Comments: 1-15, 16-28
Gearbox: Selespeed gearbox is jerky, jumps into neutral whilst on the move, sometimes reverse gear cannot be engaged, actuator replaced many times, entire gearbox replaced once.
Engine: Engine can be difficult to start sometimes.
Interior: Creaky and rattly interior trim. Upholstery's leather stitching became undone. Peeling carbon fibre trim. Car was delivered with damaged interior door trim. Holding clips missing from some of the interior trim parts. Torn soundproofing. Faulty Selespeed gear in-dash indicator. Petrol gage malfunctions occasionally. Ashtray light bulb blew within a few months.
Exterior/body: Front right door and rear right door clash with each other at the top edges causing paint chipping. Uneven panel gaps. Rubber trim on the driver's door window sill became warped. Poor body-shell rigidity - the rear parcel shelf area creaks loudly during cornering. Car was delivered with cracked fog-light lens.
Others: Wiper blades are noisy and cannot last longer than 2 months. Ineffective air-con.
This car has a smooth and powerful engine. Engine sounds very nice and sporty. Fairly economical too.
Handling and road-holding are very good -stable cruiser on highways and excellent on twisty back roads. Steering is precise too. Ride is a bit firm, but still quite acceptable overall.
However, the seats can induce backaches if driven for a long period at a stretch.
Air-con is barely adequate in the tropics.
Selespeed gearbox, when it works, has useful blipping feature when downshifting which allows beautifully executed downshifts. However, the Selespeed gearbox makes progress too jerky for urban crawls/traffic jams.
Stylish exterior and interior design. Still one of the best looking cars on the road today, in my opinion.
However, the car suffers from poor overall assembly quality and/or reliability.
Selespeed gearbox is especially problematic - Alfa Romeo should seriously consider a recall.
I have had to visit the local dealer's workshop countless times to rectify all kinds of problems. This can be very irritating besides wasting a lot of time. Worse still, quite often problems are not effectively rectified, if at all, the first time around. This necessitates annoying follow-up visits to the workshop to fix the same old problems.
After-sales service not a strong point. Long waiting period for parts.
As a driver's car, the 156 Selespeed is superb. But it is a frustrating car to own and to maintain. All that talk about the Alfa 156 having "character" is a poor excuse for dodgy quality.
Got to disagree,
Ran two as company cars for two years with only two problems. First was an Manual 2.0 Twin Spark? with sports pack two including Cloth RECARO seats which performed FAULTLESSLY and was VERY comfortable over long distances.
Second was Selespeed 2.0 which had two major problems in two years. A) the windscreen developed a creeping split? and B) a faulty Selespeed unit which started playing up ONLY after having been driven through North Yorkshire in the middle of the floods season. Although the car was an import?? both problems were speedily rectified under warranty by Mangoletsi Of Knutsford who I highly recommend as an Alfa Dealer!.
(and NO I have NO commercial interest/ axe to grind with them!).
Alfa's GREATEST asset by far is the ICE system that they refer to as "the Engine". If you take this car on open country roads away from the attention of Plod, make sure first that your company expense's allow for dry cleaning bills in the trouser dept,... you'll need it,...:)
BMW???.. for Boring Mindless W*****rs and submissives in the atmosphere of a computer chatroom. Alfa 156's are a clandestine visit to a passionate latin lover in the heat of a Tuscan summer,...
I have now 6 points on the license to bear this out,... but the last time I had this much fun in a car??... I nearly became a Dad,...
I second All your comments, my Alfa is a 2000 model I picked up a year ago at 6K miles on the clock. Problems so far Nil, seats creak a little and selespeed buttons need a firmer push then usual, but that's it. I LOVE this car still after a year of ownership.
I'm on my second Selespeed, if it were not a company car I would not buy one. I'd go for a 3.0L 166 (a bullet proof engine) second hand.
The drive is wonderful, the dealers worse than useless. Alfa Romeo are as much use as a chocolate fireguard when you cannot get help from their dealers. Their technical department can only be reached by fax from customer service or a dealer, they don't have phone numbers to call them!
If you drive enthusiastically get the cam belt changed at 48,000 miles. Mine broke at 59,600, just before the warranty ran out, it needed a complete new engine in the end. I know of at least three others where the cam belt has failed before the 72,000 change point. I've had two gearbox actuators on the first car, the second is only two months old, but on it's third trip back to the dealer with engine management system faults.
I have a 2000 selespeed and the gearbox has died. One of the guide holes in the casting for the gear selector has broken and jammed the box. The damage was cause by poor casting or sideways loading on the guide hole. Both in my opinion are design faults.
Alfa deny ever having problems with these gearboxes. It has cost me over £2000.00 to fix this problem.
I took the pleasure of reporting this issue to VOSA as I consider it to be a safety related design flaw. Especially when the Zone Manager said it was not Alfa's problem when he had not even looked at the failure mode.
Another problem was with the back suspension bushes. They had to be replaced in order to pass its first MOT. They were changed before the back pads at an extra cost of £400.00.
I am never ever buying another Alfa Romeo. My previous car a V6 3.0 164 G reg which I had for 8 years was more reliable.
