Alfa Romeo 146 1.6 Twin Spark

...you know..
....with my Alfa 146.

It had been in the body shop for a week, following an argument with a Tesco van, which my car lost (not my fault, it was parked at the time!!!). Anyway I retrieved Alfa from said bodyshop, all clean and shiny, like it had just been driven out of the showroom. I made a note to self to not eat any more crisps or sweeties or drink juice while driving up and down the M6 any more. But enough, on ...
...in the market for another Alfa in the future. In fact there is a wee Spyder in a garage in Glasgow that has my name on it you know...


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ORIGINAL REVIEW (Hey we all have not so good ones to start with...)

….Dark, Powerful, Drop dead gorgeous……. Yes it is my new Alfa Romeo 146 Junior Twin Spark. The latest addition to the Bradshaw fleet, having come ... more

I fell in love all over again this weekend you know..
....with my Alfa 146.

It had been in the body shop for a week, following an argument with a Tesco van, which my car lost (not my fault, it was parked at the time!!!). Anyway I retrieved Alfa from said bodyshop, all clean and shiny, like it had just been driven out of the showroom. I made a note to self to not eat any more crisps or sweeties or drink juice while driving up and down the M6 any more. But enough, on with how the car has really performed in the last 20 months of ownership...

When I bought the car it had an extremely low 14000 miles on the clock, and despite me only having held a full time job for the last three months, I have covered a total of 28000 miles in the car. I don't know where the heck I go sometimes, but I think I have given the car a fair run for its money now.

DEPRECIATION
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You can see from my original review that I paid £4800. A check on parkers.co.uk states that a car in a dealer today would problably fetch £2700, and a private sale may glean £2200. So all in all I dont think that is too bad for nearly two years ownership.

FAULTS
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There have only been two faults, both of which need addressing. THe first one is that on three occasions the seat belt tensioners seem to tense right up, and I am unable to pull the seat belt right over to fasten it. This usually corrects itself eventually after a short period. It has only been a few times, and we have not resolved it yet, however that said it always happens when I am in a rush and need to drive 200 miles to be somewhere else, so it's been a bit of a pain at times.

The second fault is only a week or so old, in that my speedometer is no longer working. It generally stays at its resting point but occasionally a little electrical surge will send it right round to 120mph for a second or two before it falls back to the resting point (I cannnot say 0mph, as the ersting point bizarrely is 10mph!!) So this week's tasks is to get a quote for a replacement from the garage....whilst simultaneously avoiding any policemen who may notice I have no seatbelt and no speedo...hmmm....

MAINTENANCE
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In terms of general maintenance, Andy has taken care of the regular routine aspects, inckluding brakes, and so my costs have been quite minimal.

The car still looks like new, especially with last week's little treatment, and I would definitely be in the market for another Alfa in the future. In fact there is a wee Spyder in a garage in Glasgow that has my name on it you know...

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ORIGINAL REVIEW (Hey we all have not so good ones to start with...)

….Dark, Powerful, Drop dead gorgeous……. Yes it is my new Alfa Romeo 146 Junior Twin Spark. The latest addition to the Bradshaw fleet, having come into my ownership just eight days ago.

Why a New Car?
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I need to stop watching television. I was inspired to go car hunting after watching a few Arnold Clark advertisements on TV the other weekend. My previous car was a 12 year old Honda Accord, in pretty good condition, and which I inherited last year, because I was giving up work for a couple of years, had to hand back my beloved Audi, and need a cheap runner!!!)

Anyway, we set off car searching and found my new Alfie in a local garage in Irvine, Strawhorn’s. We decided on a budget of about £5000, and we found we were seeing plenty of 1997/98 Vectras, Renaults and similar family cars for that price, prior to finding the Alfa.

The car was marked up as £4995. It was 3.5 years old, first registered in September 1998, on an S Plate. Previously the car had been for sale in the garage for about £5600. A number of things first struck me about the car, namely its sportiness, relative rarity, and the fact that it had only done 14500 miles (23000 KM) in those 3.5 years were great selling points. We both took it out for a spin, and the garage agreed to accept £4800 for the car. A check with Parkers Guide Online had confirmed that the A1 price for a car of this type was £5300, and a Good Model was £4990, so we were getting a great buy. Our car was in excellent condition, save for one little parking dent in the door. I also used Parkers to check the Insurance group, and determined that the car was in group 11, which is about three groups lower than the Honda, and so pretty affordable for such a punchy car.

I did not trade in my old car, as I was able to obtain a higher price via a private sale.

Not being familiar with Alfa’s in general, nor knowing anyone that owned one, I dutifully turned to this very consumer website to determine what other owners thought about the cars. Unfortunately there were not a lot of VH opinions, further giving rise to the relative scarcity of these cars. Indeed a check of the Auto Express website confirms that Alfa’s market share of sales in 2000 was less than ½ %. The Parkers Review generally felt that cars after 1997 were better than the earlier versions and as this model is a 1998, we were relatively reassured.

A Bit of Technical Information
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The engine is a 4 cylinder 1598cc Twin Spark engine capable of top speed of 122 MPH and has 120 BHP. Its 0-60 speed is quoted as 10.3 seconds and an average MPG of 34.6 makes this pretty affordable to run. Servicing is required every 12000 miles, and the car comes with a 3 year mechanical warranty and an 8 yr body work warranty. My car being slightly over three years old, means that the mechanical warranty has expired, although the garage do give a three month warranty as security. The car is fitted with ABS system which was a vast improvement on my older car, which had a more primitive system, and an important factor in deciding to update my vehicle. CO2 emissions are quoted as 198 g/km for the 1.6 engine. The brakes are Front Discs and rear drums, consistent with most models in the range, although the 1.8 and 2.0 ti models are disks all round.

