Test Drive Alfa Romeo 159 since 2005 Sedan

All photos Alfa Romeo 159 since 2005

Test Drive Alfa Romeo 159: Notes from the past

Kolesa.ru portal with pleasure and nostalgia spent time in the company is no longer young, but all the same beautiful Italian, recalling the good old days and networks on the fastening of the Alfa Romeo sports spirit.

Despite the importance of the event, the return of Alfa Romeo to Russia was very quiet. You can even say, imperceptibly. Without pathos and loud statements, in a long-built small car dealership on one of the central streets of St. Petersburg, light was caught fire again.

Probably it is right. After all, besides the fact of the official return, there is still nothing to brag about: one salon and a couple of models. Everything else plans, plans, plans

But I have a special attitude to the alpha. Once, almost by chance, I turned out to be the owner of Alfa Romeo 33 sample 1991. Moreover, it was correct for Alfa Romeo of bright red and with the most powerful engine from the Opposite 1,7-liter motor with a capacity of 132 horsepower. How nice it was to ride that car fast, sensitive and gambling! Not in vain in Italy itself, this model called Ferrari for the poor. So pick up the test car I went with anticipation of something pleasant and nostalgic.

Alfa Romeo 159, of course, is not a novelty. Appearing in 2005, today this model is actually a pensioner. However, the unique style of Maestro Georgetto, Judjaro, still makes it turn around passersby, and nodding neighbors in the flow, approvingly nodding towards the Italian sedan. Although the corporate color still lacks our dark, the gray-blue 159th merges with the raw asphalt of a honesty St. Petersburg, but only until it turns the predatory look of eight lenses of head optics.

Salon is a real holiday for the connoisseurs of Quore Sportivo, the Sports Spirit. Torpedo deployed to the driver; Ideal in the form of a steering wheel with three thin knitting needles is almost the same as it was on models and ten, and twenty years ago; The minor devices are removed into the cups on the center console and are visible exclusively to the driver, and the arrows of the main appliances look strictly down. Moreover, the interior is made everywhere from high-quality and expensive materials.

Although admire the alpha can be infinitely long, discussing every detail, I will not wait to try the burning Italian in business. I remember, on my Alfa Romeo 33 ignition lock was on the left of the steering wheel, as in Porsche. In the 159th, he is at a more familiar place, right. And in all the laws of the modern automotive fashion is a connector for a key chain-immobilizer and the start / stop button.

Awakening 185 horses from the second touch to the launch key None of the sitting in the cabin is likely to not notice. With the exception, of course, the driver who is embarrassed, who lost the center, the tachometer arrow. Noise isolation at height. Even the playing of the gas is reflected in the distant and barely audible sound of the four cylinders of a 2.2-liter motor. But for the true connoisseurs of the Alfov sound, it is rather a lack.

But the fact of the matter is that Alfa Romeo 159 thought as a global model, designed not only to fans of the brand, which patriotically concentrated in Italy, but also on the entire European market, and in particular the largest German.

And the German budgets are accustomed to feel in the car, first of all, comfort, stability and safety. And the thickest tastes of the main monetary bag of Europe, Milanians had to go for some sacrifices.

I remember for a long time got used to the settings of the Alpha oppository, which, as a real racing motor, up to 3,000 revolutions, I refused at all, but after the cherished digit on the tachometer, I endowed a light 33-model with such a dynamics that every free section of the road I was waiting for heavenly Manna.

And although, the engine 159th has not yet managed to finally encourage the norms of Euro-5, such sensations in the large Italian sedan is not felt. No, Italian is enough of 185 forces, she confidently accelerates and, more importantly, it is sensible for the accelerator pedal. Only too measured. Without a light. In German. Lubricates the feelings of overclocking and transmission. Alfa Romeo 159, it from the past robotic six-speed with one-piece clutch, which, with intensive acceleration, switching, breaks the power flow, causing a discomfort pause.

The classic robot in the middle of zero years has just been in fashion. The advantages of the mechanical box efficiency and speed merged with the comfort of control automatic seems to somehow sounded advertising slogans of a new hybrid transmission.

As the story showed, the design did not justify itself. The robot did not reach the comfort of the classic machine, and the fans of mechanics remained faithful to their preferences. But the progress does not stop, and today replacing robotic transmissions received preselative, which were still able to combine the advantages of both types of checkpoint.

Unfortunately, Alfa Romeo 159 Modernization did not touch. Rather touched, but not all versions. The hydromechanical automaton is laid only by the most powerful alpha with the V6 engine and diesel engines that did not want to carry in Russia due to the high cost. And buying cars at the price of a good per million on the handle, domestic customers no longer want. But the alternative to the Italian robot is still the usual mechanical transmission can be ordered if you drive out of 45 horses from under the hood by choosing a basic version of 159th with a 1.8 engine.

But than the Italians did not sacrifice, it is handling. Chassis settings are simply great. A sharp sports steering wheel (from the stop until the stop is only two turns) is equipped with a real hydraulic amplifier. After all these artificial electronic pills, the Alpha reflected Branca does not want to produce from the hands.

Moreover, the driver suspension settings Italians managed to combine with the phenomenal smoothness of the stroke. Locked in hard winter seventeen-seven tires, Alfa Romeo 159 Without chokering swallows and tram rails, and laying policemen so that obstacles did not notice any front, nor even rear passengers.

Since once, we didn't become such an interesting car in our hands, it was not to torment her and the rules of the road and the spatial restrictions of the city, we did not become and went to the racing track in Promzone Shushara, the only remaining after the closure of the Nevsky Ring, an autodrome in St. Petersburg. But about it in the next video material!

Price Alfa Romeo 159
Alfa Romeo 159 returned to Russia in both available bodies: sedan and wagon. The four-door version can be selected with the engine 1.8 (140 hp) and the mechanical gearbox in a poor configuration of Progression for 1,095,000 rubles or with a motor 2.2 (185 hp) and a robotic selesepeed transmission performed by Distinctive, which was rated in 1 390 000 rubles.

The wagon in the same equipment and with the same technical characteristics will cost 1,185,000 and 1,500,000 rubles, respectively.

Selecting the portal Kolesa.ru.
The choice, unfortunately, is poor. From two bodies, you can choose any: and a sedan, and the wagon look excellent. So, there is a matter or taste, or practicality. But the choice of two combinations of motors and transmissions are difficult. On the one hand, Alpha Romeo is more powerful, the better. On the other hand, the sensation from a more powerful engine spoils not the most successful transmission.

And yet we recommend sacrifice the dynamics for the sake of full control over the car, especially since the main ones Alfa Romeo is still not high-speed characteristics, but unmatched control. Yes, and the price of the 159th alpha with the engine 1.8 remains more or less adequate.