1999 Alfa Romeo 156 TS review from UK and Ireland

Nothing except for a poor reliability image inherited from some of its predecessors.

My hire car for three days. I have never driven an Alfa Romeo before but had heard a lot about poor dealer service, and poor quality, faulty cars which rusted if left out in the rain overnight. However, I absolutely loved this car. I drove it from Aberdeen to Manchester (via Wales!) and back, and enjoyed every minute of it. This car is possibly one of the sexiest on the market - I loved the attention. Motorway cruising was effortless and the car never needed to be thrashed to get respectable performance out of it. Fuel consumption was adequate, handling good and performance excellent. I did suffer a sore back after 3-4 hours behind the wheel and my girlfriend complained that she couldn't see the speedo from the passenger side, but who cares? Being a hire car it was probably abused before I drove it, but it didn't seem to be any the worse for it.

I loved it so much that I didn't want to give it back, and as soon as I've graduated I am going to forego the pleasure of having kids and spend my money on one of these instead!!