2004

  Pleased to hear there is another friday car out there! Our's is the 2.0 TS Lusso, love the car, hate spending all my days off sat at the dealership, too many problems to list mainly with the computer and electrics.

• ndls on 26th Jan 2005

  Agree with the negative comments...great car to drive, looks nice, and the build quality is OK...but reliability is poor, residual values are terrible, and when you have problems Alfa GB are no help, and local dealers simply refer you back to Alfa. My 51 reg 1.6 Lusso had a steering rack failure two months after I bought it, a leaking weld in the passenger footwell after a year, power steering failure last December, and a snapped cam belt at 45,00 miles. Sad to say, after my experiences, I'll never have another Alfa... now changing to a Golf instead!