A Sad Day

I had genuinely hoped to have been able to put off this day forever,
but it wasn't to be. After 7 enjoyable and remarkably trouble free
years of driving the Alfa, the 8th year and, in particular, the last
six months have been a trial. It looked as though the trial would
never end so the best car I have ever owned and myself have now parted
ways.

Why, I hear you ask?

1. Rust..surprisingly. Evidence of slight blistering/raised paintwork
in numerous places but only noticeable to me really. Except,
blistering appearing on the outside of the bodywork between the rear
wheel arch and rear door - oh dear. Usual (but not bad) corrosion on
door mirror mounts. Brown run marks running down from door handles -
easy to T-Cut but I can guess what's happening behind the scenes!!
Carpet in boot is absorbing a brown tint down one side where a seam
is. Front wheel arches well brown at the rear base where stones have
sandpapered the paint away.

2. Bearing in the engine bay rapidly deteriorating now - suspect aux
belt tensioner or pulley. Starting to screech - ugh.

3. Air con compressor getting gradually noisier.

4. Rattles, creaks, clonks and squeaking. The car sounds like it's
falling apart most days. The front suspension is creaking and clonking
badly but has just (as always) passed an MOT. The dashboard, doors and
sunroof have joined in to create an frustrating symphony of
deterioration. Unless quite new, noisy wipers. The wiper motors also
seem to be running out of steam - not that they ever were the Arnold
Schwarzenegger of motors! The Alfa has always been a bit noisy but
most days (especially warm ones) it would shut up enough for me. These
days, mostly, it just makes an awful racket.

5. Although the old girl still looked spanking (in photos and when
professionally examined), she was being treated as a worthless (I got
1250UKP for her in the end) old wreck by my local independent. This
was DEEPLY frustrating.

6. Local dealerships now VERY thin on the ground here and none within
70 miles if I don't go to Arnold Clark. Sorry, I refuse to use them -
I just don't trust them. I've NEVER heard ANYBODY with a single good
word to say about them and I've spoken to a fair number of
ex-employees and customers. I personally witnessed customer service to
some old bloke (not me!) I thought was *very* poor while I waited in
the next queue for a part.

So there you go. A combination of factors. My heart wanted a 159
2.4JTDm TI but the lack of local dealers and cars with the required
spec (*must* have a sunroof) were the killer blows there. My wife
discounted Merc (image mostly for her, build quality for me), I
discounted Audi (reliability seems to be getting poorer faster than
others). I discounted any 4 cylinder diesel - and it has to be diesel
for me just because the Alfa confirmed me a torque junkie!

The result of all this deliberation was the sleeper of the BMW range.
A 325d (3 litre) M Sport E90 with "Efficient Dynamics". Out of the
huge respect I have for the folks here, I won't say any more about
that motor unless it is specifically requested. Nevertheless, not
being a blinkered motoring correspondent, there are a number of
interesting and surprising things about the BMW that I think were
better on my old Alfa!

I will still lurk here to offer any advice/help/irritation I can based
on my experiences of over 8 years of Alfa ownership - this group's
almost as busy as the BMW one so it's hardly a trial!

IMHO the 2001 pre-facelift 156 Veloce is still *the* best looking 4
door saloon car ever built. *The* Walter Da Silva master class. IMHO,
subsequent butchery (sorry, facelifts) just detracted from the
original design purity much as a facelift can often do to (American)
humans.

When I told my 6 year old daughter that the serpent was actually
eating a man (she thought it was a red wide brimmed hat!) and gave her
a brand new, very shiny, small Alfa hub cap she almost burst into
tears and it's now (this week anyway) her most treasured possession!
It says rather a lot but myself and my family remain surprisingly sad
that the Alfa's gone.

Good luck and best wishes to the remaining active members of the
Alfisti. If you see a very flashy looking 3 series Beemer with working
indicators, feel free to wave, it's probably going to be me!!!

PS. Bugger..all these years and I forgot to give Catman pics of the
Alfa for the web site "The Group". Oh well, add me to the list of
flawed masterpieces then! ;-) Sorry for the oversight dad - you've
come a long way from that fat boy learning to type.. :-O (grabs Nike
trainers, zimmer and blasts away..)

--
Z
Scotland
Alfa Romeo 156 2.4JTD Veloce Leather (sold)
'Oil' be seeing you..
(Email must have the word 'Alfa' in the
subject line to get through auto-filtering)

Zathras wrote:

<snip>
>
> PS. Bugger..all these years and I forgot to give Catman pics of the
> Alfa for the web site "The Group". Oh well, add me to the list of
> flawed masterpieces then! ;-) Sorry for the oversight dad - you've
> come a long way from that fat boy learning to type.. :-O (grabs Nike
> trainers, zimmer and blasts away..)

