Alfa Romeo 2000 Reviews

YOU'VE almost got to wonder, who buys all those cars? To say nothing of the SUVs and commercial jiggers.  Private owners and fleets bought almost 81,500 new vehicles last month. Of course, the usual suspects - Holden, Toyota, Mazda, Ford, Hyundai - do most business among the 50 or so brands on offer. But for every no-brainer buy there's an overlooked, if not unloved, model sitting on the lot.If you fancy a bit of vive la difference, we've unearthed some hidden treasures whose lack of popularity ought to compel the sales people to do a deal for you.Alfa Romeo 159Sales in April: 29Price:$49,990-$82,990THOUGH a non-starter in the premium sales stakes led by zer Chermans, Alfa's now five-year-old midsize sedan and wagon will be with us for another two years.Upgrades have seen it shed a bit of lard and get a six-speed automatic that works with it, as opposed to behaving like a transplanted organ the body's rejecting. Most 159s sold now are TI editions with lowered suspension and lustrous, but eminently kerbable, 19-inch alloys.Hardly the sharpest tool in the shed but, my, isn't she lovely? Gorgeous, actually.  Standard equipment levels are high, so put the acid on the dealer for a good driveaway deal.* Our choice: 2.4 JTDm auto sportwagonCitroen C5Sales in April: 16Price: $45,990-$72,990DESPITE its dashing appearance, the driving reality of this almost entirely diesel line-up can be considered exciting only if you accept boules as an extreme sport. It ain't sportif, but that's the point.What it does, in its Gallic shrugging way, is provide a classically wafty Citroen ride in a package that looks equally at home in Paris, Provence or Parramatta. The 3.0 twin turbo V6 oiler would convert an avowed petrolhead but, in Australia's Third World road conditions, isn't sufficiently superior to the 2.0-litre four potter to justify the price.* Our choice: 2.0 HDi ComfortFiat 500Sales in April: 25Price: $22,990-$33,990THING is, everyone who wants a mini 2+2 convertible goes for, well, a Mini. The irresistible new Bambino now comes with a rag top, in addition to its more stalwart though hardly less cute coupe siblings.Indeed, how much cute can you cope with? Given its level of kit and customisation options, the 500 is as much a bite-sized luxury car as a city-friendly commuting device.The current lack of an auto option in all versions across the range keeps sales to niche levels but, hey, this is a compact Italian job. Over there, even the most venerable nonna can handle a stick shift. Anecdotal evidence suggests the Fix-It-Again-Tony days are way behind Fiat.* Our choice: 1.4 Lounge manualHonda Civic HybridSales: 75-80 (since January)Price: $34,490WHILE Toyota's Prius is effectively a synonym for petrol-electric propulsion, the cheaper Honda not only looks like a car it drives like one, while returning a potential 4.6 litres per 100km. Sales are down a bit at the moment, as petrol prices are too, but an oil price spike is certain at some point. If you want a green car that doesn't make you look like Clover Moore, act soon.* Our choice: There is but oneSkoda SuperbSales in April: 6Price: From $39,990MAYBE the long Czech liftback and now wagon is just too close in essence and price to its VW Passat sibling. Maybe we don't yet "get'' big cars with small but highly efficient engines (though there's a diesel and a V6 petrol variant as well). Maybe it's a cold war hangover.Whatever it is, we're wrong. With a price realignment, the Superb offers better value, more kit, lots of space and lusher feel than the VW. It won Top Gear's luxury car of the year; the previous winner was a Rolls-Royce, for heaven's sake.* Our choice: Got to be the 1.8 turbo petrol wagon

