Alfa 155

[pompei]

Hoping to see one this weekend - an early 8v 2 litre. I know these are a bit unloved but are they ok for a daily? Is spares availability an issue?Thanks.

[504GL]

Pure speculation but I would hazard a guess that spares aren't hard to come by as Fiat tend to share a lot of components amongst their cars. For instance the front discs on my 500 are used as rear discs on the 155 and I think the 155 was based on the Tipo if what wikipedia says is right.

[Tayne]

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[The Liberator]

An 8v 155 should make a decent daily, especially as they're usually pretty cheap. The 8v is pretty tough, doesn't suffer from the belt, variator and potential bottom-end shenanigans of the later 16v Twin Sparks. Galvanised bodywork, but check the rear arches, top of windscreen and where the floor meets the sill for rust.It's based on the Tipo/Tempra so there should be some shared parts (I think the wishbones, which fail regularly, are common to the Fiats, at least on early narrow 155s), but knowing the way Sod's law interacts with Alfas anything that goes wrong will be Alfa-specific and either expensive or NLA. A case in point being the mirrors, which are made of shit metal so most have been bodged up after a previous breakage, and new ones are just not around anymore (don't get the available lhd ones, you won't be able to see anything useful in them) and while Tempra or Tipo mirrors fit, and are cheap, they look rubbish on a 155.

[Pete-M]

Narrow body (i.e. early) 155s really aren't very good, whereas the wide body ones are rather good fun.The 8v doesn't have the nasty variator, but they aren't that much fun to drive either.I wouldn't.

[Tayne]

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[Betaphile]

I would. Breaking one of these 'proper' Alfa twinks really takes some doing, they are very tough motors indeed - much more tolerant of abuse than the later SuperFIRE engines. As noted, bodywork is generally OK but have a poke around the obvious places for rot. Suspension did indeed come in for a serious rethink around 1995 (part of touring car homologation that saw the track widened), along with the major heart surgery which plumbed in the Fiat-blocked Twin Sparks, but purely from a cheap-to-run mechanical durability point of view, an 8V 155 is about as good as Alfas get.

[hammy]

Re: Spares and Fiats/Alfas - avoid main dealers or garages and you'll be fine. There are plenty of specialists around who know the cars and can get plenty of spares at sensible prices. I'm running a Fiat Coupe and I use a local Italian car specialist.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

Nothing much wrong with the narrow body 155. The dampers were a bit wonky but it's only a Tipo chassis and the 16v Tipo was a proper weapon. The 16v might be more fun but the engine isn't so good. 8v 155 2.0 with a decent set of shox and lowering springs would be fine, superb engine. Alfa are discontinuing a lot of bits so it would be worth buying a cheap shitter and stripping it.

[gearoil]

I've recently bought one, a later 1.8 widebody with the quickrack on a P plate.Try alfa155.org for all your 155 needs. I have most of a dead one in boxes in the garage if you need anything.

[Mash]

I've bottled out of buying a 155 more times than I care to remember, looked at a few but just never plucked up the courage to hand over the cash (or in the early days afford the insurance). I still really fancy a late model one and whilst I love the 156, the 155 has the quirky looks that win it for me.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I have no experience of the 16v engine but I would hazard a guess that it would be likely to destroy its bottom end fairly easily, and need regular fettling/replacement of the variator, and would guilt-trip you into using very expensive oil, and still blow itself up like a bastard while you were rushing your heavily preggers girlfriend to the maternity ward. The 8v on the other hand I do have experience of, and can confirm that it is a honey of a thing that lasts for ever, pulls mega well and even looks cool.

[pogweasel]

I owned the ex-Wakely 155 Silverstone briefly (twice).All I know is that whilst visually an utter shed, it went well and sounded absolutely heavenly.

[Negative Creep]

I've recently bought one, a later 1.8 widebody with the quickrack on a P plate.Try alfa155.org for all your 155 needs. I have most of a dead one in boxes in the garage if you need anything.

i'd echo this. Found it a very useful club when i had mine

[155V6]

Mine was the most expensive car I've ever bought(£5,000 for a '96 V6 Sportpack back in 2000).I meant to buy a 2.0,but after hearing the V6 engine,that wasn't going to happen .Still the car I miss most