Originally Posted By Jack The Lad
I had a Lancia Fulvia in the early 70s and it put me off Italian cars like Alfa , Fiat .( moved over to Volvo's ) It dropped to bits in my garage everytime I closed the door or boot lid a bit fell off on the floor it was just a bag of rust with the salty air up here . I called it my bag of crisps because if I swept up the bits of rust it looked like I had spilt a packet.

I must admit my love affair with Alfa Romeo has come to an end. I have the all wheel drive version of the 156 Sportwagon which is called a Crosswagon. I bought it because I like the idea of a full time AWD. I now have 88K km on it and I have to say I love the mechanical part of it (engine, gearbox etc.). Unfortunately it is let down by the quality of some ancillary parts. So far I have had to have front shocks and a suspension arm replaced (probably the result of hitting a pothole), serious mods to the water draining system from the aircon (sounds like a Morgan smile ), then in the last year I have had to replace the aircon compressor, the wiper motor, also a number of small plastic bit of the interior trim have broken. Now I have to replace the steering box and two lower suspension struts - €1,500 plus tax thankyou. I think the next will either be a Subaru or an Audi, both have excellent full time AWD systems.

Peter

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