From IT Speed
************
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 launch engines were mated up to various
transmissions, all with six speeds. Both conventional manual and
robotised Selespeed units were offered, with conventional automatic
boxes, known as Q-Tronic, optional on some of the engines. The latter
could be operated as a conventional automatic or in sequential mode.
The Alfa 159 employed ‘high’ double wishbones at the front, and a
multilink setup at the rear. The 159 was also equipped with a full
array of electronic aids, including ABS, ASR, HBS, EBD, MSR and VDC.

On the 260bhp V6 version, the power was transmitted to all four wheels
through a permanent 4-wheel drive system with three differentials
(including a Torsen C self-locking central differential) developed
from that on the 159 Crosswagon Q4. This system split the torque
constantly and dynamically between the four wheels, the Torsen-C
self-locking central differential sending about 57% of the engine’s
output to the rear wheels and 43% to the front.

As is now the norm for such a class of car, numerous devices and
systems were fitted (or optional) to make life on board as
comfortable as possible, including cruise control, rain, dusk and
parking sensors (front and rear), a satellite navigation system,
voice controls, a built-in GSM hands-free telephone, automatic
climate control with dual or triple-zone temperatures, a radio-CD-MP3
player with 10-disc autochanger, a Bose Hi-Fi Sound System, seats with
electrical adjustment, folding rear seats, and a push-button ignition
switch on the console.

The estate version, known as the Sportwagon, emerged one year after
the saloon. Retaining the frontal styling of the saloon but adding a
true load-lugging rear end, it managed to look purposeful and
aggressive, even with its practical inclinations. Apart from the rear
bodywork, the Sportwagon was identical to the saloon, including the
same wheelbase and overall length.

In 2007 the 2.4 MultiJet diesel engine saw its power grow from 200bhp
to 210bhp, except when the Q-Tronic automatic transmission was
specified, in which case output remained at 200bhp. More changes came
in 2008, when a series of minor tweaks were made to the product and
range. A new system called ‘Electronic Q2’ was introduced, which
provides a similar functionality to a limited-slip differential by
using differential braking. A series of changes to the interior
included new fabrics, styles, dashboard, instruments and materials.
The 3.2 V6 became available with front-wheel-drive (previously only
available with AWD), while in a related attempt to lose the kilos, a
weight reduction programme was enacted, which saw the 159 lose around
45kg from the kerb weight.

Also in 2007, Alfa Romeo launched, at the 77th Geneva Motor Show, the
newly reborn Ti specification onto the 159 (the famous historical
designation was already available for the smaller Alfa 147). The Ti
(Turismo Internazionale) kit included 20mm lowered suspension, Brembo
braking system, 19” alloy wheels and high-performance 235/40 R19
tyres. Alfa Romeo's management also planned to extend the Ti makeover
to include mechanical improvements to enhance the performance of the
engines but this never materialised.

Unlike almost all its predecessors, the 159 never saw itself become
the focus of a factory-supported racing programme as by the time of
its launch in the middle of the last decade Alfa Romeo's management
had turned their backs on a century of sporting success, shunning the
brand's historic philosophy of beating rivals on track as the key
marketing yardstick. Some private racing efforts were however
undertaken by importers notably in Australia where in 2009 a 2.4
Multijet-powered Alfa 159 comfortably won the class reserved for
diesel-powered cars in the Bathurst 12 Hours.

Tuners also turned their attention to the 159, although working with
the new breed of direct injection engines raised the bar too high for
most. However, Alfa Romeo aftermarket design and tuning leader,
Autodelta, seized the opportunity to give the sedan the performance
it was lacking and turn it into the complete package; its
supercharged 3.2 litre V6 version hiked power from a standard 260 bhp
to 352 bhp while a similar forced induction makeover for the 2.2 litre
raised power from 145 bhp to 245 bhp.

The Geneva Show of 2009 saw a revised range launched, the most
significant development being the addition of two new engines. The
first was an all-new, high-performance turbocharged 1750 unit with
200bhp and direct injection, twin variable camshafts and unique
scavenging technology. The second was a 170bhp 2.0 JTDm turbocharged
diesel unit. An ECO version of the latter engine was later added,
which used different tyres and gear ratios to reduce the fuel
consumption and emissions. The arrival of these two highly capable
units soon led to the 159 abandoning its cluster of GM-sourced
engines; the Fiat-GM joint venture was long since history by this
point. Unfortunately, however they came too late to change
perceptions of the model amongst the general public. They were the
right engines - but at the wrong time; while the lack of a meaningful
mid-life facelift didn't help the model’s cause.

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