The Italian brand has been looking for a showroom magnet in recent years and, despite the introduction of the MiTo from $31,490, it has failed to find one.  The Giulietta is newer, sportier and less quirky in its design, a combination that the local importer hopes will work if it can lock the car into its local lineup."We either have to piss or get off the pot with Alfa Romeo. They are convinced Alfa will work. We want it to work," says the top man at Ateco Automotive, Neville Crichton.  "If we get the Giulietta at the right price, that brand should be doing 3000 to 4000 cars a year."Alfa has had an up-and-down run in Australia since the 1970s, when it won plenty of fans with the enthusiastic little Alfasud and the GTV sports coupe. But quality was patchy, rust was aglobal problem, and Alfa sales dropped away once the company shut its direct factory operation down under.Now Ateco has the brand as part of an Italian connection that includes Ferrari, Maserati and Fiat, and it is planning to build a future around the Giulietta.  It currently sells the 1.4-litre MiTo, the 147 hatch and 159 sedan and station wagon, but knows it needs a true hero car to generate a showroom following."We've been hamstrung because we haven't had the product," Crichton says.  He sees the Giulietta going head-to-head with the Volkswagen Golf GTi in the hot-hatch class and believes the Italian car will not be disgraced."They want us to have a serious go with it. It's probably a little bit bigger than the Volkswagen and should be a better car."  Crichton is blunt and honest on the recent troubles with Alfa, which centre on the cars' transmissions. It has yet to build a quality automatic and its manu-matic gearboxes were among the first and, apart from baulky shifts, also caused quality problems which hit owners."The 156 went well and then we had problems with the transmission. We were the first people in the world to have Selespeed," Crichton says.  Lots of people liked it, but then we had troubles . . .