Security
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The Car has an electronic Engine lock system, known as CODE. This gets activated when the key is removed from the ignition. The keys submit a signal to the control unit, and the signal is required again for the car to start. Keys can only be obtained from authorised Alfa Romeo Dealers.

The car is also fitted with an alarm system, activated by a key fob, and remote central locking.

Visibility
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One of the negative comments I had read about the car was that they can be difficult to reverse in, due to limited visibility through the rear window. There is a certain degree of truth in that, although it is not so difficult as to make overall driving of the car a chore.

The door mirrors can be adjusted simply using the electric switches which are located between the front seats.

Dash
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The dashboard in the Alfa Romeo is a little unusual in that the front passenger side curves away significantly. This gives the perception that there is more space, than in the conventional car, although in practice, I doubt it really makes any difference. I wont go into every little detail about the dash and controls, although I will make a few key observations.

The lights can be programmed to come on automatically when the car is started. The front and rear wipers are controlled from one stalk on the right hand side. Quite unusually, the Rear screen heater is also operated by depressing a button on the end of this stalk. There is also a stalk for the radio controls, which is beneficial as the radio is set quite low down in the console. The car has twin airbags. The odometer is a digital display encased by the speedometer and includes a full and trip odometer reading, while the digital clock is set in the centre console and can actually be extremely difficult to read. There is also a “door open” display on the centre console. The car has plenty of air vents and an effective heating control system, although no air conditioning in this car, unlike my 12 year old Honda. It is also possible to alter the position of the steering wheel, up and down.

Seating
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The seats are comfortable, and we have given them the ultimate test as we just covered 1500 miles on our little holiday last week, the day after we picked up the new car. As you would expect the backrests can be altered, and the seat moved forward. You can also raise and lower the heights of the seats, although there are no fancy electronic wizardry for remembering seat positions. I found the control for altering the back rest quite stiff to turn, although this isn’t a major issue, unless you are trying to catch 40 winks while your partner is driving down the A9 for five hours. The rear seat splits 60/40 for accommodating large loads in the boot. Normal capacity of the boot is 380 litres, and this increases to 1225 litres with the back seats folded down. The seats are fitted with adjustable headrests, and there are pockets at the back of the front seats for stowage of maps or whatever.

The Boot
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The boot can be opened from within the car via a lever, or by using the key. The keyhole is obscured by a large and solid Alfa Romeo badge, complete with the infamous red cross, serpent and crown.

Other Features
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The car has power windows front and rear with a disabling device for the rear windows. My car is not fitted with a sunroof, although some models in the range are. When refuelling, you do require the use of the key to open the petrol cap itself. The capacity of the fuel tank is 51 litres, which is not a huge tank really. The car has front and rear foglights, and alloy wheels are fitted. There is also an additional stop light at the top of the rear windscreen.

Sound System
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The car has six speakers, one in each door, and two tweeters for good measure. The radio that came with the car is a Sony Cassette Car Stereo, XR 5800 RV. This radio has a detachable front panel, to deter passing thieves. As I stated earlier, the radio is controlled from the radio stalk behind the steering wheel. The radio has all the normal features of a modern system including RDS and Traffic Announcements TA. We had recently purchased a 10 CD system for the old car, and thankfully, as this was Sony, we were able to install the CD relatively easy. I still haven’t mastered how to Randomise my CD selection though, and need to study my Radio Stalk Control some more!

Maintenance
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The car should have a service at least every 20000 km (12500 miles). Brake pads are expected to last at least 40000km (25000 miles), and the timing belt should be replaced once you have done 120000km (75000 miles), which is quite a long way off in my case. Spark plugs (car has eight) should be changed at 100000km (62500 miles).

My Alfa Experience
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So far we are delighted with the car, and we certainly put it to the test last week, with our marathon trip to Far North Scotland. Our drive included motorway, good A Roads, B Roads and plenty of unclassified roads, containing nothing put sheep, a handful of cars and passing places. The fact that we emerged from the trip without hitting these sheep can be attributed to the great brakes on this car…lol! The car has a punchy feel when driving it, and there is plenty of power when you need it. We both found though, that when driving at higher speeds, we felt we needed an extra gear or two on occasion. The only interior design feature of the car is the door panels, which are clothed in a mid/dark blue plain fabric, against a black plastic fascia. I think it would have looked better in a paler colour and would be less prone to date. (Note: 1500 words of a female car review, and this is the first time I have mentioned colour!) I have the dark blue coloured 146. We have certainly observed first hand how rare the car is on the road; as in our trip up north we saw no more than five or six other Alfa’s on the road of any model.

I am going to enjoy ownership of this car, of that I am certain.

A little bit of Heritage
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Alfa was formed in 1910. Alfa actually stands for Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili. The first car had 24 BHP, and the cars were known even back then for their performance and sportiness. Milan was the site of the production facilities. Today there are Alfa Romeo Owners Clubs all over the globe.

Today’s car line up includes the 147, 156, 166, Spyder, and GTA.

 

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