Alfa 156 History

[tiptop79]

Hello piston heads,
this is my first time of posting on this forum so again hello. I am currently looking to replace my now sold Jeep Cherokee 4.0 LTD (can’t believe I actually sold it with today’s petrol prices) and I am looking at the Alfa 156 Sport Wagon. I have seen one at a very reasonable price with reasonable mileage. The reason the price is good is because the deal bought the car from a finance company (it had been reposed) and he has no history. Does any one know if you can check a cars history with the dealer assuming it has at some time been looked after by a dealer (there I finally got to the question)? Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks

[jamieboy]

Welcome to PH!

There is a lot of scaremongering about reliability of Alfas in general, and perhaps the 156 in particular.

It seems like many of the ones that have problems have been neglected - the engines can use a fair amount of oil, and if you don't keep on top of that then you're asking for trouble.

So I'd ask myself whether someone who can't afford to keep up the payments for the car will have spent much money on servicing and maintenance. Factor in the 'missing' service history, and I'd walk away from this one.

Keep looking, though - there are plenty of them around.

edit: of course, re-reading your post I realise that this isn't anything like answering the question you asked. Sorry about that.

Edited by jamieboy on Wednesday 28th May 12:29

[tiptop79]

Hi Jamieboy,

thanks for the response. I think I am going to give the 156 with no history a miss and keep looking, it is a shame as it only has 65k on the clock. Just got back from looking at a Volvo V40 T4 nice car, doggy feeling given by the bloke selling it. No where near as nice as the Alfa either.

[baldy1926]

hi the most important thing is check to see if the cam belt has been changed-it needs to be done by 70k

[bint]

Even Alfa's with full dealer service history can be dodgy.......

Find a good mechanic to give her the once over if she really is that good - and seconded on the belt check, that and suspension should be easily spotted and the things you should look out for.

[V6Alfisti]

Just to add further detail to baldy's comments.

Cambelt intervals are as follows

1.8/2.0 TS/JTS units (basically all the 4 pots) - 36k miles or 3 years - whichever comes first

2.5/3.2 V6 - 72k miles or 5 years - whichever comes first

1.9/2.4 JTD - 72k miles or 5 years - whichever comes first

Edited by V6Alfisti on Friday 30th May 13:51

[Fiddlemesticks]

tiptop79 said:

Hi Jamieboy,

it is a shame as it only has 65k on the clock.

No history means that might as well be 165k. They hide mileage quite well imho.

[funwithrevs]

TBH I don't think lack of service history would put me off that much.

My 166 came with all the stamps in the book, but it turned out when I phoned up the garage who did the last stamp that they didn't actually carry out any service schedule items. It was an "independent Volvo specialist" so no knowledge of the car's foibles either. Replacing just one tyre on the car makes me wonder if they knew anything about cars.

Hundreds of quid worth of scheduled work ignored by the garage :O

I was intending to phone back further into the car's history, but with such a problem at the first garage I just told my local Alfa specialist to put it right. Now I have a lovely car that has been totally reliable and excellent fun.

Moral of the story: Don't trust service history unless you know the garages involved. In this case the first stamps in the book were from excellent places like SGT so I was shocked the last one was so bad.

The thing is that although the car cost me more than I had hoped for, I still consider it money well spent as it is such an excellent car. Besides, I have had 3 Alfas before this one which were no issues at all after purchase so my luck had to run out at some point