Europe is back in business, celebrating the end of the global financial crisis that rocked the car world and drove the biggest of them all - General Motors - into bankruptcy.There were green shoots of happiness at the Frankfurt Motor Show in late 2009, but this week's Geneva Motor Show shows the same sort of excitement and promise of an early spring morning in Europe.Every carmaker has something new in Geneva, from full-blown production models to quirky concepts. The Swiss show is often dismissed as a sideshow but this time, with 25 new models as diverse as the Nissan Micra and Porsche Cayenne, there is serious action on every front.Carmakers are predictably focussed on green solutions to meet the challenges of fuel economy and CO2 emissions - with Fiat even showing a tiny two-cylinder engine for its funkoid 500 - but there is also room for fun.  How else do you describe a Honda city concept that looks like a 20th-century take on the unicycles used by Circe du Soleil acrobats?But even the green machines have turned mean as Ferrari shows its 599 Vettura Labratorio hybrid, although BYD from China balanced things with its fully-electric E6 hatch.Porsche also has its 918 supercar concept and both it and the Ferrari tap Formula One technology with KERS hybrid packs - that's Kinetic Energy Recovery System - to store energy for a quick, explosive boost of extra power.Porsche plans to put the 918 into production but, as yet, Ferrari is only using the super-special 599 - painted symbolically in green instead of the Italian brand's signature red - as a rolling labratory.  "We want to understand how to use this technology. We are not yet at the point to see it in a road going Ferrari," says Amedeo Felisa, Ferrari's CEO.The upbeat mood at Geneva is captured by the top man at Bentley, Dr Franz-Josef Paefgen, who says the reaction to his company's Mulsanne and Supersports models has filled him with confidence after a shocking 2009.  "There is a feeling that it is behind us," Paefgen says as super-wealthy Bentley buyers emerge from their GFC-proof bunkers.Walking the stands at Geneva I see green machines that are more than just concepts and plenty of choices for small-car buyers, from budget hatches to baby prestige cars like the Audi A1.  The little Audi gets a rousing reception, Volvo wins praise for the safety and styling of the new S60 sedan and the Alfa Giulietta - replacement for the 147 - raises more questions about the often-promised renaissance for the brand.Lexus shows a compact new CT200h hybrid that brings petrol-electric power to a new group of buyers, Mini has the Countryman with extra ground clearance and the basics for a World Rally Championship challenge in 2011, and the Mitsubishi ASX crossover - test driven this week by Peter Lyon near Tokyo - heads the Japanese contingent.For Alfa fans, the Giulietta is pitched at the Volkswagen Golf with a range of 1.4, 1.6 and 2.0-litre petrol and diesel engines.  BMW’s new 5 Series and a 4-litre six-cylinder X5 diesel creates a predictable buzz among SUV fans.Kia’s head of design, Peter Schreyer, lifts the wraps off the stylish new Sportage, which is due in Australia later this year, with the promise of both turbodiesel and petrol engines, as well as front and all-wheel drive.  The Sportage could be major hit for the Korean brand, matching the impact of the Hyundai ix35, when it goes on sale with an opener in the sub-$30,000 bracket.Ford leverages the first European appearance of its new Focus hatch in Geneva by unveiling the Focus wagon, which at this stage is a Europe-only car. Europeans are big wagon buyers and the wagon is expected to account for one-third of all Focus sales there.But the Focus wagon is only the halfway point - the fifth of 10 proposed models - using the same basic building blocks and the future includes a Focus electric car. Currently, the wagon, hatch, sedan and C-Max and Grand C-Max all share the same underpinnings.“We are now using our global resources to develop cars for all countries, including Australia,” says Ford's technical chief, Derrick Kuzak.  He also reveals the current Europe-only Kuga compact SUV and North American Escape will be replaced by a single global car, which could head to Australia, and hints that a hot performance Focus with a more-powerful version of Ford’s 2.0-litre Ecoboost turbo engine will also be available in Australia.Lexus uses Geneva to showcase its critically important CT 200h hybrid, which it hopes to become a volume player.  But the CT 200h is not the only car to push the green theme at the affordable end.Hyundai has the stylish turbocharged 1.7-litre i-flow concept sedan, which uses a lithium-ion battery pack with six-speed dual-clutch transmission, and it is joined by the ix35 FCEV hydrogen fuel-cell car and Opel’s Flextreme GT-E.Apart from Ferrari, Porsche shows off its GT3 R Hybrid - also with KERS - and 918 Spyder, both exploring the outer limits of hybrid drivetrains for race and road cars.  The Cayenne, along with the VW Touareg, share their hybrid debuts as Audi uses the first appearance of its baby A1 to reveal a full-electric E-tron concept that joins earlier R8-based plug-in supercars.Apart from the conventional petrol and diesel A1, Audi also adds the RS5 coupe to its A5 lineup and a hybrid A8 sedan. The RS5 gets a powerful 335kW/430Nm 4.2-litre V8, quattro all-wheel drive and seven-speed S-tronic dual clutch gearbox.Like the BMW-built Mini, Audi has several distinctly styled A1s on its stand. It says owners will have access to so much customisation that no two A1s will be exactly the same.Audi has the Mini firmly in its sights with an expected starting price around $33,000 for the A1, with a three-door car to kick of sales with a five-door and cabrio expected. The range-topper is expected to be an S version with a performance-tuned turbo four cylinder engine.Citroen springs one of the few real surprises of the show with its hot-pink Survolt sportscar while Giugiaro teams up with Proton to deliver a stylish hybrid city car.  The Survolt is a pure design fantasy with no likely production expected. The showcar did not even have an engine and Citroen says it has been designed to go electric.Apart from the sleek Citroen, two Italian styling houses - Pininfarina and Bertone - have show cars based on Alfa Romeo mechanical parts. Bertone returns to Geneva for the first time in two years with the Pandion 2+2 concept coupe and Pininfarina shows the two-seater 2uettottanta.Apart from the twin concepts, Citroen has the DS3 Racing as well as its DS High Rider three door, a pointer to the next-generation C4, which is due to be launched next year as a five-door.  The company will only build 1000 versions of the DS3 racing and the head of local importer Ateco Automotive, Neville Crichton, says he would like to bring a few to Australia but will initially focus on launching the DS range.“It certainly is a good looking thing,” Crichton says.  Mercedes-Benz continues to create a buzz at Geneva with its SLS Gullwing supercar but the F800 Style, a pointer to the next-generation CLS minus its cantilever rear doors, dominates the Mercedes stand and shares the limelight with the E-Class cabriolet.Fitting in the quirky category in Geneva is Aston Martin’s Cygnet hatch, a remake of Toyota’s iQ city car. The $50,000 makeover model will only be sold to existing Aston Martin customers.  Aston Martin boldly has the Cygnet right next to its four-door flagship sports car, the Rapide.

