The 159 is arguably the best looking compact saloon on the market and sets a new quality benchmark for Alfa Romeo products. It isn’t a perfect package, but a tempting proposition for motorists who demand stand-out style, luxury and driver involvement. The 159 is arguably the best looking compact saloon on the market and sets a new quality benchmark for Alfa Romeo products. It isn’t a perfect package, but a tempting proposition for motorists who demand stand-out style, luxury and driver involvement.
By Mike Fourie, Editor
Penned by Giorgetto Giugiaro and the Alfa Romeo Styling Centre, the 159 has a gorgeous Brera-like trapezoid-shaped front end and a distinctive shoulder line that spans the waist of the car and broadens towards the rear pillar. The back is relatively conservative and its elongated rear lights, divided by the slit of the boot, have cylindrical shapes derived from the look of the headlights. The whole look works brilliantly – in darker metallic colours, I might add. Whereas the 156 was voluptuous and feminine the 159 is more sculptured, purposeful and athletic, but without losing the sensuality that made its predecessor so popular.
Once you step into the cabin you can’t help but be impressed with the quality finishes and upmarket feel of the interior. The signature Alfa Romeo circular olio, acqua and benzina dials, combined with a bank of fuss-free rounded vents, cowled instrumentation dials (with a scarlet LCD display) and chunky on-board controls are all there, finished off by a stubby, silver-coloured gear lever and a nicely-sized multi-function leather-trimmed steering wheel.
The 159’s overall driving position is better than that of the 156, but taller drivers will still have to drive with outstretched arms. If you are of above-average height and attempt to sit closer to the steering wheel, your left knee will knock against the cruise control stalk, even on the seat’s lowest height setting. Lowering the driving column makes the problem worse. The low-slung 159 is 105 mm longer than the 156 and has adequate boot capacity, the amount of rear passenger room isn’t. But, the 159 still has the best-finished Alfa Romeo cabin I’ve ever sat in.
The rest of the car is hard to fault… It seems silly to fit the boot-release button next to the cabin light toggles above the rear-view mirror and one of the launch car’s brakes felt a bit mushy, but the 159’s driving experience, especially ride quality, was exemplary.
Built on a new platform that also underpins the Brera coupé, the 159 has almost no carry-over parts – the front double-wishbone suspension is all new and the rear struts were ditched in favour of a multi-link arrangement. The car’s steering is direct, communicative and although the 159 will understeer in extremis, the front-end grip is really impressive and the back seems to follow suit as requested, unless you mash the brakes in the middle of a fast corner!
The shorter gearing of the six-speed boxes encourages the driver to extract the maximum from the free-revving direct-injection multi-valve units. The 1,9 JTS’ idle is hardly of the awe-inspiring variety… The 118 kW four-pot is responsive, but requires plenty of revving and clever gear lever machinations for optimum performance. By contrast, the 2,2 JTS is a little jewel – it’s super smooth and, thanks to an output of 136 kW, nice and frisky.
On both models, the clutch action is quite light, but not insubstantial, and the gearshift is slick and precise. Alfisti will undoubtedly like the spirited (if not quite melodious) engine note under acceleration and the car’s ride quality is definitely more composed than I remember from my days with the 156.
Thanks to the well-insulated interior, road noise is minimal on smoother roads and the 159 wafts where its predecessor hustled. The 159’s standard dual-zone air conditioning system also represents a quantum leap over the 156’s so-called “ventilation”