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.