145 was my first car ... my first crash ... my first adrenalin , my first girl in car , my first empty wallet , my first bad feeling when each car drive pass to me ... but , it was 74 kw from 1,4 ... and when it works , it was perfect .... Best first car i can drove .... after ( mini cooper 1.6 compresor , now nissan 350 Z , still remember for alfa )
If I remember correctly, the 145 and 146 had a specially designed 'box section' floor pan with no seams or water traps to help prevent corrosion and galvanised body panels. This was Alfas attempt to sort out the terrible rust problems of the previous cars the 33 which ceased production in 1994, the 164, the 75 and the Alfa Sud which used to rust at a shocking rate, all over the car.
Matej Vuković my 96 145 cloverleaf has just done 200,000 miles all I’ve done is oil/filter change, air filter change since I bought it 7 years ago on 86,000 obviously brakes and general wear, tyres etc but 0 problems especially when I only paid £650 engine is amazing and reliable!!!
I did buy a 1.7 16v new in 1996 with a few extras. Wood to cover that cheap plastic and red stitched leather steering wheel and gearknob off the Cloverleaf. I loved it, it was great! Certainly a talking point anyway, wherever I went people wanted to know all about it. I didn't think it was noisy at all - it sounded boxerish and throaty. It went ok too although it certainly wasn't fast. Sadly looking at its MOT history, its no more. It lasted only 12 years and 108,000 miles. But it was probably thrashed all its life. It was by me :)
Fun fact: the designer of the 145, who for Clarkson could "win the lottery every single day for the rest of his life" was none less than *Chris Bangle*, at the time an understudy of Walter de Silva. Wonder if Clarkson still feels the same today.
I sold these as new cars upon launch in 1995. They were so slow. A Peugeot 306 would run rings around it as would a 1.6 Corolla. They were an okayish car but nothing special to drive. The widebody 155 was a far better effort. The 164 'rust' issue was a check on the front struts - Clarkson was such an irresponsible prick for saying that.
Owned a 145 with the 1.6 boxer engine. It failed an MOT once, handbrake marginal. On retest, the examiner asked me to lift the bonnet. Intrigued, I asked why. He just wanted to hear that boxer growl. I reckon the Alfa designers spent 50% of their budget on the engine, 40% on looks and handling; there wasn't much left for reliable electrics or handbrake. It was the only car I have red-lined in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd gears, and got airborne in normal motoring. I have a Ford Focus now, which is faster, handles better, looks almost as good as the Alfa 145, but I still miss that 4000rpm howl tearing up the Trassey Road in the 145.
my way was first published by 1967 Claude Francois (comme d'habitude !) it was later coverd by Frank Sinatra 1969 ! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Way like the 16v boxer the most it is very hard to find it was only produced for a very short time !!!
Alas, you have clearly never owned an Alfa. I had them all, 75, 145, 147 GTA, 159, now Giulia QV. I can assure you, if it weren’t for space, I’d kept every single one.
@@zetohd5625 You're right. I like the idea of owning one. I love the design flair, and the sound of the Alfa Twin Spark is to die for. But the tales of woe and unreliability scare me off. I'm afraid I'm more of a Lexus man.
@@matthewgodwin3050 I own a Lexus ISF and have had 6 Alfas. Would gladly own another Alfa. Sure, the Lexus is better built but a Lexus is better built than pretty much everything. BMWs are at about the same level of build quality as Alfas, possibly worse actually but they don't seem to have this reputation. The lack of dealers and service centres doesn't help.