Bugger indeed, Z.

Hope it all goes well

C


--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
116 Giulietta 3.0l Sprint 1.7 145 2.0 Cloverleaf 156 V6 2.5 S2
Triumph Sprint ST 1050: It's blue, see.
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

On Sun, 13 Sep 2009 12:13:13 +0100, Catman
> wrote:

>Hope it all goes well

Thanks..and to you.. ;-)

--
Z
Scotland
Alfa Romeo 156 2.4JTD Veloce Leather (sold)
'Oil' be seeing you..
(Email must have the word 'Alfa' in the
subject line to get through auto-filtering)

On Sun, 13 Sep 2009 12:13:13 +0100, Catman
> wrote:

>Zathras wrote:
>
><snip>
>>
>> PS. Bugger..all these years and I forgot to give Catman pics of the
>> Alfa for the web site "The Group".

>Bugger indeed, Z.

Maybe for a posthumous or honorary or fallen from grace or fallen
heroes section?..

--
Z
Scotland
Alfa Romeo 156 2.4JTD Veloce Leather (sold)
'Oil' be seeing you..
(Email must have the word 'Alfa' in the
subject line to get through auto-filtering)

Zathras wrote:
> On Sun, 13 Sep 2009 12:13:13 +0100, Catman
> > wrote:
>
>> Zathras wrote:
>>
>> <snip>
>>> PS. Bugger..all these years and I forgot to give Catman pics of the
>>> Alfa for the web site "The Group".
>
>> Bugger indeed, Z.
>
> Maybe for a posthumous or honorary or fallen from grace or fallen
> heroes section?..
>

I don't even know the password any more

--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
116 Giulietta 3.0l Sprint 1.7 145 2.0 Cloverleaf 156 V6 2.5 S2
Triumph Sprint ST 1050: It's blue, see.
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

In article >,
says...
> On Sun, 13 Sep 2009 12:13:13 +0100, Catman
> > wrote:
>
> >Zathras wrote:
> >
> ><snip>
> >>
> >> PS. Bugger..all these years and I forgot to give Catman pics of the
> >> Alfa for the web site "The Group".
>
> >Bugger indeed, Z.
>
> Maybe for a posthumous or honorary or fallen from grace or fallen
> heroes section?..
>
>

Turned to the dark side has he, hmm? But even Darth Vader repented in the
end...

--
Halmyre

The more you know the less the better.

Halmyre wrote:
> In article >,
> says...
>> On Sun, 13 Sep 2009 12:13:13 +0100, Catman
>> > wrote:
>>
>>> Zathras wrote:
>>>
>>> <snip>
>>>> PS. Bugger..all these years and I forgot to give Catman pics of the
>>>> Alfa for the web site "The Group".
>>> Bugger indeed, Z.
>> Maybe for a posthumous or honorary or fallen from grace or fallen
>> heroes section?..
>>
>>
>
> Turned to the dark side has he, hmm? But even Darth Vader repented in the
> end...
>
Only on his death bed. I'd hope Zathras isn't in that condition yet.

--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
116 Giulietta 3.0l Sprint 1.7 145 2.0 Cloverleaf 156 V6 2.5 S2
Triumph Sprint ST 1050: It's blue, see.
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

On Sun, 13 Sep 2009 16:26:11 +0100, Catman
> wrote:

>I don't even know the password any more

LOL - senile dementia? :-(

--
Z
Scotland
Alfa Romeo 156 2.4JTD Veloce Leather (sold)
'Oil' be seeing you..
(Email must have the word 'Alfa' in the
subject line to get through auto-filtering)

On Sun, 13 Sep 2009 16:46:56 +0100, Catman
> wrote:

>Halmyre wrote:
>> In article >,

>> Turned to the dark side has he, hmm? But even Darth Vader repented in the
>> end...
>>
>Only on his death bed. I'd hope Zathras isn't in that condition yet.

Not as far as I know..yet!

--
Z
Scotland
Alfa Romeo 156 2.4JTD Veloce Leather (sold)
'Oil' be seeing you..
(Email must have the word 'Alfa' in the
subject line to get through auto-filtering)

Zathras wrote:
> On Sun, 13 Sep 2009 16:26:11 +0100, Catman
> > wrote:
>
>> I don't even know the password any more
>
> LOL - senile dementia? :-(
>

Oi! Less of the senile

--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
116 Giulietta 3.0l Sprint 1.7 145 2.0 Cloverleaf 156 V6 2.5 S2
Triumph Sprint ST 1050: It's blue, see.
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk