Late 90's/early 2000s Alfa GTVs - what are they like as a road car?

[Tim in Belgium]

Late 90's/early 2000s Alfa GTVs - what are they like as a road car?

As per the thread title - what are they like, charismatic/fun/wouldn't touch them with a barge pole?

Also how quiet/comfy are they inside?

[Mr Speirs]

Can't comment on the actual car but as an Alfa owner I can give an insight especially into the 2.0 petrol engine.

If you decide to go for the 2.0ltr then there are a couple of things you need to check before buying. Make sure the cambelt has been replaced, they need doing every 3 years or 36k miles. They are also designed to use oil. Roughly 600ml per 1000km. Not a lot of owners know this so running them with no oil tends to be the most common way of blowing up the engines. And where the reliability questions crop up.

The 3.0 v6 seems to be the one to go for and gets some proper good reviews. Expect 23MPG from it as a posed to 30ish on the 2.0.

Oh and check suspension bushes on the rear of these cars. They go commonly and when they do the whole rear arms need to be replaces. The fix is to fit power flex bushes houses within new rear arms.

Hope this helps a wee bit.

[Tim in Belgium]

Cheers for that, off for a look at one tomorrow.

[Whitty]

If anything like 156's check floors for rot, the steel they use is poor. Plus make sure everything electrical works!

[Tim in Belgium]

Are they not galvanised? Or is it crash damage issue?

[Whitty]

My foreman had a mint looking 51 plate 156 JTD model that failed its mot. The floors in the rear footwells were absolutely rotten. They looked like originals. Also on a hamfisted note, giving my neighbours 147 a push to bump start it (again) I dented the tailgate without hardly touching it. It felt as thin as a mackerel tin.

[L3nny]

I had a V6 156 and the engine was superb, liked a drink though.

[Tim in Belgium]

'Twas rusty towards the rear of the drivers side floorpan, and a few other minor issues.

[chris8886]

i may be wrong but i think i remember always hearing about a slight problem with alfa's is that quite often they have their airboxes or something in a stupid place, which means when you drive through a puddle the engine dies! i may well be wrong, but worth checking out!

[jamesymurray]

I had the 2.0 twinspark GTV. Loved it, and really regret selling it, but as you'd expect with Alfa's, it's not without its 'quirks'.
With mine, the drivers window wouldn't sit in the seals when the door was closed until you opened/closed the window.
The boot and back seats are laughably small.

The TS engine really seemed to come to life when given a bit of a tickle and was cracking good fun on the a roads.

There were a few more that I can't quite recall, but it was what was charming about it.

I'd buy another in a heartbeat if I could.

AFAIK they were galvanised so rust wasn't an issue

[Tim in Belgium]

They were galvanised, but the brown crumbly stuff that my plastic propelling pencil went through was definitely ferrous oxide!

[Mr Speirs]

i may be wrong but i think i remember always hearing about a slight problem with alfa's is that quite often they have their airboxes or something in a stupid place, which means when you drive through a puddle the engine dies! i may well be wrong, but worth checking out!

On my Alfa the air box I situated below the near side headlight putting it about 8 inches off the ground. So I expect if you drove through a fjord or very deep puddle there is the risk it will injest water.

[-Ralph-]

Mate had a new one in the late 90's. Beautiful car to look at and drive as are all Alfa's, but reliability was ****

We used to refuse to take his car on a road trip in case we didnt get there, or it was stuck in the Alfa garage again on the day we wanted to go.

Had lots of silly design faults too, and electrics with a mind of thier own.

It was **** and I wouldn't touch one with a barge pole.

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