new car

[swampy]

well i have had it a while now just not had chance to post anything up,
the old family car was a mondeo TDCI ghia, well things started to go wrong with it regualy so it was time to trade it in.

wife wanted something slightly smaller, but still a diesel with resonable performance.

short list was
mondeo tdci ST (not smalller but very nice)
A3 tdi sport back
A4 Saloon
Seat leon

well after a few days of scouring all the normal places and drawing blanks on the cars, either being wrong spec, silly miles or the other end of the country we had to look at other cars.

we can across this and it was enroute to a family member we were due to visit a few days later so a viewing was arranged







its a 156 2.4 20valve JTDM
175bhp standard and sill amounts of torque.
56k on the clock,
full leathers
air con
traction control
full dealer service history

paid a very good price for it.

have done around 2k in it now and can say its a very nice place to be, comfortable on a good run and returns a good mpg.
over the first 500 miles mainly mway we got 55mpg which is above what they say, over all with mixed driving we are averaging 40mpg which is around 5mpg better than the ford got!!

have had a few issues, suspension wishbone needed replacing (dealer supplied parts i fitted)

but yeah im happy with it, so happy that we are planning / have booked a driving holiday next year, down thru france via the Millau bridage in northen spain, stay a week and then come back, taking a few extra days each end!

for some reason i never felt comfortable planning such a trip in the mondeo, would love to take the coupe down but v6 petrol v 5 cylinder diesel the costs would be crippling.
the alfa should get well over half way there on one tank

cheers

[4WayDiablo]

Well according to TopGear you can now call yourself a true petrolhead, ironically its a diesel haha

[Niall]

very nice. Have a bit of a soft spot for alfas!

[swampy]

Well according to TopGear you can now call yourself a true petrolhead, ironically its a diesel haha

and there is plenty of tuning potenial with them

fmic bigger turbos etc!

wife isnt happy to let me do anything!!

to be fair as the family car its fast enough

have the 3litre v6 coupe as the fast car

[Curt]

Looks good, like these. Will have an Alfa one day

[swampy]

and they dont cost as much to buy as you would think

[Poodle]

Love these things, from what i've heard it's not the buying cost that gets you though. Still love one if i had the money, look awesome and really nice to drive.

[swampy]

Love these things, from what i've heard it's not the buying cost that gets you though. Still love one if i had the money, look awesome and really nice to drive.

from what i have found, parts are no more expensive than pug parts

they are a bit more involved to work on, very over enginered but when you have the genuine workshop manual and a good forum that is chock full of info they aint so bad

examples
good quality wishbone £80
drop link £12 each
braided brake lines £48 (wonder who supplies them)
air filter £12 standard £40 k and n element

[Poodle]

It was the regularity of problems that worried me, not the cost of parts. I've only known two, both were owned by colleagues who know their way around a car and don't tend to buy sheds. Between the two they went through a set of injectors, dmf, clutch master cylinder, a turbo, sump and both had continuing egr problems, that was in little over 18 months... Maybe i just saw a couple of bad examples, but it's put me off buying one until i know i've got the income to deal with it as i rely on the car for work.

Hope yours is rather better than those, that's for sure, as said i would still love to have one.

[swampy]

The diesels tend to be far more reliable than the petrol
Regular servicing is a must, mine has only done 2k since I got it and it was serviced by the selling garage but I'm doing an oil and air filter change this weekend.

On a positive point most of the engines are fiat based these days so parts are easy to get

[Poodle]

They were both 2.4jtd's, but yeah, probably badly serviced in the past or something.

Hope you decide to go down the tuning route, only seen one and it was amazing. If you like the sound of the standard unit this thing sounded porn, plus there was the 440lbft!