Faults:

Two times the airbag warning lights have turned on, wish the garage solved quickly without charging anything for it (the first time it was a cable plug under the passenger seat that had disconnected, dunno what it was the second time).

That's it, oh almost forgot, last week one of the parking light bulbs broke ;)

General Comments:

This is a fully equipped car, with the extra "sport package". The body is lowered, it has 16" wheels, leather seats & steering wheel, kevlar interior, towing hook, side impact airbags, GSM antenna etc.

I love it.

Faults:

Fuse box cover opened constantly.

Carburetor body replaced at 20,000 miles.

Interesting quirk... central locking was repeatedly tripped by washing the car!!!

General Comments:

Tyre wear is excessive... luckily it is a company car. On my 3rd set of fronts.

My company has 5x 156's in the fleet. The drivers all love them, but beset by major/minor problems.. leaks, rattles, power steering problems, instrumentation.

Still the best looking saloon on the road, and the most comfortable (I'm 6'2").

Faults:

Selespeed gear-box unable to select 2, often in cold start conditions. Workaround by selecting city mode. Then problem goes away after a few miles. Problem due to a known fault in the design of the gearbox actuator - waiting 3 months for a revised design (suspect a hydraulic oil leak).

Accident repair took months waiting for parts.

General Comments:

Great car - enjoyed the 156 manual company car so much I bought the Selespeed when I changed jobs.

Not as much room as you would expect in the back.

Constantly asked questions about it.

General Comments:

The car is beautiful stylistically and that was what sold me on it at first.

That said, it also drives extremely well, acceleration is very good, especially above the 3,000 rpms engine speed where you can have a lot of fun.

Steering also feels very tight and responsive, and the car feels extremely stable on curves.

The car's biggest weakness when driving is the gearbox, which is baulky sometimes, especially when you have to ram it into reverse.

The car is beautiful inside, with grey leather upholstery and wood on the steering wheel, which, if fake, is a very good fake.

The one drawback - quality. Having recently owned a late model Golf, I'm afraid the Italians still fall behind a bit on the fit and finish. Glove compartment and doors don't close so tightly. And you always wonder - based on the Fiat/Alfa reputation - when something will go wrong.

But so what. I love just looking at this car. I love driving it. And at about $16,000 used, it was truly a steal.

Faults:

Radio didn't work. Needed recoding, it has taken the dealer well over two weeks to even attempt to fix it/purchase a new one.

General Comments:

Beautiful to ride and look at. Handles like a dream. Classy looks.