My first Alfa - Mito Twin Air 105 QV Line 2014
Discussion
Sounding more like something from the early learning centre, but hopefully shares the fun too. 
I bought a 'shed' Ka last summer as a local run about and for using at gigs when I play at some slightly less salubrious venues (or at least those with small car parks to squeeze into). The Ka would to help keep the miles off our main car and helped to build up my NCD as I'd given up my company car when I retired last May. Turned out we both ended up driving the Ka more often, if less mileage, than our main car so I decided that I'd use a little bit of inheritance from my Dad's estate to upgrade since I do most of my driving in the 'small car'.
I looked at loads of options, but it had to be as cheap to run as the Ka, £30 VED or less, similar mpg but perhaps a little more power for motorway driving on the rare occasions my band has a gig that I need to drive down the M4 to get to. It also had to be red because my Dad always owned red cars and he was effectively paying for some of it.
I drove one very rough example I found at a local car dealer. It smelt of fags and the 'new clutch' felt very odd, but it was a hoot to drive as I was given the keys and left to go on my own down some familiar roads. I made my excuses and left, but confirmed that I wanted one.
Eventually found this one at an Alfa specialist Veloces of London with 61,000 miles on it, but 8 service stamps. They agreed to replace the Twin Air strainer before I picked it up plus a fresh MOT, so I put a deposit down and arranged to view it the following Monday.
Dealer's photo:
It also was the first Twin Air Mito I'd seen for sale with the full leather seats (usually only the more powerful models have it):
The test drive went well and the clutch felt fine on this one and was nice and light. It still made the 'mad lawnmower' noise when I put my foot down but the ride on 17" wheels was nowhere near as bad as road tests had me believe. I paid the rest and we drove home via the M25 at a steady cruise, with my wife driving our other car in convoy.
I'd read a lot about how the Twin Air doesn't get anywhere close to it's claimed mpg, but I figured it couldn't be that bad, especially for a Grandad driver like me. I'd reset the Trip and when I got home after a 70mph cruise round the M25/M4 I almost 54mpg:
The previous owner had obviously done a lot of town driving and perhaps been more heavy footed than me:
Turns out that there might have been another reason for the previous owner's lower mpg as well, but I'll go into that in another post.
I bought a 'shed' Ka last summer as a local run about and for using at gigs when I play at some slightly less salubrious venues (or at least those with small car parks to squeeze into). The Ka would to help keep the miles off our main car and helped to build up my NCD as I'd given up my company car when I retired last May. Turned out we both ended up driving the Ka more often, if less mileage, than our main car so I decided that I'd use a little bit of inheritance from my Dad's estate to upgrade since I do most of my driving in the 'small car'.
I looked at loads of options, but it had to be as cheap to run as the Ka, £30 VED or less, similar mpg but perhaps a little more power for motorway driving on the rare occasions my band has a gig that I need to drive down the M4 to get to. It also had to be red because my Dad always owned red cars and he was effectively paying for some of it.
I drove one very rough example I found at a local car dealer. It smelt of fags and the 'new clutch' felt very odd, but it was a hoot to drive as I was given the keys and left to go on my own down some familiar roads. I made my excuses and left, but confirmed that I wanted one.
Eventually found this one at an Alfa specialist Veloces of London with 61,000 miles on it, but 8 service stamps. They agreed to replace the Twin Air strainer before I picked it up plus a fresh MOT, so I put a deposit down and arranged to view it the following Monday.
Dealer's photo:
It also was the first Twin Air Mito I'd seen for sale with the full leather seats (usually only the more powerful models have it):
The test drive went well and the clutch felt fine on this one and was nice and light. It still made the 'mad lawnmower' noise when I put my foot down
but the ride on 17" wheels was nowhere near as bad as road tests had me believe. I paid the rest and we drove home via the M25 at a steady cruise, with my wife driving our other car in convoy.I'd read a lot about how the Twin Air doesn't get anywhere close to it's claimed mpg, but I figured it couldn't be that bad, especially for a Grandad driver like me. I'd reset the Trip and when I got home after a 70mph cruise round the M25/M4 I almost 54mpg:
The previous owner had obviously done a lot of town driving and perhaps been more heavy footed than me:
Turns out that there might have been another reason for the previous owner's lower mpg as well, but I'll go into that in another post.
