Most people who like to think they know a great deal about cars will tell you that any red-blooded motoring enthusiast has at some point in his/her life owned an Alfa Romeo.
That may or may not be the case, but if there’s one common denominator about Alfas of the past, it’s the way in which their owners speak about them. They will always tell you how much they love their cars and what great performance vehicles they are, but there’s always that breathy pause as they inhale deeply to gather up the energy to tell you about the litany of problems they’ve had, among which reliability issues feature high on the list of complaints.
It’s for this reason that I found the start of the press presentation of the new Alfa 159 so refreshing. Alfa executives chose to focus on the poor infrastructure they had in South Africa while showing us how they had been improving their dealership network over the past two years. In addition, Alfa executives promised to improve their service as part of a drive to grow their customer base. And one really does hope they stick to their promises because the new 159 is an impressive vehicle that deserves solid backing in the form of good after-sales service and an easily accessible dealership network to ensure that customers feel a tad more confident about spending their money on this Italian icon.
The first thing you notice about the new 159 is its nose. Aggressive and flat, it has a no-nonsense look that is echoed in one way or another throughout the vehicle.
Walking towards the 159, the nose literally stopped me in my tracks and instantly reminded me of the Chevrolet Camaro concept car that was unveiled at the Detroit Motor Show earlier this year. I really couldn’t care less about motoring manufacturers borrowing design ideas from each other — as long as the end result is easy on the eye and functional, it doesn’t matter who came up with the idea first.
The Alfa 159 is a beautiful vehicle and given the way the roof tapers down into the front with the bonnet narrowing towards the grille, it has the overall look of an arrow just waiting to be unsheathed and shot.
Inside, the 159 has a great deal of space, front and rear. The dials on the instrumentation panel are inset in a sporty manner and features include dual-zone climate-controlled air conditioning, leather upholstery on the 2,2-litre model, electric windows and much more.
The 159 has scored a five-star rating on the Euro NCAP crash test and has seven airbags, as well as a host of safety features that include ABS, electronic stability control, anti-slip regulation and electronic brakeforce distribution.
There are two petrol models currently available — the 1,9JTS with 118kW of power and 190Nm of torque and the 2,2JTS with 136kW of power and 230Nm of torque — with a diesel and a performance 3,2 litre V6 version being added to the range later this year.
The 1,9JTS felt sufficiently powerful during the launch in KwaZulu-Natal, but the 2,2JTS with slightly fatter takkies had more than just the obvious performance edge with the additional power. It felt more comfortable on a variety of road surfaces than the 1,9JTS.
The 159 was a pleasure to drive with the transmission, suspension and overall dynamics making easy work of long straights as well as twisties. In fact the ease with which the 2,2JTS handled corners reminded me of the way English football captain David Beckham has a tendency to “bend” balls. In the recent World Cup match against Ecuador, Beckham scored off a free kick with his signature “bending” of the ball. However, if you know anything about Becks, you will know he spends many hours every day perfecting this move, but it pays off when he can take his country into the next round of the greatest football tournament on Earth. So, like him or not, but you can’t say he doesn’t get the job done when it counts.
Similarly, Alfa, which is known for its focus on engineering and driveability (sometimes at the expense of reliability and comfort in the past), obviously spent many hours perfecting a car’s handling and dynamics so that when you most need these dynamics to come into play in tricky situations, they do so admirably.
The 1,9JTS costs R246 000 and the 2,2JTS costs R271 000 and both come with a five-year/100 000km maintenance plan with service intervals of 30 000km.
I’ve never owned an Alfa for the simple reason that I didn’t fancy spending more time in a mechanic’s workshop than on the roads. However, given Alfa’s recent successes on reliability surveys, its commitment to improve service and the amazing impression the 159 makes in such a short time behind the steering wheel, I have to admit to being very tempted.