It’s a dread condition, one that smites otherwise quite rational car owners with an insatiable desire to not only drive Alfa Romeos, but to own them.

WORLD champion Jenson Button is now officially a member of the McLaren- Mercedes team. He clocked off at Brawn GP on December 31 and made his first public appearance in TeamVodafone colours on January 1, although he is currently holidaying in Hawaii before his first McLaren test drive in February.THE stillborn Honda NSX supercar will be used as a race base in this year's Super GT series in Japan. Honda killed the car before putting it into production but the born-again NSX survives - at least as a body shape - in Japan's domestic touring car series.AUSTRALIAN drivers Damien Harris and Ricky Steffens hold the advantage over American raider Jack Wyatt after the first leg of the Australia- versus-USA nitro funny car challenge at Willowbank Raceway in Queensland. Harris was the standout with a quickest quarter-mile run in 4.968 seconds, also clocking the first 300-miles-an-hour run at the track, but Wyatt plans to turn the tables in the deciding races on January 16 as he tunes his car to the local track and weather conditions.DANIEL Erickson is pressing ahead with plans to race the Star Mazda series in the USA despite losing his CAMS Rising Star backing for 2010. He has also formed a supporters club - details at www.danielerickson.com.au - to try and raise funding for the 13-race series.KIWI veteran Craig Baird picked up a prize in this year's New Year's honours list in New Zealand. The 39-year-old was honoured for services to motorsport after claiming his 21st championship in 2009, and has already re-signed with the Holden Racing Team for the V8 Supercar endurance events later this year.ALFA Romeo will be the featured carmaker at the 21st running of the Phillip Island Classic on March 19-21. The Italian brand celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2010 and many classic cars will be at the event, as well as Aussie Alfa racers Alan Jones, Colin Bond, Tim Schenken, Bryan Thomson, Jim McKeon and Frank Porter. Kevin Bartlett, who won two Australian drivers championships in Alfa-powered open- wheelers in 1968 and 1969, will be the patron of the Phillip Island event.

Plenty when you're a legendary brand like Alfa Romeo and naming a new car is as important as the car itself.  So the Italian carmaker has gone back to the future to finally give its 147 replacement a name.  And the Milano is out, Giulietta is back in.The Giulietta is expected to make its first public airing at the Geneva Motor Show in March.  Intially four engines are likely, two 1.4-litre turbos and a 1.6-litre and 2.0-litre turbo-diesel.Of course Alfa would never be Alfa without a high-performance GTA version, rumoured to get around 175kW.  In Europe, the Giulietta will be pitched into the hot small hatch segment against the VW Golf, Opel Astra and Peugeot 3008.As the photos show the interior gets a twin-glass roof, sports leather seats and plenty of equipment.  Among the standard kit will be Alfa's three-mode DNA system from the MiTo with dynamic, normal and all weather settings.Other highlight features include LED daytime running lights front and back and concealed rear door handles similar to the 156.  The Giulietta is clearly a stylish hatch with cues from the just-launched locally MiTo, including a striking take on the Alfa family grille.There are also hints of the 8C Competizione in the car's profile.  As the rear shot shows, the tail-lights extend into the hatch and the reversing lights are integrated into the reflectors.  Few other details are known, except the hatch is expected to be bigger in length and width, close to the previous-generation 156.The Milano will be available as a five-door hatch initially, but a three-door will follow.  The Giulietta nameplate was last sold in Australia back in the 1980s.

