WHAT IS IT?

In 2001 the Alfa 147 was voted European Car of The Year.

The actual car that I am reviewing here is right at the top of the Alfa 147 tree. It is a five door 1.9JTD 150 Lusso. The 1.9JTD 150 has the most powerful two litre version of the now ubiquitous GM (Vauxhall / Saab) engine in it, which was co-developed with Fiat, parent company of Alfa Romeo.

OK, hands up, this is not my own car. This review is the result of an extensive test drive at the Millbrook Test Facility in Bedfordshire, I was attending in my capacity as Fleet Manager, the annual Company Car In Action event held there in late June.

The overwhelming advantage of test driving cars at this particular event is that you get to experience them back to back with any of their competitors, in controlled and identical circumstances.

The Lusso trim pack includes everything that you would ever desire in a car of this type. However, this particular Alfa UK demonstrator had exactly £2000 worth of options on it, including leather upholstery (£900), metallic paint (£400) and Xenon headlamps with washing system for a further £700. Metallic paint apart, in all honesty this car is well enough equipped and I would certainly avoid adding all of those expensive and high-depreciating options to it.

Due to the age of the 147 range, which itself is an update of the 145 / 146 predecessor, depreciation is going to be below class average. Also hammering residual values are Alfas very poor standing in the JD Power, "Which" and German ADAC reliability surveys.

FUEL ECONOMY 9 / 10

I am not sure that an Alfa Romeo franchise ever made any dealer rich! Traditionally they spent so much time sorting out niggling warranty claims with scant factory back up, that many gave up dealing with Alfa of their own volition. So bad has the reputation of the Alfa dealer network become in the UK that the manufacturer has decided to take drastic measures.

Whilst not manufactured to the obviously hairline tolerances of your average Audi, VW or Skoda, Alfa have made great strides when it comes to overall build quality. The paintwork, particularly of other red and black cars here looked particularly deep and glossy. Letting down that initial impression was the slightly cheap sounding "clang" on closing the front doors - the stiffer three door body may well be better on that particular score.

This now is showing the cars age. In 2006, the fact that the 147 only has a lowly three out of five score on the internationally recognised Euro NCAP test rating is a worry. All of its competitors have at the very least four points, most of them five.

THE INTERIOR:

VISIBILITY: 4 / 10

Again, one can only congratulate Alfa for injecting its own unique style into the interior, this does very much feel every inch an Alfa when you sit in it. However, to my eyes at least, the style looks rather dated, particularly that dashboard which has a particularly flimsy feel to it when judged against its competitiors. In the basic 147 at just under £14,000 it is acceptable, at the £18,000 plus level one feels the need for something just a little more sophisticated.

Again, due to Alfa's fitment of the all leather option to this particular car, judging the interior quality of the standard car is made difficult. My wife commented that the leather seats had a rather strange texture to them, more like rubberised plastic than leather.

AUDIO & CLIMATE CONTROL SYSTEMS 8 / 10: Strange grouping?

It also had a fully integrated Bose sound system to compliment the engine's high quality sound track.

Here is where this 147 starts to claw back some ground.

In fact here in the 147 I would go as far as to say that this is a great engine!

Here, in this car however, its accelerative capabilities are beyond doubt, it is considerably faster than the same car with the evergreen 2.0 petrol Twin Spark engine under the bonnet, in fact it leaves that car for dust! Not only does it accelerate rapidly through the gears but as you would expect with a diesel, it has tremendous pick up in high gears at speed due to the torque available.

Again age tells here, the 147 does after all ride on a chassis derived from the 1980's Fiat Tipo. The 147 rides on quite taught suspension, but unfortunately the body shell is not really rigid enough to carry it off. Driven at normal speeds on the road, probably your only wish would be for a more compliant ride. Here at Millbrook on the very testing mountain circuit this was the only hatchback that I drove in which you could actually feel the chassis flex, accompanied by the aforementioned interior creaks. Again I have to say that the three door may well have a stiffer shell, but Alfa are marketing this as a sports hatch and it is in this category, handling, that it is found most wanting of all.

CONCLUSION - Would I buy one myself and would we want to drive it to Poland in a day?