When I started doing a long commute around the M25, the 309 GTI started to become a bit tiresome. Peugeot GTIs don't like sitting in jams and are a real pain - jerky throttle response and not that pleasant. Also if the car had a bigger than 2.0 engine, I got a MUCH bigger mileage allowance from work.
I set out looking for somthing suitable, test drove a very good condition Rover 827, but settled on the riskier but far cooler option of the big Alfa.
This was a real 'sleeper'. It just looked like a big saloon from the outside, but accelerated as well as any hot hatch due to lightweight italian build quality and the georgous 195bhp Alfa V6. It was relaxing to drive and low revving at motorway speeds, but would acceleration hard even from rather high speeds. It did suffer from severe torque steer though - as you grabbed second you really had to watch it as it would seem to jump a foot or so to the side if you weren't careful.
Of course being an Alfa, there were one or two little problems, some of them slightly more than little actually. The ventilation system had a mind of its own and regularly blew air in all different directions without any user input, every day there was a different warning light on the dash, mostly due to faulty sensors, the only consistent dashboard light being the ABS one which stayed off. I can only assume that this was because a previous owner had removed the bulb as the ABS didn't work either! Did I mention to torque steer?
The brakes used to bind on when the weather was hot (not the brakes). This could be cured by bleeding the system but always returned a couple of months later - this is apparently a common problem with 164s.
The gearbox then broke - the actual gearbox case. I managed to get a fairly cheap 2nd hand one, as the price of a new one would have written the car off! The new gearbox didn't stop the torque steer.
Then to top it all it set itself on fire. This was just after I'd filled the tank with 70l of fuel and an a main London access route just coming into rush hour on a Friday afternoon. It was even mentioned on Capital FM! The fire brigade turned up and put it out before it spread too far, however it was never going to be economical to repair, so I gladly accepted £400 more than I'd paid for it from the insurance company!
All the above happened in 9 months of ownership, however Olivia still maintains its the best car we ever had, and we went on to buy another unreliable Alfa 3 years later...
I haven't actually got any photos of this car other than one with it in the background behind my Escort, so afraid these are from google! I have tried to choose ones that look like it though. Just for the record, it didn't have leather seats and was a manual 5 speed, otherwise exactly as these photos show.
Alfa Romeo 164 3.0 V6 - F115SLM
