I've had the Alfa 156 Sportwagon from my dealer to substitute for my 146 1.8 T-Spark - some idiot crashed right into it, and the repair will take at least a week.
The 2.4 JTD diesel engine has been a revelation to me: Fast, responsive, powerful right away from the bottom of the rev band. Quite fuel-efficient too, only 6.5 litres/100 km. The only drawback: The diesels do not not have half as nice a sound as their petrol-driven counterparts. Top speed of nearly 215 km/h is acceptable (remember: there is no speed limit on German motorways! :-) but other manufacturers' diesels do much better.
The road handling is typical for Alfa: bumpy and rough when driving slowly, acceptable on motorways and irresistible on country roads with bends and sweeps.
Build quality is still light years away from Mercedes' or Audi's: left passenger rear door rattles, rear suspension produces noises, humming noise from the dashboard, too.
Despite the little flaws I believe that my next car will be an Alfa 156 Sportwagon with a 2.4 litre diesel engine.
Try the new 175 bhp "M-Jet" 2.4 JTD and you'll find your sound quality criticism has been addressed. It's fair to say it still doesn't sound as good as the V6 (what does?!) but it's far nicer sounding than the four cylinder engines, and a chunk quicker to boot.
Think Audi Quattro (a lovely mellow five pot warble overlaid with the whistling and chuffing of the forced induction system) and you're not far off the mark. It's even quiet at idle once warmed. As for performance, the midrange pull of this thing, all 375 Nm of it will plant a big grin on your face. Truly the best diesel car I've ever driven, and it annihilates the comparably priced mk5 2.0 Golf GT TDi
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