Being the cynic that I am, I couldn't help but check that the dealer had in fact replaced the Twin Air strainer. It was one of those parts that kept coming up, as well as using the correct grade of oil and changing it regularly, so I had planned to do an oil change and replace the strainer as soon as I bought any Mito.
Took a bit of digging around on forums to find out where it was. I'd already had the air filter housing off to check the spark plugs and air filter, so it was a shame I hadn't realised where it was while I had the air filter box out of the way. It's under this black plastic cap just behind the spark plugs:
Took out the cap and using a thin walled 15mm socket I got the strainer out to confirm that it was indeed shiny, clean and new looking (sorry Mr Veloce...don't put a horse's head in my bed for doubting you. ):
I put it back in and ordered some new spark plugs having previously removed them to confirm the part number and that they looked a bit sooty even though the previous journey was a long one. Since I only needed two plugs and the air filter wasn't expensive either I thought I might as well get all these bits up to scratch since I didn't have an oil, filter and strainer to do. They went in no bother when they arrived a few days later.
The first time my wife had a drive of it, she had barely got to the end of our road to turn round and the 'check power steering' light had come on and she couldn't turn the wheel. I jumped in to move it onto the drive while she took the other car and it was fine for me of course.
I did a bit of digging as the electric power steering was another item that came up in 'things to watch for' on various buyer's guides. Turns out that a weak battery is the fix 9 times out of 10 and of course that wasn't covered by warranty.
Yes I could have gone round the M25 and tried to get the dealers to sort it out since I'd only just got it. However I figured that it would cost me petrol in both cars, possibly return trip a few days later. They'd maybe put a cheaper battery in that I'd end up replacing in a year or two as well. Since I plan to keep this 5 years or more, then buying a decent stop/start battery with a 5 year warranty would sort it out, hopefully for my ownership of the car.
No pictures, but the new battery was an easy job, no code reseting required despite Halfords trying their best to get me to pay £27 for them to fit it because of the possibility. On the plus side I got a discount from my Defense Discount card, so it was pretty competitive and convenient for me to get to.
Battery seemed to have sorted it, the car started better too and the stop/start kicked in (until I switched it off
). All looking good apart from the sooty spark plugs and the car seemed to take a while to warm up from cold...
It was one of those parts that kept coming up, as well as using the correct grade of oil and changing it regularly, so I had planned to do an oil change and replace the strainer as soon as I bought any Mito.Took a bit of digging around on forums to find out where it was. I'd already had the air filter housing off to check the spark plugs and air filter, so it was a shame I hadn't realised where it was while I had the air filter box out of the way. It's under this black plastic cap just behind the spark plugs:
Took out the cap and using a thin walled 15mm socket I got the strainer out to confirm that it was indeed shiny, clean and new looking (sorry Mr Veloce...don't put a horse's head in my bed for doubting you.
):I put it back in and ordered some new spark plugs having previously removed them to confirm the part number and that they looked a bit sooty even though the previous journey was a long one. Since I only needed two plugs and the air filter wasn't expensive either I thought I might as well get all these bits up to scratch since I didn't have an oil, filter and strainer to do. They went in no bother when they arrived a few days later.
The first time my wife had a drive of it, she had barely got to the end of our road to turn round and the 'check power steering' light had come on and she couldn't turn the wheel. I jumped in to move it onto the drive while she took the other car and it was fine for me of course.
I did a bit of digging as the electric power steering was another item that came up in 'things to watch for' on various buyer's guides. Turns out that a weak battery is the fix 9 times out of 10 and of course that wasn't covered by warranty. Yes I could have gone round the M25 and tried to get the dealers to sort it out since I'd only just got it. However I figured that it would cost me petrol in both cars, possibly return trip a few days later. They'd maybe put a cheaper battery in that I'd end up replacing in a year or two as well. Since I plan to keep this 5 years or more, then buying a decent stop/start battery with a 5 year warranty would sort it out, hopefully for my ownership of the car.
