From IT Speed

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The yanking last month of the Alfa 159 from the company?s UK

pricelists signals the wind-down of production of this D-segment

sedan, its sales on all markets being already limited to just small

handfuls.

With the replacement Giulia now delayed until at least the second half

of 2013, Alfa Romeo has built up stock of the 159 to see it through

until then, but production at the Naples factory has now been halted

so that the plant can tool up for the new Fiat Panda which debuts

next month. As a result, orders are no longer being taken for the

159, with buyers only able to choose from stock, comprised of a

drastically slimmed-down range ? only two standard and two optional

extra colours and and one engine, the 2.0 MultiJet (with a base

starting price of 27,000 euros on the Italian market for the 136 CV

sedan).

The 159 and its estate spin-off, the 159 Sportwagon, were cars that

promised much but in the end never quite delivered. The 159 succeeded

the 156, giving it a very tough act to follow; the 156 had been one of

Alfa Romeo?s biggest hits in decades. Developed in the midst of the

ill-fated Fiat-GM joint venture, the 159 had a troubled gestation,

beginning life on the American carmaker?s Epsilon platform before

being shifted, relatively late in development, to the more

sophisticated but expensive Premium platform. This was done by Alfa

Romeo in an attempt to salvage the cost sunk in Premium, since the

projected 166 replacement to be built off the platform was merely

wishful thinking, and General Motors ? itself concerned about the

cost of the platform ? had steadily jettisoned its own projected

Premium models, including those earmarked for Cadillac, Buick and

Saab. However, this late transition to what was fundamentally

designed as an E-segment platform left the 159 compromised, and along

with its coupe and convertible sisters the Brera and Spider, saddled

with excessive weight when it hit the market.

Also on the debit side were the new car?s engines. Replacing Alfa

Romeo?s much-admired ?Arese? V6 engine, which was coming to the end

of its useable life, with a much less sparkling GM-sourced 3.2 V6,

failed to impress Alfisti, as did the 159?s four-cylinder petrol

engines, also sourced from the American alliance. The lacklustre

petrol efforts made the diesels, including the ubiquitous 1.9-litre

four-cylinder MultiJet and powerful and sonorous (albeit heavy)

2.4-litre five-pot, the pick of the range. Launching models with the

wrong engines has been a continual problem for Alfa Romeo, and the

addition of two strong engines that Alfisti would expect to find

under the bonnet (including the petrol 1750 TBi two years ago), came

too late in the day to make a sales impact.

Building on the success of the 156 (of which more than 600,000 were

built), the design brief for the 159, enacted by Giorgetto Giugiaro

in association with Alfa Romeo Centro Stile, was for evolution rather

than revolution. But although Giugiaro noted the 159 at the time

received the highest-ever score in customer clinics in the history of

Italdesign, the delays in the car?s development meant the car launched

at the Geneva Motor Show in 2005, just as automotive styling was

fundamentally moving towards more organic forms. Importantly, it also

grew significantly in size ? adding some 225mm over its predecessor ?

which helped disassociate itself from the huge collective of 156

buyers who were looking to trade in their cars for a replacement

model. Just as crucially, however, Alfa?s senior management as ever

misread the brand?s positioning in the eyes of customers and made the

fundamental error of trying to pitch the 159 squarely at BMW, Mercedes

and Audi owners.

Despite this, the 159 was not without plenty of attributes, chief

among which were its striking and elegant aesthetics. First

impressions from the media when it debuted at the Geneva Motor Show

in 2005 were highly positive. The front was dominated by a large,

vertical Alfa Romeo ?family? grille, flanked on each side by three

small lights, a very characteristic design first seen on the Brera

concept. (Unfortunately, this design?s poor aerodynamic

characteristics have seen Alfa move towards less distinctive front

ends in subsequent designs.) Swages running the full length of the

sides combined with the large C-pillars and slender A-pillars to give

the car a robust appearance, in an effort to finally combat

perceptions of Alfas being ?fragile?. The overt use of all four door

handles (as opposed to the concealed rear handles on the 156)

likewise reinforced the size of the car. These features were designed

in particular with the American market in mind, and the 159 was

developed to U.S. homologation standards, although a comeback by the

brand to this market, as ever, was postponed. The rear echoed the

styling of the rest of the car, with small round inserts in the light

clusters and a horizontal theme echoed by the swaging, closely

referencing the 156. More powerful versions received exhaust systems

with twin tailpipes.

Because the Alfa 159 was a much larger car than its predecessor, it

provided a more comfortable interior, as well as a more engaging

driving position than the 156. With all the controls and instruments

well positioned around the driver, the Alfa 159 offered a

considerably more driver-biased interior than most of its rivals, the

turbo boost (or oil temperature for petrol engines) gauge being just

one example. Much higher quality materials that on the 156 were used,

blending the sporty feel of aluminium with leather.

With the 159 project, Alfa Romeo also aimed to reach new levels of

passive safety. The robust Premium floorpan was developed with this

in mind, and adopted high performance materials, multiple layers of

sheet metal and the use of laser welding. Traditional methods such as

boxed sections, increased welding in structural areas and longitudinal

members all helped make the car exceptionally safe in the case of an

incident. They also produced a very torsionally rigid bodyshell ? one

of the most rigid on the market ? which helped benefit ride and

handling, at the expense of kerb weight. In terms of active safety,

the Alfa 159 was well equipped with up to eight airbags (including

driver and passenger knee airbags), innovative restraint systems, and

front seats with an ?anti-whiplash? device, which moved the head

restraint nearer to the occupants? necks in the event of a rear

impact.

At launch, there were three new ?JTS? (direct injection) petrol

engines, all with continuous dual variable valve timing on both inlet

and exhaust valves. Available were the aforementioned GM-sourced

3.2-litre 24-valve V6 delivering 260 bhp, featuring cylinder heads

reworked by Alfa Romeo?s engineers for its more performance-focused

application, a 2.2 16V generating 185 bhp, and a 1.9 16V (160 bhp).

Arriving later was a non-direct-injection 1.8 to lower the price

point of the 159. Developing 140bhp, it was shared with a variety of

GM models, as well as the Fiat Croma.

In terms of diesel options, there were another three units, a 2.4 JTDm

5-cylinder 20V engine (200 bhp) and two 1.9 JTDm engines ? one with 16

valves and delivering 150 bhp at 4000 rpm, the other with 8 valves and

120 bhp. All these used the latest MultiJet development of the JTD

common-rail injection system as well as variable geometry

turbochargers and intercoolers. All the engines met Euro 4 standards,

whilst the diesels featured particulate traps (DPF) with a ?for life?

system. These six