Alfa Romeo 159 Sportwagon Range
Your pen is hovering over the dotted line on a sales contract for an Alfa Romeo 159 Sportwagon. This is the car you always promised yourself, you reason. Lifes too short not to own an Alfa at some point and this seems as good a time as any. You glance over to the demonstrator car in the showroom.
Youre right. Its beautiful in a way no estate car has any right to be. But before you put pen to paper, ask yourself a question and answer it honestly. Would you really buy a car purely on the basis of looks?
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The 159 Sportwagon has room in the back for a whole lot more of it than most but here well make the case for the car if it had a face like a sack of spanners. Lets start with practicality. Rarely an Alfa byword, this is one area addressed moderately well in the 159 Sportwagon. I say moderately because, as an estate car, its predecessor, the 156 Sportwagon was, and lets not get too delicate here, a joke.
With its rear seats in place, it possessed less useable luggage space than the saloon on which it was based. It had other redeeming qualities insofar as it was better looking and, well, better looking but beyond that, it was never the most pragmatic choice. Nor is the 159 Sportwagon, if your blend of practicality involves lugging wardrobes or cubic hectares of garden waste. Where the 159 Sportwagon does move the game forward, albeit moderately, is that despite having the same overall length as the 159 saloon, luggage carrying capacity actually rises.
With 445 cubic litres when the rear seats are in place, its only 15-litres shy of a 3 Series Touring and a whopping 80 litres up on the 156 Sportwagon. At least now it can justify its existence as something other than a pretty face.
"Its beautiful in a way no estate car has any right to be"
Whereas many other manufacturers have learned all sorts of tricks from building MPV-style vehicles and have incorporated these into their estate cars, Alfa Romeo remain resiliently old school. The rear seats may be pleasantly light and easy to flip forward but the seat squabs stay fixed, which means that the seat backs wont fold flat. This limits the overall carrying capacity. Some estate cars also feature neat touches like fold out compartment dividers and chromed steel floor rails so that heavy goods can slide in without destroying the carpet, even pull out loading platforms.
You dont get that with the 159 Sportwagon but thats not to say the Alfa is just a show pony. As well as an auxiliary power supply in the luggage bay, theres a light, a pull cover and, best of all, the basic shape of the load area is broad, flat and low with no intrusion from the rear suspension. The actual useable space may well be greater than those with greater quoted capacity in cubic litres. The rear seats split 60/40 and theres a fold down section in the middle thats great for carrying longer items.
Theres even a small cargo net on one side thats a handy place to store gloves, a torch or other bits and pieces. Prices (which start at £19,650) are around £1,100 over and above what Alfa Romeo will charge for the equivalent 159 saloon and most canvassed seem to think the Sportwagon shape even better looking than the sharky 159 saloon. Thats quite some compliment. Its not worth pretending that the Alfa 159 can hold a candle to a BMW 3 Series as an enthusiasts 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 MPI 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 will be an option for V6 buyers. The manual transmission offered has been improved from the lazy, long-throw change of the 156 but theres also the choice of a six-speed automatic and a six-speed Selespeed sequential manual. The architecture of the 159s cabin is perhaps a little disappointing, offering an evolution of the 156s 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 youd opt for a Saab or Volvo if this was a priority.
Theres a lot to like about the Alfa 159 Sportwagon but to truly appreciate this car, one has to first accept the depth of your superficiality. After that, the rest is easy.
FACTS AT A GLANCE
CAR: Alfa Romeo 159 Sportwagon range
PRICES: £19,650-£29,550 on the road
INSURANCE GROUPS: 10-16
CO2 EMISSIONS: 179g/km [2.4 JTD] / 181g/km [1.8 MPI] / 221g/km [2.2 JTS] / 273g/km [3.2 V6]
PERFORMANCE: [1.9JTD 150] 0-60mph 9.4s Max Speed 130 mph
FUEL CONSUMPTION: [1.9JTD 150] (combined) 30.4 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
