Alright Guys, I'm changing my car in about two months time and I had all but decided on a BMW 320i M sport coupe Highline but a Alfa Brera 3.2 V6 prodrive version has caught my eye and I am going to test drive it on Wednesday, now I have heard all the horror stories of Alfa reliability but I'm hoping someone on here has some actual real life experience of modern Alfa ownership and can advise if the rumours are true or are Alfas just about as reliable as every other modern car on the road. Cheers.
Read the reviews on them. Wouldn't put me off, though I'd probably go for the BMW to save the absolutely BRUTAL depreciation costs all Alfas seem to suffer from.
Hey Lyons, drove one up at the country garage a few weeks ago and it was good not dead at all it wasn't a 330 but I didn't expect it to be. Trouble is I want as new as possible and for my budget I can get a nearly new 320i M sport highline with a good amount of extras, I could go for a 330i or even a 335i but I would be going into 2008 and TBH I don't want to go that old. Cheers for the responses on the Alfas guys, just have to see what I think of it after a drive. Going to have a drive in a A5 and TT to see what I think, but I have had an Audi before and only kept if four months as it bored me to death.
VWs never did it for me, wouldn't mind giving a scirocco a test drive but the Golf GTIs do nothing for me at all
Mate of mine worked as a mechanic for Roadside Alfa in Coleraine, and he has told me about how unreliable the Brera is...they had cars with 15k miles with broken timing belts! Gorgeous cars, but if it has warranty I wouldn't worry about reliability, I would worry more about the depreciation.
I could be wrong but as the V6 Brera has a GM derived V6, i'd say its chain driven so broken belt wouldn't be a worry.
sis's fella swears by his alfa has a 156 2.4td and its awsum pulls like a train well specd and he returns 36mpg. the warrenty just expired but last year he had to replace a gd bt overall 10k worth over the 3/4 years he owned it from new. id say warrenty essential with alfas
Standard Alfas do little for me to be honest only interested in this one as it is a prodrive version and only the Brera is available in this form so GT wouldn't be in consideration
Alfas are a sound motor, parents have a v6 156 never give any bother and they have had it seven years, dealers have never been awful to deal with as most people would say, you would be safer asking over on the NIIMC site!
never had any issues with my gtv v6.......they can be expensive to service though..... great choice imo..... seamy
Well guys test drove the Brera today and TBH it did little for me and the finance deals were pretty poor and even worse when you consider that the sales guy let it slip that the Brera that I was looking at had been there for sometime without anyone coming to view or test drive it, speaks volumes IMO On a different note I went and test drove an A5 S-line sport and loved it, so its now a choice between the BMW coupe and the A5. The Alfa didn't come close to either of these.
Good engine! I still cannot believe that you were impressed with the 320i. I came very close to buying an E90 330i before Christmas, but decided against it after i drove the GTi. The latter felt far quicker, obviously given the turbo. But i would expect the difference between the A5 and E92 to be night and day!
A car place in newry has a Brera for sale. Lovely looking car but the depreciation would scare me. Owned a 156 a few years back and it was a great car. Was very easily sold on too when a guy called me a day after i placed it in the autotrader before it was even out in the magazine.
Yeah you're right Lyons the A5 is a far superior car to the E92, the interior for a start is light years ahead of the BMW. I'm a true BMW fan but they really dropped the ball interior wise on the E90/E92.
Brera's have hit a plateau at around £11k and the depreciation hasn't been as bad as everyone thought it would be. As they are still pretty exclusive here prices are holding well. Having said that, unfortunately the old "very unreliable" thing and "oh don't they rust" is still being kicked around by people who have never owned a recent own, they are no worse than any other prestige marque, hence prices here are a little lower and probably the reason the one at Lisburn has set because it's overpriced for overhere. I've had 33's, 75's, 146's, 155's, 6 156's a Brera and a Brera spider (lent to me) and not one of them gave me any bother. If I'm really honest though I'm not a great lover of the Vauxhall derived engine's as they just don't have the Alfa punch or feel. Thankfully Alfa are now putting they're own proper engines back in. The Mito 1750 Cloverleaf will be around 230 BHP as standard