Beauty, it is Italian and their historic brand image are probably the three main reasons for buying an Alfa Romeo, but you could add in their motorsport heritage as well.
Alfa Romeo’s reputation for producing open topped cars goes back to 1910 and the new Spider, launched earlier this year, is their fourth generation Spider model in five decades.
In the last couple of decades Alfa Romeo has not had the best of reputations for quality or reliability but their designs are still coveted by a hard-core few. However the rejuvenated Fiat and Alfa Romeo businesses have been doing rather well in the last few years or so with new model introductions with better and more reliable products giving some success in re-building customer confidence.
They are now starting to regain their reputation for producing great and distinctive cars and selling them without resorting to huge discounting. Alfa sales in the UK are nearly 20% higher so far this year over the same period in 2006. Alfa Romeo says they will sell in the region of 700 Spiders in the UK in a full year.
Developed from the relatively new Brera 2+2 coupe, the Spider is a sporty two-seater with a unique platform and chassis to give it additional strengthening to overcome the loss of the metal roof.
The Spider range is priced from £25,995 to £32,700 and as usual with premium brands there is a host of extra cost options from higher grade leather upholstery to navigation systems with integrated hands-free phone facilities.
There is the choice of two petrol engines, 185bhp four-cylinder 2.2 and 260bhp 3.2 V6, or the popular 200bhp five-cylinder 2.4 MultiJet turbo-diesel. Six speed manual boxes are standard but the V6 is available with the QTronic selectable semi/ full automatic transmission with column paddles and has Q4 four-wheel drive as standard.
Top speed of the 2.2 JTS is 138mph with 0-62mph in 8.8sec and overall consumption of around 30mpg and 221gkm CO2. The 3.2 JTS model has a top speed of 149mph, 0-62mph in 7 or 7.2 seconds with manual or autobox, fuel consumption of 24.6 or 23.2mpg and emissions of 273 or 289gkm CO2 respectively.
The most practical 2.4 JTDm MultiJet diesel does 142mph, 0-62mph in 8.4sec, returns 41.5mpg and produces 179gkm in CO2 emissions.
The Spider has a multi-layered fabric electrically operated top and built-in roll-bars and a glass wind baffle behind the headrests. The roof folds into a compartment behind the passenger cabin but in front of the boot so the load space is fairly roomy for a convertible with 200 litres of space.
There are secure lockable storage compartments behind the two front seats but unfortunately the large glovebox cannot be locked so security is an issue. Valuable items such as a mobile phone or sunglasses cannot be left in the car with the roof down, say at a petrol station, without the risk of them being stolen.
For the sake of a lock for the glovebox you need to take the items with you or put the roof up and lock the doors.
The Alfa Romeo Spider comes very highly specified from a technical viewpoint so you get six speed box, powered steering and advanced braking and traction control systems, and four wheel drive and auto option on the top version.
In the trim package you have dual zone air con, cruise control, fog lights and headlamp delay, parking sensors, on-board computer and six speaker radio/CD player, while leather is standard on the V6.
Source: http://www.askaprice.com/torque-article.asp?article=Alfa_Romeo_Spider_out_now&item=3550