WANTED: 156 (Preferably Sportswagon)

[NSharpley]

I'm capped at $7k ... anyone have a 156 they'd like to offload for that price?

Preferably SA residents.

Cheers

Nick

[John Hanslow]

There are quite a few 156's around for sale and a brief search on the internet, carsales, carpoint, trading
post etc will have a few sedans under $7k.

However the sportswagons are a bit more than that and the cheapest was about $12k in NSW from memory. Unless you can get one thru an auction house at wholwesale price you may miss out.

But with these value 156's- please be cautions as they may not have the valuable service book, not serviced by an Alfa specialitst (refer the SA club for details) and are very high milage/km's.

These are a few expensive issues with badly maintained twin spark engines and the selespeed (robotic clutch) requires evental replacement.

In fact the sedan has more room than the sportswagon & a manual may be a better than selespeed. 

Do you research and good motoring - remember to PAY for an alfa specialist to check out the car and this can be part of your negotiation on purchase.

Saving up for a higher value car with service record- timing belt & clutch replacement is a good idea.

Cheers.

[Davidm1600]

Hi Nick

I agree largely with what John says.  More so, since I actually have an '03 JTS manual Sporwagon.  I picked it up in Sydney for $20K last year.  I am the 2nd owner, has full Alfa service history with now 96K on the clock. Sweet car.

At the time there were not many to choose from and in general I have not seen too many come up for sale over the past year.

The cheapest one I have seen in recent times was a red one for $14K.  Interestingly enough I made an enquiry the other day from a 2nd hand car dealer in Melbourne to see what I might get as a trade in on my car for an '86 Porsche 944 they have for sale.  $10K at best plus a little less since I live in Hobart.  Go figure.  From my research on the usual car websites, a car like mine (except sedan and mostly sillyspeeds) goes for between $17500 to $19500.  Low km '03 156s seem to be still commanding up to as much as $26K.

So obviously the dealer is only looking at the Redbook which always seems to have lower values and is wanting to make much profit.  Not from me he won't.

While you should be able to find a sedan for $7k I doubt you will find a good Sportwagon for that kind of money.  I have heard of one wagon for that type of money but never saw it and suspect it would have needed quite lot of work/$ to have been spent on it.  You can have mine for $19K if you really wish.

As to the space difference, while John is correct re the boot of the sedan being a greater capacity than the sportwagon, that is only true while the back seat is up.  With it folded down the storage space is very generous.  I can even get my 7'6 mini mal surfboard into my car (just).  When we made our road trip down from Sydney, we had our two 6'6 surfboards, plus luggage, plus wine, lamps and other stuff bought along the way.  The sportwagon is extremely practical, oh and also economical.

Definitely if you are after a 156, go for the latest one you can find, with the lowest kms and the best service history, and especially check to see if the belts have been replaced. Goodluck with the hunt to find one.  Dave