No pictures, but the new battery was an easy job, no code reseting required despite Halfords trying their best to get me to pay £27 for them to fit it because of the possibility. On the plus side I got a discount from my Defense Discount card, so it was pretty competitive and convenient for me to get to.
Battery seemed to have sorted it, the car started better too and the stop/start kicked in (until I switched it off
). All looking good apart from the sooty spark plugs and the car seemed to take a while to warm up from cold...Fun cars Mitos, I'm zooming about in my daughters little black number complete with leather too. They're quite nice seats for the pogo stick ride but long journeys can be tiring, obviously not a long distance cruiser though. Don't know what mileage I get from the 1.4multi but it's better than the 2.5 V6 in my other Alfa and it's ULEZ compliant so...
Worth checking the front strut tops and springs if not already done they can corrode and leak ball bearings.
Hope you enjoy yours
Worth checking the front strut tops and springs if not already done they can corrode and leak ball bearings.
Hope you enjoy yours
Its always good to see a little Alfa in Rosso. Love the QV wheels too.
I do like the look of the Mito amid the sea of 5dr square econoboxes and the twin air engine sounds bonkers.
I am sure the power steering issue is down to the battery. My inherited Fabia had the same issue and a new battery solved it. It was undriveable with no assistance though!!!
I do like the look of the Mito amid the sea of 5dr square econoboxes and the twin air engine sounds bonkers.
I am sure the power steering issue is down to the battery. My inherited Fabia had the same issue and a new battery solved it. It was undriveable with no assistance though!!!
Thanks Om and simonrockman the Twin Air is bonkers...it's more noise than go really, but at least it feels a bit quicker than the Ka and manages fine on the motorway instead of feeling like I'm forcing the Ka along at 65, let alone 70. The 6th gear helps too on motorways too I'm sure.
The new battery does seem to have sorted it: I bought a code reader just for service resetting but I thought it would be handy to have for error code checking. Nothing found other than the initial message when my wife drove it which I cleared and hasn't re-occurred since thankfully.
I've now got an excuse to buy a Ferrari or Maserati with this code reader. I bought a similar one for my wife's old Mercedes SLK, which I now use to service the C Class we replaced it with. Seems to work well and less hassle than software and a laptop like I used to do on my old BMW Z3 and my wife's old BMW Mini.
Of course it does Alfa Romeo too:
I meant to say in my first post: My Mum and Step Dad bought our only brand new family car in 1978 and it was an Alfa Sud 1.3 Super. Sadly it rusted quite badly even in 3 years, but was replaced with a nearly new Ford RS2000 that I now own. My Mum was pleased to hear I'd bought an Alfa (I glossed over the bit about my Dad's estate paying for some of it ).
The new battery does seem to have sorted it: I bought a code reader just for service resetting but I thought it would be handy to have for error code checking. Nothing found other than the initial message when my wife drove it which I cleared and hasn't re-occurred since thankfully.
I've now got an excuse to buy a Ferrari or Maserati with this code reader.
I bought a similar one for my wife's old Mercedes SLK, which I now use to service the C Class we replaced it with. Seems to work well and less hassle than software and a laptop like I used to do on my old BMW Z3 and my wife's old BMW Mini.Of course it does Alfa Romeo too:
I meant to say in my first post: My Mum and Step Dad bought our only brand new family car in 1978 and it was an Alfa Sud 1.3 Super. Sadly it rusted quite badly even in 3 years, but was replaced with a nearly new Ford RS2000 that I now own. My Mum was pleased to hear I'd bought an Alfa (I glossed over the bit about my Dad's estate paying for some of it
).I had a Punto Twinair, they make even more fun noises if you put a pod filter on them, I did this purely for the noise and it was entirely worth it
https://youtube.com/shorts/dHREAAisnVs
https://youtube.com/shorts/dHREAAisnVs
simonrockman said:
Many years ago I sold my integrale to finance a new business and bought a £500 Alfa Sud 1.3, It didn't feel that much of a downgrade.