I realised this while finalising the judging of this year's Carsguide Car of the Year contest, which you can read about in today's liftout.  Yes, there are still bad things in cars. I think the damping of the Maserati Quattroporte is awful, cannot stand the seats in the Fiat 500, find a lot of Japanese headlamps lacklustre, and worry about the long-term quality of Alfa Romeo.But these are little things compared to some of the howlers I have driven in the past.  The Fiat Argento was supposed to be an executive express but it was so bad that it was canned after the first press preview drive. The evaluation cars were dropped onto executives and the plan died.The Holden Piazza was, for me, nasty and dangerous. I only drove it once and was glad when the over-powered Gemini coupe was binned.  On the Holden front, the Gemini diesel was also awful. Ahead of its time in efficiency but behind the times in every other way.And I could go on. And on.  But the cars of 2009 are brilliant. It truly is a golden age in motoring.  We had a lot of trouble culling the COTY field to just 10 cars and the finalists are so, so close in so many ways. Great value, too.Things will only get better in coming years and I am expecting better efficiency, better performance, more safety and so much more before the day when environmental pressures and a lack of oil turns cars into transport modules and nothing more.We should all enjoy things today because it, truly, has never been better.Follow Paul Gover on Twitter!

I have known him for more than 20 years and I am still staggered by everything from his towering intellect to his ability to run 20 kilometres each morning despite devouring red wine at a rate that makes a V8 engine look like a fuel miser. His history with cars is almost beyond belief and he confesses to owning more than 120 at some time, including swapping one Alfa 90 - not my favourite car by a long way - for an identical car in a slightly different colour. Wright is a contradiction wrapped inside a question that is rolled up in inside a ball of doubts and worries and challenges. But he can write. His latest effort is titled, in the style I have come to expect from him, "My other wife is a car". Not bad for a bloke who has had plenty of both. It is a rambling, generous, encouraging, questioning and humorous story from a man who refuses to take life easily. "I wrote the book because my wife often says to me that life is not all about cars," Wright says. "And being in love with cars is not all about cars. It's about what else was happening in your life." Apart from cars, the novel is about John Wright and his life. I know because I was there or close by for many of the stories and cars he covers. "I tried to write a novel. But . . .," he says. "It's all about the way you look at something. The difference between fiction and non-fiction is often not as much as people think." Is that confusing? No, that's John Wright and his book is worth a read. It's light and fluffy but also deep and insightful. And definitely worth spending .... at the bookshop. "It's about cars and much more than cars. And an attempt to describe what the passion of cars is all about. "It took about three months. I started out thinking I could re-use pieces I'd already written, but it didn't work out that way. I started thinking it would be 20,000 words but it turned out to be 60,000. Oh well." Follow Paul Gover on Twitter!

A Fiat 500 with teeth and the Alfa Romeo Mito with new, greener engines.

...caused such a stir at the 1997 Tokyo motor show that the big Bavarian marque had no choice but to make a production version. The concept was called Z07, and the car it spawned – in limited numbers – was the BMW Z8, which was produced between 2000 and 2003 and given the E52 model code. 5703 Z8s were made and about half of them made their way to the United States. Penned by Henrik Fisker at BMW’s Designworks, very few changes were needed for the Z07 to go into production as the Z8. The windscreen was extended upwards and bigger front air dams were fitted. To keep it as faithful to the concept as possible, the designers incorporated clever features such as multi-function instruments, integrated side indicators that were invisible until needed, and modern equipment that was hidden behind interior retractable panels to preserve the simple, vintage-inspired look. The all-alloy chassis car cost $128,000 and was pulled by a 4.9 litre V8 engine that produced 294kW and 500Nm.The engine was shared by the M5 of the time. The Z8’s 0-100km/h time was officially 4.7 seconds but quicker times (to 4.2 seconds) have been recorded by various testers. The top speed, as per BMW regulations, was locked off at 249km/h, although when unbridled the feisty little Bimmer could reach 300 clicks. To make the Z8 more attractive to collectors, all elements of the car were constructed or finished by hand, and a number of custom options were available including non-standard paint and interior treatments. In 2003, a softer, less sporty version of the Z8 was introduced. It was called the Alpina V8 Roadster and it came with a smaller 4.8 litre V8 engine. Only a five-speed automatic transmission was available in the Alpina, and the car featured softer suspension and softer leather trim than its rawer, race-ready brother. Slightly bigger wheels were fitted and special Alpina gauges and steering wheel were also added. The Alpina outputs were 280kW and 519Nm but interestingly the top speed was 10km north of the original Z8, at 259km/h. Only 555 Alpinas were built. Images courtesy of www.bmwz8.us.