Mike Coman’s Alfa Romeo 156 Sportwagon
Share on facebookAn Italian Estate that’s both sporty AND reliable.
“What is a Practical Performance car?” We are often asked this question and this is PPC’s Mike Coman’s take on the answer: Practical in that it is an estate and performance in that it goes and handles better than any estate has any right to. So for Mikey, the car that fulfilled these guidelines was an Alfa 156 Sportwagon.
The fine looking Italian was pressed into service as soon as it was bought and is Mikey’s everyday car used for commuting to work and all the other visits and stuff that family transport has to do. He puts about 200 miles a week on it and the 100k-mile mark is a dot in the rear view mirror. Yes you read that right: an Alfa Romeo that is over the 100 thousand mile mark.
The Italian reputation for unreliability has yet to show itself and the only breakdown was nothing to do with the Italians. It was a crank sensor fault; they’re made by Bosch and are German. Mikey changed the timing belt and associated tensioners when he got the car and it is due to get some suspension work and another cam belt along with cam variator in a big service soon. All this has been done by a bloke who is PPC’s resident bodywork guy. So if you do a bit of research about servicing and common faults then there is no reason why these cars cannot be every bit as reliable as anything else and all the maintenance can be done by a keen amateur.
Check out PPC magazine every month to see when the Alfa finally does break down.
