Faults:

Passenger's airbag light came on whilst on holiday in France. French dealer gave reassurance. Solved by U. K dealer under warranty. Air conditioning on early cars often fed water into the interior because of a pipe that was fitted short at the factory. Solved under warranty. Carpets now dry! Wiper motor replaced after third year-again under warranty.

General Comments:

A wonderful car to drive long distances. It can cruise at 80m.p.h.for 24 hours without using any oil. It returns 38 m.p.g. Long lines of lorries can be effortlessly and safely overtaken on Alpine passes. It can potter in town without a splutter. Having driven a new JTS I can see no reason to change my car after nearly 5 years of ownership. The best car I have owned and my 10th Alfa.I've had my Alfasud ti for 23 years, so this will probably beat that!

Faults:

Wheel bearing failed at 10000 miles.

Sidelights regularly failed, sometimes they started working again by themselves!

When the discs were changed (36000 miles) the replacement set warped slightly despite careful running-in.

All suspension bushes wore badly at about 50000 miles resulting in more road noise and poor handling, stupidly I brought this up with the dealer after 60000miles had elapsed (just) and had to pay for it!

The dealer was generally poor.

General Comments:

Excellent performance if you accept that nothing much happens below 4500 revs.

Superb gearbox, though a mushy clutch spoils things slightly. Very close ratios.

Handling good on smooth surfaces, but poor on bumpy roads, where the SP model often grounds out and tends to jump straight on over bumps. Front end feels a little heavy, but not as much as the magazines would make out.

Engine character is amazing - my Volkswagen V6 (current day to day car) has nothing like the noise, smoothness or high-revs performance.

I liked the interior and the comfort - a lot - and never found the quick steering made it nervous like various magazines suggested.

Faults:

Intermittently stutters, possibly clutch problem.

Original Alpha Romeo radio is a joke.

Alpha sill-trim/body-kit starting to come unstuck.

General Comments:

I love this car!

It's amazingly fast for a 2.0 litre and it sounds almost like a V6 when accelerating away. Much faster than my ST24!

The handling is superb around corners and it gives you total feedback from the road surface.

It has its faults and some things seem to be made cheaper than they perhaps should have been..

But, all faults are forgiven when you park it in the company car-park amongst the rash of boring, German-styled, exec-mobiles and Japanese runabouts.

Faults:

Brake pad warning lamp came on occasionally. Cured at second attempt.

Brake discs and pads warped after 18 months & 13,000 miles. Replaced under warranty.

Power steering hose leaked.

Brake discs and pads warped after another 1 year & 9000 miles. Had to pay for replacements.

General Comments:

Superb car let down by serious faults. Excellent performance and handling, ride firm but acceptable.

Local dealer can't cope with all the cars that have been sold. OK with common faults but hasn't the expertise to deal with more complex problems.