It doesn’t have some fake carbon-fiber trim or clever marketing behind it, just the purest Italian engineering of the time. The American readership probably doesn’t know this, but just before the 4C arrived was probably the darkest period in Alfa history.
The company was producing a trickle of front-wheel-drive hatchbacks and just before that was the era of the 159, objectively beautiful, but not a dynamic match for rivals such as the BMW 3 Series. However, if you now think of it as a Passat competitor, it becomes more appealing, especially when you consider what’s under the hood.
Much like the Passat had its sweet-sounding R36 version, this 159 Ti is equipped with a 3.2-liter naturally aspirated V6, which produces 256 horsepower and 237 pound-feet (322 Newton-meters) of torque.
This autobahn test by AutoTopNL partially explains why the 159 wasn’t a hit back in the day. The top speed depends on the exact year and powertrain. But since this doesn’t appear to have Q4 (AWD) or the Q-Tronic gearbox, it should hit 248 km/h or 154 mph. However, the highest registered speed was about 138 mph (222 kph).
Even so, it’s such an interesting-looking car, with Ferrari-like paint, flared fenders, those six headlights, and an Italian wagon body. The problem with car culture is that as soon as modern classics are seen as cool, prices go way up because there’s not a lot of them. So, if you had your eye on one of those little 147 GTA hatchbacks with the V6… just get one of these instead.
