147 Selespeed on A Current Affair

[colcol]

And i notice on a lot of ebay and car sales adds, they will say for transmission, 'auto', then say 'auto clutch' sequencial shift, and if you didn't know any better you would think its an auto you were buying, a lot of Selespeed owners love them, but i still prefer manuals, Colin.

[lombardi]

My preference was strictly only manual for driving pleasure,but keeping an open mind i stretched the envelope of common sense and bought a gt selespeed and can honestly say that after 7 months of trouble free motoring(knocking on wood)have fallen in love shifting the levers,have given up city mode as boring, the responsive selespeed is silky smooth and a lot of fun and very free revving,so once i was a detractor now i am a fan,it pays to have an open mind and look outside the square and dont believe everything you hear including this forum,nothing beats personal experience,then u can truly judge with knowledge. As far as the alfa 147 ateco debacle,i remember going to a BEEMA function and hearing an experience from a woman that bought a new beema ,she was convinced her beauty was built on a monday has her new purchase visited the service dept. more frequently than being enjoyed on the road,she also had a long list of faults since purchased new,but of course people perception of brands has a different effect on the public.Dont believe everything you hear. regards

[deemac66]

Lombardi, I feel the same, with respects to selespeed. The JTS I now own is the second, the first TS 156 selespeed was a little troublesome but the experience didn't dampen my adoration nor the fun of driving the 156.
I work in a different mechanical workshop every day and I see troublesome cars of ALL different makes all the time. Holden's Astra would almost unanimously be the most complained about car by mechanics who are concerned customers think they may be being ripped off yet very little is published about the mighty little "Aussie" car. Most of Alfa's "reliability" issues is simply ignorance by the majority of mechanics of what to look for and what fails on them.
Holden's Commodore and Ford's Falcon are by no stretch of the imagination a "reliable" car. It is only that most mechanics know where to look for potential problems on them and recommend action before they become problems. My father (also a qualified mechanic) always said if all Holden's and Falcon's were as reliable as Toyota's Corolla there would be less mechanical businesses around and I think he was right.

[tony8028]

[
Meanwhile, back in the real world.......  Presently, Alfa produce two vehicles.  The MiTo, a FWD supermini designed to compete in the 'Mini class' (for want of a better description), and the Giulietta, a FWD small family car designed to compete in the 'Golf class' (for want etc...).  Both cars are built on FIAT-made platforms that are also used for other vehicles (or will be in the case of the Giulietta).  Both cars are designed for markets that demand an 'A to B run

My opinion only but i believe that the Golf buyers who by the toss of a coin get swayed over the Alfa are the ones who end up in stories such as the ACA one.
There are still inherent 'features' (some may call issues) that make Alfa more suited to someone who will check the oil every week.

[Sheldon McIntosh]

You may well be correct.  The point I was trying to make is that Alfa are explicitly targeting those buyers, so their reliability needs to match the market expectation.  I'm sure that this is what Alfa intends also; if they were going to target their cars towards Alfa fans that would be aware that their new car needs more attention than the normal new car, their market would be very small, and shrinking every day.

If Alfa were to produce something special (like the 4C for example) that was aimed at a niche market, then sure, it wouldn't be unreasonable that something like that would need more than usual attention.  But, if you're producing (and let's be honest) pretty mediocre hatchbacks, then those cars need to be as reliable as the next hatchback.  At the very least, as reliable as the next European hatchback.

I don't understand why people are happy to make excuses for the fact that Alfa just isn't in a good place at the moment.  We all love Alfa, almost every car enthusiast has a place in their heart for Alfa.  But really, the best you could say is that the product right now is good-looking but average.  It's heart-breaking that VW, BMW, Toyota, amongst many others, have cars that are far, far better than anything Alfa can make, and in market segments that Alfa should be dominating.  Very sad.

[colcol]

According to the news on the radio this morning, the Prostitute on A Current Affair that was rumured to have been paid $60,000 by A.C.A., to spill the beans on Federal MP Craig Thomson, saying she had sex with him, when asked about cheque book journalism, the producer said sheepesly, that she wasn't going to do it for a latte, has now said that she didn't have sex with him, as she checked her passport, and she was in New Zealand at the time, this is despite A.C.A. putting the story on 3 nights in a row, just when you thought of A.C.A. as gutter journalism, it seems it has sunk even lower into the sewer, don't beleive everything you see on TV or in the paper, Colin.

[L4OMEO]

Your personal issues with ACA are all well and good Colin, but your main point still seems to be that consumers should either be aware of and/or accepting of Alfas being sub-standard quality products.

Sorry, but what a crock.

[Steve S]

Alfa Romeo should provide a quality product and back up their sales. If this is totally legit from what the ACA story suggested, Alfa Romeo should do better, much better. However, to be fair we didn't get the whole story, the sales guy walked away, maybe conveniently filmed at only one point in the interview, I'm sure ACA wanted it to look that way.

[tony8028]

I'm sure ACA wanted it to look that way.

I actually think ACA missed a trick here...the real story was the selespeed angle...they casually said 'the gear box had been repaired 6 times' ...had they done their research on this point they could have potentially had a truck load of other viewers contributing their selespeed horror stories. The faults that were listed was so random that nobody could really relate to it....it was obviously a one-off lemon which may have a dubious background - who knows.

[colcol]

If the gearbox had been repaired 6 times, then the dealer doesn't know how to fix it properly, should have taken it to another Alfa dealer, but it was 3 years old, and it had the original owner, i wonder how many klms it had done as the fronts usually don't start knocking until 60,000Klms, Colin.

[tony8028]

i wonder how many klms it had done as the fronts usually don't start knocking until 60,000Klms, Colin.

My 147 has done around 70K and it purs like an Abyssinian - no knocks at all

[colcol]

I suppose it depends on how many and how fast you hit speed bumps, if you lived in inner city of Melbourne, and failed to slow down enough and clobbered the speed humps regulary, and wore out your front suspension, you could go on A Current Affair and have a good moan about rubbish Alfa Romeo's, Colin.

[ProvaRacing]

...it was obviously a one-off lemon which may have a dubious background - who knows.

The truth(in Australian current affairs tradition=bullshit) is it was rebuilt from this (see pics below)...

BTW Some idiot said Alfa are "mediocre hatchbacks" ...the only thing mediocre is journalism...wankers that never have or will buy a new car but then rely on other idiots that bought 2nd/3rd hand flogged cars to post their "I;m a low baller cheap car buyer but will judge the "new" car on the heap I buy..." give me a break.

FYI 147 had class leading handling and "go kart" like qualities, the Selespeed works fine, in my case brilliant...not one Selespeed fault and indeed my 147 from new 2006 hasn't had one failure...except the battery...6yrs 7mths since the build date (never recharged)...so fcuk off ignorant knockers.