Having listened to friends and family who told me not to buy a 156, I could not resist. I have to say the car is superb to drive and like many other owners I too drive 15 miles just to get a pint of milk from the local shop. Add a K&N air filter and as she hits 5700RPM it sounds like a VTEC coming alive. All this results in lots of Optimax going down the exhaust, but it's worth it. I've only had it 3 months and with 32,000 miles on her I hope to have a long and happy ownership.
A word of warning though. The previous owner handed me bills for around £4,000. This included replacement gearbox at 18000 miles, cam belt broke at 28,000 requiring a new top end on the engine, rear bushes and rear window regulators at a 30000 mile service. As it was an import it only had a 12 month warranty.
The way I looked at it was that if all this was repaired in the UK there should hopefully be less to go wrong.
One thing that keeps coming up, and I would like to know if anyone else gets it. Every so often the selespeed light flashes, but by the time I have driven 50 yards it goes off. Only ever happens when the car is started. Any ideas? The car done it when I went to test it, and the poor owner ended up paying £300 for a new steering wheel as the dealer fault code showed this at fault.
To sum up, a great car to drive, but only time will tell if all the 1st owner problems have been sorted. Still keep hold of an F reg Audi just in-case the Alfa decides to mis-behave, but so far no complaints.
Hello
I have a june 1999 Alfa 156 Selespeed, which have a "secret" problem :
It started 5 month ago missing 4. gear every 20 time, I had it testet on the computer at the local Alfa-garage, but they couldnt find any faults!
After 2 month the problem disappered for about a month, only to return now doing it for every 6-8 time...
The gearbox really tryes to shift to 4., but after 3-4 seconds it jumps straight up to 5.gear!??? There are no "chrunces" or anything, it just Won't!
I had my car upgraded yesterday, but still... missing 4. gear...
PLEASE...anyone no the problem, give me some advise..
Yours faithfully
Frank - Denmark.
I have a 2002 Sela speed.
Good mechanically except it has has the front 'bushes' changed twice. Sela speed gearbox 'bit' sometimes can't find reverse - drive a few forward a feet and all OK. Seats Grey Leather and the stitching has come un done on both the rear and front passenger seats.
Brilliant drive - but not good in traffic jams as the box is jerky - change up to gear 2 and all OK.
I have a 2001 156 TS Selespeed, same problem as mentioned above, frequently will not find 2nd or 4th gear both changing up and down.
After a service it fixes itself for a month or so before gradually happening again and with time every 3-4 times.
Very frustrating, especially in busy traffic, I have spoken to our Alfa Workshop and they have never come across it, strange when this site above is full of similar issues.
Chris
Sydney, Australia.
I owned a 156 Selespeed from 1999 to 2001. I enjoyed driving it in he first year and was very proud of it. Gearbox problem started to trouble me and force me to pull off the road many times. Alfa workshop couldn't explain what was wrong. No solution was given. I couldn't stand it anymore and sold it at huge loss.
However, I still think 156 is the coolest car to drive on the road. I plan to get a manual 156. Hope it won't cause the same problem as the Selespeed did.
Dan
(Malaysia)
50k trouble free miles for far on my 2000 Selespeed, but the gearbox has just packed in. Only other faults were fairly cosmetic, ie, fog light comes on automatically and rear window is powerless. Even crashed into the back of another car and was amazed to come away with just a slight crack on the number plate. I can't imagine driving anything else. Definately has the wow factor both to drive and look at.
A work colleague has a 156 2.0 T-spark Selespeed and it's been almost totally reliable. Apart from the gearbox. Every so often it simply refuses to engage a gear until he turns off the ignition for a moment and then restarts the car. Three Alfa dealers have had the car several times each and can't find (or even reproduce) the fault. It always "clears" itself after the ignition has been switched off, but this is highly inconvenient, not to mention dangerous.
What I find quite ironic however is our MD's Ferrari F355 F1 has the same problem periodically. Not sure what there is in the way of shared technology between the Selespeed and F1 'boxes, but it seems like a heck of a coincidence.
The motto is, if you buy an Italian car, get one with as little in the way of electronics on it as possible.
When I made some enquiries about buying a 156 to an Alfa mechanic he said "avoid the Selespeed at all costs". 'Nuff said.
I just can't figure out what is wrong with the selespeed in my 2.0 litre 156. I had just changed the pressure tank (ball) which was causing inconsistent hydraulic pressure. As mentioned by so many others. The gear jumps, does not engage 4th gear and there was once, it went neutral at 5th gear. And at that speed, this could be dangerous.
With the amount of money spent and time going back and forth to workshops, its just frustrating.
I hope someone can explain...
MAS.
I have a 2001 156 Selespeed, Low kms... less than 50000kms. Got stalled in traffic twice. 1st time Zagame's Alfa Service Centre said cable in actuator came lose, but charged $200 for labour to put back. 3 wks later, stalled again. Now, they tell me have to replace actuator for more than $3000...
Melbourne, Australia
Yay - I'm not the only one having a nightmare with a 2000 model Selespeed. A note to those in Melbourne, Aus... yes, Zagames are hugely expensive. There's a guy in Reservoir (I forget the company name) who does original parts and service for Alfa's - he's damn good and a whole lot cheaper.
And no - I won't be buying another Alfa if this car is any indication.