was a corroded relay which caused the fuel pump to stay on all the time and killed the battery. The second was the alarm system batteries which to be fair I think got damaged when the garage was fixing the first fault. The cost of new ones was going to be enormous so the alarm was disconnected!
I actually quite liked the car despite this, and as I bought it for not much more than 1/3 of it's new price it was a bargain. It looked nice, went quite well (155bhp, 0-60 in , didn't drink fuel too much, and certainly made the right noises. One thing that I couldn't cope with though was the handling. I was used to small Peugeots and this small Alfa understeered and spun it's wheels all the time, and just wasn't on a par with the Pugs. That said it did somehow make you feel good driving it....
I sold it after a year, when Olivia wanted a Caravan, and bought a 405 LeMans instead - which went faster and handled better despite having less street cred! I only lost £800 and hadn't even had to service it, so it actually was quite a cheap car to own.
This
was my second Alfa Romeo. The first was a 164
which went up in smoke, but it was a great car, so when we needed a reliable
car for the commute that we could also fit the kids in, I thought I'd give
Alfa a chance by buying a much newer one. A two year old car can't be unreliable
can it?
Of course it can, its an Alfa! It actually broke down twice during the year that I owned it, both electrical faults. The first
Alfa Romeo 146ti
