You'll read and hear a lot about Alfa Romeos, mostly about their poor reliability and build quality. But here's the trick, most or all of those opinions will be from people who've never owned one. From my experiences, the build quality is excellent, my GT feels like a very well built car, well screwed together and the controls all have a good feel to them.

As far as it looks, stunning would be the word to use. There are so few of them around, that the car always gets a lot of looks wherever it goes. I have had some lovely comments about it and I suspect many think it about twice as expensive as it was. It's the only car I've owned that I look back at when I walk away from it.

To drive, it's very good, the ride is a bit bumpy on some urban roads, largely due to the appalling state of them where I live, but anywhere else and the ride is very good. But on the motorway and in general it's very refined and quiet, on country roads it's very agile and has enormous amounts of grip.

The engine is superb, a ridiculous amount of torque for a 1.9 engine. In fact in gear acceleration times (and the fact that you don't need to drop down two gears to get moving) are very, very impressive. The engine also has a suprisingly good sound under acceleration, it's hard to tell it's a diesel. Economy is around 45mpg and around town I'm getting about 38, pretty good.

The interior as I've said is well put together and genuinely stylish, it's a cliche but every journey in the alfa is an event, with the cowled dials in front of you, and a full compliment of technology that seems to work just fine. Seats are leather and some of the best I've sat in, supportive and supremely comfortable on long journeys.

Practicality wise, it's got a good sized boot, you can put the rear seat down. It has four seats, in reality you wouldn't take four adults for long distances in it, but for short trips it's fine. It does have an enormous turning circle. I have the 17" wheel option, which might not help that.

Bad points: That turning circle, quite tricky to park without parking sensors as the letter box rear window isn't much use for reversing. Two other things that have been an issue with one front suspension member, which squeaks, you can quieten it for a while with silicon grease, but the part is £80 and fitting about £40. Also the JTD is notorious for putting a whole in the bottom turbo return hose. This will give you some black smoke and a slight to great loss of power. It's a design fault, but buy a silicon after market replacement item and it'll be redesigned and you won't get the problem with the leak ever again. It's noticeable by a whistle from the underside of the car when you accelerate.

So all in all, a really great car the Alfa GT. I can't see any downsides to it at the moment, they are rare (it's great they are, but they shouldn't be), so exclusive. They make a sensible alternative to a BMW, which I tried. Maybe not such a rounded car, but an accomplished one, and just look at the car, stands out a mile from a 3 series, which everyone seems to own.

£8k for a low mileage one on a 05 plate, good from now on in and the depreciation seems very all I can say is that someone at a bp garage asked me if it was a Maserati. Make sure it's regularly serviced by an Alfa specialist and it'll see you right.

The Alfa Romeo GT 1.9 JTD MultiJet is a Great Car, Lot of Fun to drive it, Low Consumption compared to its performance,

So pleased with this car, I feel I don't want to ever change it after usually doing so every 3 years. It's attractive to the eye, and the handling is excellent. Very precise steering on fast bends without a hint of drift. The power it gives as an when required is so responsive. The car does exactly what you tell it to and executes every command perfectly. Fuel consumption is good obvoiusly depending on how you drive, but certainly the most economical larger car I have owned.
Definately recommended. Highly recommended. Wish I'd bought one sooner and cannot understand why there are not more on the road.
I give the car a 10/10 score because if the car was female, it would definately be on a par with Marylyn Monroe.

The Alfa Romeo GT 1.9 did not score highly on value for money due to a few quality issues and also because of the discounting. This car has been 100 % reliable. It is excellent for motorway cruising and it's versatilty as a sporting hatchback has been very useful too. Beautifully appointed cabin. Very good ride quality and good roadholding. Economy is exceptional. An individual car which doesn't look run of the mill. These are exceptional value 2nd hand and that's how I'll buy one in future until they get the dealers sorted.

Feeling romantic, stylish, wanna learn a Latin phrase or two? What a beautiful looker! My metalic black Alfa Romeo GT was meant to be the car of my dreams and by sight it was. Well, for the price anyway. The 1.9 JTD was ok. One can feel the metal through the pedals when driving this diesel. Don't get me wrong, the performance is satisfactory but ridged sporty coupe's deserve better. I wasn't impressed with the dash or function arms. The lamp switch was frail and awkward on the indicator arm. The 18" alloy were a tad too spindally. From side on they look weak. The get up and go was great on the V6 but I struggled with the light front end under so much power. The JTD was less powerful and therefore not so light fronted under flight. Black metalic paint on these Alfa's is a no no. They always look dusty and pale. The gear stick was a complete disaster. Long and dated, 1st to 2nd seemed to take forever and as always the Italians love a spongy gear box. This car had the makings of something brilliant but budgets to keep the sales up and prices down means that they have cut corners on quality here and there. It's born on the 156 and owning a 156 for a year made me dislike my Alfa gt as it didn't seem to be technically advanced in anyway. Leather was good and the badge is a piece of art. V6 will dry up oil reserves, JTD decent but a little...erm... diesel like. If you're thinking of one, and one should own an alfa once in a lifetime, then beat the dealer with ya brollie as he will give you a great deal on one. BMW coupe's are common and chav like but they are still superior in this class. Ciao bambini!

If you want a coupe but also want something different to the BMW 3 Series coupe, then the Alfa Romeo GT is well worth a look.
It has classic Alfa styling and is very well screwed together. No rattles and squeeks and the quality of materials used is excellent.
It is a true GT rather than an out and out sports car, with a back seat that can accommodate two adults for short journeys. It is also very practical, having a hatchback tailgate and folding rear seats. The front seats are very comfortable and supportive.
The diesel version is quiet, has lots of torque and so is very punchy and refined, and averages 45 mpg.
Handling and ride quality are good but the turning circle is quite large for this size of car.
The radio/CD controls are quite fiddly to use and quite complicated to master.
It comes very well equipped as standard and offers excellent value for money.