I've never actually driven one, but I've been in quite a few as my Mum's one had an engine fault at first. The dealers gave her various courtesy cars including a very 'loud' looking Ti model which was bright green and had a huge Alfa decal in white over the bonnet. My Aunt and Uncle had a Ti as well around the same time and my uncle would always take me out for a blast in whatever new car he got when I saw him. Didge3 said:
I had a Punto Twinair, they make even more fun noises if you put a pod filter on them, I did this purely for the noise and it was entirely worth it
https://youtube.com/shorts/dHREAAisnVs
I'm happy with the sound mine makes, but then I'm an old fart and retired. I like that once on the move/motorway it's fairly quiet, but there is a bit of fun when pushing it a bit through the gears.https://youtube.com/shorts/dHREAAisnVs
As hinted at in my post last night, the thermostat was sticking and it wasn't warming up properly only getting to 80 on the gauge and taking ages to get there. I ordered a complete thermostat/housing/sensor and seal which came less than 24 hours later despite only choosing the free delivery option from Alfashop.
The old thermostat was rusty looking and half hanging out of the housing once removed, seen here next to the new one:
Didn't take long to do and I flushed the cooling system with some Holts flush, then refilled with some premixed OAT antifreeze as per Alfa spec. The car now warms up within a mile or two from cold and sits at a level 90 (degrees not mph
) on the gauge. Can only help the local mpg figure judging by the sooty spark plugs.I can only imagine what the 170PS model must be like to drive with over 50% more power than mine, assuming it's something like that. Again, probably more for show mine has bright red Brembo callipers too which you might be able to see in this dealer photo, since my wife is out in it at the moment I can't take a close up:
There were a couple of bonus items when I picked it up: Not all models have the DAB radio option, so I was pleased to see that this one does. It also has a space saver tyre rather than a can of goo. As they put a fresh MOT on it they replaced the front tyres rather than have an advisory on the MOT. Only budget ones, but I'll probably change the rears at some point and put them on the front since all the wheels and tyres are the same size.
EDIT: A bottle of isopropyl alcohol arrived just as I posted. This is to clean the door pull handles as they have a soft feel coating that goes sticky. The cure is to clean with IPA so I'll give that a try later.
There were a couple of bonus items when I picked it up: Not all models have the DAB radio option, so I was pleased to see that this one does. It also has a space saver tyre rather than a can of goo. As they put a fresh MOT on it they replaced the front tyres rather than have an advisory on the MOT. Only budget ones, but I'll probably change the rears at some point and put them on the front since all the wheels and tyres are the same size.
EDIT: A bottle of isopropyl alcohol arrived just as I posted. This is to clean the door pull handles as they have a soft feel coating that goes sticky. The cure is to clean with IPA so I'll give that a try later.
Edited by OldSkoolRS on Friday 5th May 12:13
I tried the IPA and it seemed to help at least on the outside of the handle. Might be better to take it off and clean it, but it was raining on and off the day I tried to do it.
Forgot to add that I ordered a set of floor mats after a recommendation on another forum, from Carmats4U. I ordered the 'luxury' grade, but standard pile with white binding and green stitching to go with the seats. I also ordered a rubber boot mat which should help when have my band gear in the boot or on the rare occasions I do a tip run in it.
Worked out less than the OEM mats (though lacking the 'Mito' logo) even with the boot liner.
They fit well and have the floor clip fixings so that they don't slide about:
Passenger side:
Back seats look like they've hardly been used:
Boot liner:
Next jobs are a brake fluid change, plus deep clean the wheelarches, callipers and wheels. I've already started touching in some of the small chips and scratches, so those areas will get wet sanded and then I'll machine polish the whole car to get rid of the light marks and swirls.
