Nothing in particular. I just shows aspect of the plant in operation and I thought it was interesting. It's a long ways from the old Innocenti/Maserati factory in Milan back in the 1980s. Light years ...
Just saw a quadrifoglio in person which had just landed and sold. Dealer said it went $25k over MSRP so about $97k! Looks pretty mean although I'm shocked how much of a gap there is in the wheel wells. The wheels look almost too small for the car like it's made to go off roading. Nice car but def. not worth that kind of change over MSRP. Makes sense to wait until the hoopla calms down and picking one up with a decent discount.
Of course there are. Suggest that given your skepticism you refrain from buying one. That is the only way your going to be able to justify knocking the car....
As car lovers, if financially viable, we all should get a Giulia. Let's give Alfa and any other soulful brand our backing and support. Bring back lancia too.
Given the horrible experience I had with my earlier model Ghibli S, I wouldn't want to touch a Q.F. for atleast a couple of model years.
This post really gets to me. I've owned Alfas nearly all my driving life, and I've had a license since I was 15 and I'm now 48 ... and where the F*CK did this myth that Alfas were unreliable come from. Alfa Romeo engines have always been reliable. It is the dickhead that works on them that causes the problems. You don't win Le Mans, numerous saloon car races, sports car races, etc. with ***** weak engines and running gear. Go to any historic race meeting today and probably the most common car racing will be the 105 series Alfa, with 60 year old engines, gearboxes and differentials but still being enhanced and racing reliably and quickly today. I've even owned a Sud and the mechanicals were fine and very strong. Raced it for many years and yes I broke the engine but that was when it was producing 2 x the horsepower it left the Sud factory with. So on this site, where we are supposed to know what we are talking about, can we cut the cr@p please and drop this talk about Alfas being unreliable because it is simply not true. The build quality (especially interior trim), and ability to rust is their problem, not reliability and mechanicals. Some of the welding on my 1750 GTV is nearly as bad as those on Ferraris of the same period, yes that bad, so yep terrible build quality. BUT NOT UNRELIABLE! Pete ps: I also own a 156v6 (great car) and I've only had it for about a year and a half and I've put around 30,000 trouble free km's on it in trips from Tauranga to Auckland almost every weekend visiting a family member in hospital ... all I've done is oil and oil filters, a new thermostat because the old one was stuck open when I bought the car and fixed the high stop light. Amazingly it is has been doing around 8.5 litres per 100km's on fuel too! Another reliable Alfa Romeo!
Ok... let's be honest here. The 2000 engine was built proof on the bottom end but the top end not so much. Valve jobs between 60-100k are not uncommon. Blown head gaskets also. Water pumps are good for 50-60k. Those cars with Spica are just not realiable. The auto choke is a Mickey Mouse joke which makes starting difficult. The shut off soloenoid fails all the time and is a pain to replace. The rear trailer arm bushings wear quickly. Not one Alfa spider ever made had a glove box that fit-- and the made them for 20 years. And try to find one without a cracked dash. It is true that poor mechanics screw then up. But they were not reliable. Add that to the V6 cars like the Milano, the GTV, and the 164 and you can see where Alfa's reputation was damaged.
My 79 Alfetta has all records since new. One service record, from when the car was basically brand new with 1200 miles on it, simply says "Car will not run." haha. And that was when the car was new. Runs now though...
I worked with a guy that had a brand new Daihatsu that battery failed for no apparent reason in his month of ownership so yeah things do fail but that is no reason to decide that Alfa Romeos are unreliable. TheMajor, Yes I concede that blown head gaskets are not uncommon with the Nord design but in my experience that is often caused by owners not fully understanding the retorque requirements of these open block engines. I've seen this first hand and yep the new head gasket failed -> Not the cars fault but the owner for NOT coming back for the retorque because she wanted to go grocery shopping or something instead. Personally if I was running an Alfa workshop I would NOT return the car for a whole week and run the car to and from work and retorque every day until the head has properly seated. Funny how Alfa workshop owner's car do NOT blow head gaskets. I know one (I worked for this guy while at uni) who retorqued his cars head every day until like I said it was properly seated. Re valve jobs ... compare an Alfa Nord engine to an English engine and no different. My fathers workshop was always doing valve jobs on mainly English cars because that is what NZ'ers drove when he had that workshop. Japanese cars stopped this nonsense. My 156v6 has now done ~130k and as far as I can tell never had it's heads off ... but yes it has had a new water pump and cambelt. I have no experience with Spica injection but my father owned a BMW Tii, and interestingly he was a carb specialist and used to work on Triumph PI's with their Lucas mechanical system ... and funny how his car never gave injection trouble because he actually did know what he was doing. Interestingly these Spica Alfa's are now being saved instead of converted to Webers because guess what?, there is a lot of knowledge about how to set them up and maintain the injection now. Again idiots working on them caused a lot of the problems IMO. Rear suspension and just about everything you have mentioned ... there used to be an accurate story told about the happy Alfa owner who just used his/her car as a car and had it serviced on time and never opened the bonnet and who hammered it all over Italy (or wherever) and then there was the neurotic Alfa owner that constantly fiddled and wore out the bonnet hinges looking for problems every day, etc. ... the point, get in and drive the thing. My father also spent some time as an Alfa Service Department service manager during the 164 and 33 days. The first thing he would instruct the mechanics to do when a 33 came in for a service would be to take the thing for a good thrash and drive the thing like it was supposed to be driven. Car would come back running sooooooooo much better. He did have issues with 164's leaking windscreens though ... but that is not reliability but poor build quality of the body, which I concede is true, as is poor trim quality as you confirm re dashboards cracking and lids not fitting. Alfas reputation was damaged due to rust and shoddy bodywork and trim. During the 115 Alfetta days they would be rusty before they reached their sale destination. A lot of this was caused by factory strikes and bare metal shells sitting outside factories waiting for the strike to be resolved ... my 1976 Sud was the rustiest car I have ever seen, including a bulkhead that had cracked in half. Was it unreliable, no it never, ever broke down on me. Used to race it on the weekends and drive to work and back on Monday, etc. It was bullet proof when running the 105hp engine ... should have left the engine like that . Even my 1750 GTV which was a piece of poo when I bought it drove me all over the place and other than using enormous amounts of oil never stopped going. The 156v6, I have not even given that a thorough inspection since purchase, just oil changes and replaced the thermostat ... all I do is check the oil and water and jump in and go. So the comment that the new Giulia has a Ferrari engine so it will now be reliable is utter BS. Alfa Romeos are definitely more reliable than same period Ferraris. Conclusion: Alfas deserve a bad reputation but not for reliability, but for build quality. I believe since FIAT took over the build quality issue has been resolved. Pete
We already have 3 dealers popping up, all of them independent showrooms, which I consider rather good for Montreal and Alfa as a boutique brand. The Germans don't have that many dealerships but the ones they have are huge and we'll structured
And also the fault of many Owners who failed to renew the anti-freeze coolant mixture annually. They just topped up with tap water. With an aluminium block and steel liners this is critical.
