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2008 Alfa Romeo 159 3.2V6 Q4 Lusso (GB) |
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Written by Colin Rear
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Saturday, 23 January 2010 11:19 |
      
The kind people at Fish Brothers in Swindon let me have a 159 3.2 Lusso for the weekend. When I hand it back to them tomorrow morning, I will have covered nearly 400 miles. A few months ago I had my first 159 experience, with a 1.9 JTDm, and although I quite liked the car, it is fair to say that I was not "wow"-ed by it, and some of my impressions were less favourable than my memory of happy times with the 156. More recently, I had a few hours in a Brera, with the same engine, and the engine impressed, but the rest of the car lacked practicality to be a sensible choice as my only car, even if I could cope with the looks, which I am still not sure I can. So, the 159 3.2 should combine the good engine, with the practicality of the saloon body, and be the best of all worlds. Question, though: is it?
  
When I met up with Piers yesterday, having had it for 24 hours, I was still not entirely sure. Now I've driven it some more, I've decided that I like it more and more, and I will be quite sorry to hand it back, even though i will be getting back into the S4! Firstly - the looks. This one is in silver, and it has what in my opinion are the best wheels. It's still not quite up to the standards of the original 156, but I think that this is definitely one of the best looking saloons on the market - and I really liked looking out of the window and seeing it on my drive, and my parent's drive, this weekend. My mother was even sufficiently impressed that she decided to take a photo of it, and she is not in the slightest interested in cars usually!
Of course, the engine is a lot of what an Alfa is about. The old Alfa sounds have gone, and this one is quiet refined. It does burble a bit at idle, and if you accelerate hard, the sound got the thumbs up not just from me, but from Piers' brother, who had a ride in it last night.............. it's not as fast as the S4, of course, but it's not bad.
Just like the Brera, and the diesel version, the gearchange is a revelation compared to previous Alfas.. a short lever, with a very positive change, and no recalcitrance at selecting any of the gears at all. Other dynamics were fine, too........... I did not do anything wayward, but for normal driving, had no issues with steering, handling or brakes. The lock is not as good as a 325th Compact - I had to make 2 goes at turning sharply where Piers was able to do it one, but I was also trying to make sure I did not ground the car, or damage it............... the boot is actually quite short, but once the parking sensors started beeping, I erred on the side of caution when trying to park it! It's nicely finished inside. The one qualm was the combined sat nav and radio unit, which was bewilderingly complex. I never did figure out how to scan for a radio station that was not preset......... time to read the manual, I guess!
 
A couple of other things came to light. The door pillar is very wide, so there is a bit of an awkward blind spot at angled junctions that I am not used to in the Audi. And the headlights on main beam are awesome, but they did not seem to throw the light that far ahead on dipped - but then most cars are like that! The seats proved very comfortable, and they are finished in a nice soft Alfa leather, which looks good, as well.
    
Overall, then, I am impressed. This is a very real contender as my next car. if I had not had a couple of S4, I would probably cut to the chase and order it now............. but I have been spoiled by S4 power and a V8, so the next test car, next weekend, will see me back behind 8 cylinders of the 4 rings. Watch this space!
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Last Updated on Saturday, 23 January 2010 19:11 |
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