Alfa 156 GTA sportwagon
Discussion
lovely looking car. Bet it sounds nice. Not as yet, I could take some.
With the rear seats up, the luggage area is similar to the 156 saloon, i.e. OK but not massive, though it is taller than the saloon and with a net thingy so you can use all that height.
With the rear seats down-they fold flat - there is a decent, flat area, though the boot opening is not massively wide. I find it will easily take a couple of mountain bikes and luggage plus two adults on holiday. Think of it as a large hatch more than an estate!
GTA SW's are available for about £10-12k for the earliest 2002 models. They are usually cherished, well liked, and all have very high equipment levels. Not bad money for a proper engine and 0-100 in 15 secs... Let me know if you'd like some pics of the load area or have any questions... Going mountain biking tomorrow night so could take some pics then.
With the rear seats up, the luggage area is similar to the 156 saloon, i.e. OK but not massive, though it is taller than the saloon and with a net thingy so you can use all that height.
With the rear seats down-they fold flat - there is a decent, flat area, though the boot opening is not massively wide. I find it will easily take a couple of mountain bikes and luggage plus two adults on holiday. Think of it as a large hatch more than an estate!
GTA SW's are available for about £10-12k for the earliest 2002 models. They are usually cherished, well liked, and all have very high equipment levels. Not bad money for a proper engine and 0-100 in 15 secs... Let me know if you'd like some pics of the load area or have any questions... Going mountain biking tomorrow night so could take some pics then.
Edited by jwyatt on Wednesday 9th August 16:47
Alfas need Teledial wheels IMHO - always look the best.
The pics in the hills are in Coed y Brenin forest in North Wales, at a converted barn I hired deep in the Forest, superb for mountain biking! The remainder are near me in Hants. There are a few more at www.auto-journals.com/s2/content/journals.html I think - there will be soon as my second review has been submitted.
Loving the car - all the car enthuiasts I've taken out in it with anti-alfa or anti-FWD feelings have been literally shocked. For the sweeping A roads I mostly drive on, it's superb.
The pics in the hills are in Coed y Brenin forest in North Wales, at a converted barn I hired deep in the Forest, superb for mountain biking! The remainder are near me in Hants. There are a few more at www.auto-journals.com/s2/content/journals.html I think - there will be soon as my second review has been submitted.
Loving the car - all the car enthuiasts I've taken out in it with anti-alfa or anti-FWD feelings have been literally shocked. For the sweeping A roads I mostly drive on, it's superb.
Depends what you paid, I suppose! The people who paid anything like the £28k RRP and especially those who sold them fairly early lost out. I've seen some cars go for £17k or so at 6 months/3k miles, but then most people only paid £23-24k for them new.
Longer term though it is better - they are never less than £10k and are 4 years old now. Plenty of people (myself included) paid less than £23k new for the later cars - I paid £21500 (new, pre-registered) which is far less than a much slower Golf GTi with a similar spec. So I could expect to retain just under 50% at 4 years - very good retained value these days. If you buy one second hand I reckon the value will hold up, with only 107 SW's and 269 saloons in the UK. The owners typically like them a lot, and a lot of people with more basic 147's and 156's lust after them...
Longer term though it is better - they are never less than £10k and are 4 years old now. Plenty of people (myself included) paid less than £23k new for the later cars - I paid £21500 (new, pre-registered) which is far less than a much slower Golf GTi with a similar spec. So I could expect to retain just under 50% at 4 years - very good retained value these days. If you buy one second hand I reckon the value will hold up, with only 107 SW's and 269 saloons in the UK. The owners typically like them a lot, and a lot of people with more basic 147's and 156's lust after them...
I was really bored when I thought up that one.Currently driving one of these:
http://edbartlett6649.fotopic.net/p30
Also mainly for snowboarding and mountainbiking duty.
I exhausted a huge list of cars deciding what to buy, but somehow totally missed this one! Could have saved myself £20k!
Mind you, the build quality on the 6 is amazing, totally rock-steady even at 160mph+
Have you had any reliability issues?
Ed
http://edbartlett6649.fotopic.net/p30
Also mainly for snowboarding and mountainbiking duty.
I exhausted a huge list of cars deciding what to buy, but somehow totally missed this one! Could have saved myself £20k!
Mind you, the build quality on the 6 is amazing, totally rock-steady even at 160mph+
Have you had any reliability issues?
Ed
Hi, suggest you see my review on this website ("member reviews" link on the left from the home page) for some details, and the longer one at
www.auto-journals.com/s2/content/journals.html
( I've sent an update to this lot so a second review will follow).
Nice car, the RS6 - an S4 V8 was the main competitor for the GTA when I bought it (along with a legacy spec B estate). Despite being quicker and more capable, the Audi just lacks the looks, rarity, even engine note of the Alfa, for me.
Only 107 GTA sportwagons came to the UK, most are silver, bright blue, or red, there may only be 2 in my colour - so finding the right combo might take some time indeed! What do you want? Mine is a manual. I'm only aware of a single batch of I think 5-10 156 GTA's being made with selespeed for the UK (not sure if any were SW's). I'd normally suggest people avoid Alfa's selespeed outside of warranty but the GTA version is much later generation than the others and better - still might need the odd reset, though. The manual gearbox is slick and light, the clutch very easy, that and the fact you can let the car run down to walking pace in 3rd or 4th gear then just smoothly pull awaywith no dipping of the clutch makes traffic easy.
This is my second 156 and the build seems pretty good - the last one was near-faultless for 90k miles, this one has had some small issues - air con needed regassing, indicators needed a new control box, and there was a rattle at the back, all fixed under warranty. The major engineering feels solid, the interior feels far more expensive than it ought to, and the equipment levels are very high as standard. It's rock steady at speed, too, cruised at 135mph+ on the way to Le Mans in places and it felt very, very planted and with loads of go left - it's a pretty slippery shape.
Let me know if you have any queries...
www.auto-journals.com/s2/content/journals.html
( I've sent an update to this lot so a second review will follow).
Nice car, the RS6 - an S4 V8 was the main competitor for the GTA when I bought it (along with a legacy spec B estate). Despite being quicker and more capable, the Audi just lacks the looks, rarity, even engine note of the Alfa, for me.
Only 107 GTA sportwagons came to the UK, most are silver, bright blue, or red, there may only be 2 in my colour - so finding the right combo might take some time indeed! What do you want? Mine is a manual. I'm only aware of a single batch of I think 5-10 156 GTA's being made with selespeed for the UK (not sure if any were SW's). I'd normally suggest people avoid Alfa's selespeed outside of warranty but the GTA version is much later generation than the others and better - still might need the odd reset, though. The manual gearbox is slick and light, the clutch very easy, that and the fact you can let the car run down to walking pace in 3rd or 4th gear then just smoothly pull awaywith no dipping of the clutch makes traffic easy.
This is my second 156 and the build seems pretty good - the last one was near-faultless for 90k miles, this one has had some small issues - air con needed regassing, indicators needed a new control box, and there was a rattle at the back, all fixed under warranty. The major engineering feels solid, the interior feels far more expensive than it ought to, and the equipment levels are very high as standard. It's rock steady at speed, too, cruised at 135mph+ on the way to Le Mans in places and it felt very, very planted and with loads of go left - it's a pretty slippery shape.
Let me know if you have any queries...
Edited by jwyatt on Tuesday 5th September 15:29
Edited by jwyatt on Tuesday 5th September 15:32
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