Alfa Romeo 159 Range : YOUR NUMBER'S UP

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Alfa Romeo's 159 looks well able to shake the German establishment. Andy Enright assesses its chances

The senior suits in charge at Alfa Romeo are on a mission. Challenges don't come a lot bigger than restoring this sleeping giant's global fortunes and the 159 is the company's bold new vision of the way an Italian executive saloon should look. And it looks good. This car replaced the successful old Alfa 156, but it'll do well to top that car's sales figures.

Alfa are resolutely bullish, looking to sell 300,000 cars annually, eventually reintroducing the brand to the US, but for the time being the task at hand is too improve Alfa's sales performance in the UK. The 159 should be a key component in improving the marque's fortunes here. Only recently one of the big UK success stories, a stagnating line up caused Alfa's fortunes to dwindle. Despite some excellent engines, the shapes were no longer as alluring. With cars like this one and some exciting new models in the pipeline, Alfa should soon be back on the good foot. The 159, priced from just under £19,000 or £20,000 for the Sportwagon estate, has perhaps the toughest task of any model in the Alfa stable, taking the fight directly to cars like BMW's 3 Series. This market sector has changed a good deal in the past few years. Whereas a compact executive car was once an exclusive vehicle with quite some cachet, the collapse of the traditional fleet market took many customers out of Mondeos and Vectras and many of them have opted for BMWs. Alfa Romeo initially took advantage of this trend with the 156 but it's a fast moving market and the company's uncertain dalliance with General Motors perhaps stalled the introduction of the 159 for long enough to dent the company's bottom line. An Alfa executive recently bemoaned the lack of fiscal prurience, noting that "you can't find financially-minded people in this company - it's full of engineers who all want to launch new cars and don't want to deal with the boring bits in between. Perhaps Alfa has a little too much spirit for non-Alfisti, in its appearance, driving style and temperament."

"The 159 has the ability to make a BMW 3 Series or an Audi A4 look like a lumpen frump"

Read between the lines and you could easily conclude that in response to this, the 159 offers a watered-down dose of Alfa's `Cuore Sportivo'. Fortunately, that's a long way from the truth. Yes, it has grown in virtually every dimension compared to the 156, but it's still a very sharp piece of styling. Watching one appear in my rear-view at the Nurburgring, I can assure you this vehicle has more overtaking presence than almost any BMW, the gimlet-eyed headlamps and razor-sharp front grille looking rather intimidating. The rear end is genuinely tricky to differentiate from the 156 at first glance, but the side view shows sharper creasing and swage lines and a longer front end. As cohesive a piece of penmanship as the 156 was, the 159 is a better balanced car. It's not worth pretending that the Alfa 159 can hold a candle to a BMW 3 Series as an enthusiast's performance car. Its front wheel drive chassis precludes that but with all-wheel drive versions set to be introduced, the 159 has an advantage when it comes to all-weather security. How Audi must be galled. First Jaguar steal their thunder with the all-wheel drive X-TYPE, Volvo show their S60 with drive to both ends and then Alfa unveil the Q4 four-wheel drive variants of the 159. Perhaps the 3 Series is the wrong car against which to benchmark the 159. It seems a more natural competitor to top-end Honda Accords and Saab 9-3s. This `sub premium' compact executive sector still yields significant returns and is populated by cars like the Volvo S60 and the Jaguar X-TYPE, cars which the Alfa compares very favourably to. Five engines are on offer, split between two diesels and three petrol powerplants. The entry-level diesel option is the 150bhp 1.9-litre Multijet unit, while the range-topping diesel variant is the 2.4-litre 200bhp Multijet JTD. This is an absolute stormer, capable of zipping to 60mph in a tad over 8 seconds. Petrol engines start with a 1.8-litre 140bhp four, with a 2.2-litre 185bhp JTS powerplant above that. Of more interest to serious petrol heads is the 260bhp 3.2-litre V6, based on a Holden unit from Australia and rebuilt to a special Alfa recipe. Four wheel drive is an option for V6 buyers. The manual transmission offered has been improved from the lazy, long-throw change of the 156 but there's also the choice of a six-speed automatic and a six-speed Selespeed sequential manual. The architecture of the 159's cabin is perhaps a little disappointing, offering an evolution of the 156's fascia which looked great in '98 but which now looks a little dated compared to the more imaginative designs. Build quality seems better than before and rear legroom and headroom have both improved, although you'd opt for a Saab or Volvo if this was a priority. The boot, however, is way bigger than you'd have any right to expect and the folding rear seats endow the 159 with an admirable load carrying ability. If Alfa Romeo can turn round their hit and miss dealer network and continue to price the 159 aggressively, it's certain to make quite a few conquest sales. That's a tough task for a company limited on budget, however, and it would be a shame to see the 159 come and go as a missed opportunity. The raw materials are there. All it needs now is the polish.

Facts At A Glance
CAR: Alfa Romeo 159 2.2 JTS range
PRICES: £21,200-£24,750 - on the road
INSURANCE GROUP: 13E
CO2 EMISSIONS: 221g/km
PERFORMANCE: 0-60mph 8.5s Max Speed 138 mph
FUEL CONSUMPTION: (combined) 30.1 mpg
STANDARD SAFETY FEATURES: Twin front, side and knee airbags, ABS, traction and stability control, ABS with brake assist
WILL IT FIT IN YOUR GARAGE?: Length/Width/Height, 4660/1828/1417mm