Alfa Romeo 145 1.6 Junior

The Alfa Romeo 145 Junior

I have one of the very last limited edition 145’s.

The colour is French Blue. Which is sort of similar to the vivid blue that you see lots of Peugeot 205’s painted, but when I have parked beside them the colour difference is amazing. The blue is so vivid and metallic, it look really good.

In fact – it’s a bit of a posers car really.

The ...
...the Junior such as mine only has a 1.6, but in Top Gear trials, this still knocked .5 of a second off the Golf GTI at 0-60 mph, so its pretty fast.

With drivers airbag, ABS and all the other safety features you would expect it’s a pretty nice car, it looks good, handles really well, and is very nippy about town.

So what about the interior?

Well. Daz had a 156 Selespeed as a company car, and the interior ... more

The Alfa Romeo 145 Junior

I have one of the very last limited edition 145’s.

The colour is French Blue. Which is sort of similar to the vivid blue that you see lots of Peugeot 205’s painted, but when I have parked beside them the colour difference is amazing. The blue is so vivid and metallic, it look really good.

In fact – it’s a bit of a posers car really.

The Alfa 145 Cloverleaf comes with a 2.0L turbo engine. Unfortunately the Junior such as mine only has a 1.6, but in Top Gear trials, this still knocked .5 of a second off the Golf GTI at 0-60 mph, so its pretty fast.

With drivers airbag, ABS and all the other safety features you would expect it’s a pretty nice car, it looks good, handles really well, and is very nippy about town.

So what about the interior?

Well. Daz had a 156 Selespeed as a company car, and the interior in that was wow, the dials where white on black and it was really retro, plus the Selespeed meant it was semi automatic, or full if you wanted, but the novelty of that soon wore off. What I’m saying is the interior is a little dull for an Alfa, but there are some plus points because the car is a limited edition.

All the interior come with piping, which is blue stitching around the gearstick, steering wheel etc, to match the car. It’s a small touch, but it looks good.

The radio, has its own control, which is like an extra windscreen wiper control. It juts out just below the indicator, and from this you can change channels, adjust volumes, bass etc, or turn it on to ATT (attention) if your mobile rings. You can even plug your mobile into it so it turns off when it rings!

Of course these are girlie comments, you want to know about BHP, Torque and MPG. Well tough.

It is extremely fast even for a hot hatch, has good pulling power, although I must admit the air con really drains the power, but is very effective, particularly with the weather being as it is, and for a 1.6 its very economical, uses unleaded of course and doesn’t gobble oil at all like the 156 did.

When you drop the rear seats, it is surprisingly roomy in the back for shifting those loads around, and there is plenty of leg room, front and back. In fact in the passenger side, there is so much legroom, that you can take the seat fully forward, still stretch out and allow rear seat passengers to stretch out too!

As 145’s have now been superseded by 147’s you will only be able to purchase 2nd hand, but you will be getting a nice little car for your money. Slightly wider, taller and beefier than the Peugeots, they do fit more in with the Golf, but the sloping front and heart shaped grill give them much more character than the Golf, plus the colours are very much more vibrant than the matt black that the Golf seems famous for.

Although they are only a three door, they are surprisingly big too, in fact so big that if you park on an incline the doors can be a little difficult to open – the only fault with them really. This is because the doors are huge things, built to take up two thirds of quite a large car really.

All the spec includes, air conditioning, electric windows, central locking alarm and immobiliser, ABS, Airbag, Alloys, the lot. Truly a fun car to drive!
 

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