Q: Do they have a lot of problems or are they ok? and i've heard if something goes wrong it costs a fortune for the parts etc.? I'm looking at a 145 and the 147 but hardly know anything about the make....cheers!
A: Quite simply, the answer is NO. It makes me laugh that some Alfa fan has been going through giving a thumbs down to anyone who dared to suggest that they were unreliable. I owned one, and I swore never again. When I purchased my little rust bucket, I spend over a thousand dollars removing rust, which was all back again in six months. I had numerous electrical problems including one time I was driving home at night and the lights just went out, on a dark country lane. Nice! The car I had had this brilliant idea of placing the front brake discs behind the engine, not by the wheels like every other modern car. So you had to work from underneath the car just to replace the disc pads. I once went to test drive a newer Alfa and the dealer admitted to me that he had had brand new Alfas start to rust while still on the showroom floor. Now I have to admit, that has all changed a lot in the last decade. But the fact is there are so many cool sporty cars out there with a much better reputation for reliability and quality. So why on earth would you pick one of these cars? Seriously, look elsewhere.