Forgot to add that I ordered a set of floor mats after a recommendation on another forum, from Carmats4U. I ordered the 'luxury' grade, but standard pile with white binding and green stitching to go with the seats. I also ordered a rubber boot mat which should help when have my band gear in the boot or on the rare occasions I do a tip run in it.
Worked out less than the OEM mats (though lacking the 'Mito' logo) even with the boot liner.
They fit well and have the floor clip fixings so that they don't slide about:
Passenger side:
Back seats look like they've hardly been used:
Boot liner:
Next jobs are a brake fluid change, plus deep clean the wheelarches, callipers and wheels. I've already started touching in some of the small chips and scratches, so those areas will get wet sanded and then I'll machine polish the whole car to get rid of the light marks and swirls.
Cheers Mike...I love the looks of these little cars too.
Turns out it's a little bit more practical than my Ka too. I have a band rehearsal tonight, so I've loaded it with two guitars, a heavy valve amp, pedal board, gig bag and mic stand. No need to carefully arranging things to just squeeze it all in like the Ka (then give up on the way home due to lack of a boot light to see).
Currently getting mid 40s mpg, but will zero it tonight to see how I get on doing a longer trip now everything is sorted.
Have my old Ka to prepare for sale, then I want to get on with machine polishing the Mito and will also change the brake fluid as I don't know when it was done last.
Turns out it's a little bit more practical than my Ka too. I have a band rehearsal tonight, so I've loaded it with two guitars, a heavy valve amp, pedal board, gig bag and mic stand. No need to carefully arranging things to just squeeze it all in like the Ka (then give up on the way home due to lack of a boot light to see).
Currently getting mid 40s mpg, but will zero it tonight to see how I get on doing a longer trip now everything is sorted.
Have my old Ka to prepare for sale, then I want to get on with machine polishing the Mito and will also change the brake fluid as I don't know when it was done last.
Had a fun drive to band rehearsals last night. Partly a steady 70mph cruise on the (speed camera laden) M4 for a couple of junctions, then a bit more fun drive on the A4. I zero'd Trip A just as I set off, so this includes warming up, which is pretty quick these days to be fair, but I can't grumble about this mpg especially given the doom and gloom comments I've seen that these aren't very good due to the way they make you drive them.
I didn't photograph it when I got home, but it was just a fraction lower as I was giving it more beans on the A4 run, still about 49mpg though. Mrs OS is out in it today doing shorter trips of 5 miles or so which means it'll drop a bit no doubt...
Been reading a monster reader's car thread by Ecsy about his 'non runner F-Pace' project, so my tinkering with thermostats, plugs, etc and forthcoming major detailing pale in comparison.
I didn't photograph it when I got home, but it was just a fraction lower as I was giving it more beans on the A4 run, still about 49mpg though. Mrs OS is out in it today doing shorter trips of 5 miles or so which means it'll drop a bit no doubt...
Been reading a monster reader's car thread by Ecsy about his 'non runner F-Pace' project, so my tinkering with thermostats, plugs, etc and forthcoming major detailing pale in comparison.
Good job I hadn't started on the machine polishing yet...some twunt has scuffed the driver's door, front and rear wings in a really odd way. Very light (looked like dirt at first) but lots of vertical scuffs about 20mm long if that. Like something had been rested against the door then allowed to drop/slide down it.
On the plus side it's very much surface marks, having previously buffed out far worse but still really annoying having only had the car a month and we're both careful to park well away from other cars/the entrance to a shop, etc. Only noticed it today, but no idea when it happened. Just hope once I've machine polished it away that it doesn't happen again, though it's not damage we've had on any of our other cars parked in the same places, so hopefully just an unlucky one-off.
On the plus side it's very much surface marks, having previously buffed out far worse but still really annoying having only had the car a month and we're both careful to park well away from other cars/the entrance to a shop, etc. Only noticed it today, but no idea when it happened. Just hope once I've machine polished it away that it doesn't happen again, though it's not damage we've had on any of our other cars parked in the same places, so hopefully just an unlucky one-off.
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