Putney Posted March 28, 2009 Report Share Posted March 28, 2009 (edited) Thought I would give you a little review. I had one for 3 days while my bumper got repaired. Admiral insurance provided me with it as a courtesy car. When I first saw its 4 exhausts at the back I got a little excited as I have always wanted to drive the 3.2 V6. When I sat in the car and saw the diesel sticker on the fuel garage I felt a little ripped off! I am not a big fan of diesels if I am honest, or turbo's and well actually not really into front wheel drive cars either. So that was my next few days ruined and to top if all off it was raining! The Spider has a pretty good interior only spoilt by the fact that a month or so a go I was sat in the new TT... I did appreciate the extra room though. It seems very spacious inside compared to my Honda and I am guessing the TT is smaller as I don't remember noticing a huge difference between my car. The seats look really nice however they were way too soft and the leather felt a bit odd. At first I was thinking its not real leather... The seats are very soft around the centre and on pushing firmly with my hand most of the back area would sink in.... behind the seats were some little storage boxes... there is none in the S2000 so I was pleased to find these... In fact I just remembered I have left a bag of fruit pastels in there! damm it!As it was raining I couldn't put the roof down and on needing to reverse out the space I noticed the 1st design fault.. The visibility is really bad and its made worse by the wind deflector. In mine it’s only small and folds down out the way.. The spiders is fixed and its nasty Perspex which didn't seem very clear. On the plus side the car was fitted with parking sensors.. I have never been bothered by these but due to bad visibility and the possibility of laying out £250 excess for any claim I was pleased to have them! On setting off I was really struggling with the gear box. The 1st to 2nd change was really crunchie. Stopped to move my seat closer as I thought it was due to the clutch pedal not being pressed in enough.. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't get a smooth change from 1st to 2nd. The gear lever felt really light in the hand with no weight behind the knob... The box felt stiff like I was stirring porridge! I wasn't liking the gear box and after 2 or 3 minutes of driving I was really not liking the ratio's... They are way too tall... The car has a lot of torque and the torque steer is shockingly bad in 2nd and 3rd! The turbo lag is also easy to count in seconds!... The car felt like it was broken with full throttle openings... You could almost count to 3 before a big dollop of torque would come in and the car would surge forward... This was quite fun to start with but I soon got bored of the torque steer and the lag from the turbo. I like responsive cars.. Most people think the Honda Vtec engine has no power till you rev the nuts off it but this is not true.. It's very responsive on the throttle and its instant thanks to the close ratio box... I got caught out so many times in the spider.. I even managed to stall it in 4th at 22mph! This might not seem that bad.. But the S2000 will pull from 30mph in 6th with not even a hint of the engine cut out.... The spider is however about 400KGs heavier than the S2000 so this might have something to do with it!After leaving heavy traffic and getting back to the flat I loaded the car up with all the crap I needed to take down to the new forest. It’s an 88 mile trip so I was actually looking forward to having a diesel on the motorway... After all what’s the point in having one? I had a dash reading of 32.5MPG as the average consumption I was hoping for 50MPG on the motorway. The Spider is very quiet on the motorway and is fitted with cruise control and a pretty good stereo. The S2000 has next to none sound deading and a **** stereo as standard... So **** infact I actually binned the speakers and the CD player! The £30-£40 I might have been able to get on ebay wasn't worth my time! The roof of the spider is lined on the inside which is a nice touch.. Mine is naked and you can see the roof rails.. There are also no catches and the roof is fully automatic. About half way down the motorway it was sunny and a nice 16 degrees outside!. I decided to take on some fuel and put the roof down... The roof took about 25 seconds as it folds away under a really nice panel which hugs the roll over hoops.. It looks very smart with the roof down! Little Enzo was onboard so I had to have the windows up... Just in case he jumped out.. The wind deflector keeps most of the buffeting out.. Just the odd gust of wind to upset my curls... I end up looking like I have been in a tumble dryer in the S2000 and a nice afro to boot! Although the car is nice and quiet on the motorway I wasn't getting on with the turbo lag....the car has lots of torque when it has boost the lag is so bad that I was finding myself dropping gears. This was not something I had expected and another few points knocked off for driving pleasure... On getting to the new forest I took the long way back through some nice twisty stuff. The car is way too soft in the corners and you can really feel the weight of the car. The car under steers badly so much so that I actually thought maybe I should have checked the tire pressures before hand so I cut my normal route short...By the time I had got to mum and dads the car was nothing special to look at... The black paint was covered in road salt and water marks. I was actually going to give it a clean but then I had lost interest... Alfa Romeo couldn't be arsed to make a good car so I couldn't be arsed to clean it! Most of you know I am into my cameras; well I had packed all my gear into the boot... Originally I was going to do a little photo shoot as the car looks really hot. But after 2 hours of driving it I couldn't be bothered.The next day I popped round to my mates house.. He is mad on cars and we usually go for a thrash about... his eyes lit up when I arrived on the drive, I revved the engine and he just shock his head....a cup of tea inside and the Alfa stayed on the drive no loan car thrashing for this Alfa!The only nice thing I can really think to say about it is the car does look really good.. It was getting a lot of attention. I left it with the roof down during the day and in the 3 days I had it I got lots of nice compliments from people... Another thing to point out.. The car is fitted with a large amount of aluminium trim. With the roof up it brightens the inside of the car up nicely however with the roof down and the sun behind you acts like a huge tanning mirror... You can't see anything from the glare!I think I will test drive the V6... Surely that should be pretty good.. Its 250BHp and 4 wheel drive and a sports car sound track... I managed 33mpg average... I am usually around 22-35mpg in the S2000 so this gives you an idea of my driving style...to only manage 33mpg in a diesel! I checked the Alfa data and they say 40MPG is about average... so this is about right... I checked the tire pressures and they were all fine! So to summarise... Looks great , drives **** , sounds **** , **** MPG buy a TT, Boxster or a Z4 if you are after something comfy and quick, this car is not for you! Edited March 30, 2009 by Putney Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigkingdingaling Posted March 29, 2009 Report Share Posted March 29, 2009 Seems to me that you're forgetting its an Alpha.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeyesh Posted March 30, 2009 Report Share Posted March 30, 2009 Nice write up Putney I would have imagined the fuel economy on the motorway to be higher than the low thirties that you have achieved!! Was it a 6 speeder? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike_M Posted March 30, 2009 Report Share Posted March 30, 2009 I must agree it does look very nice as a spider! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philplop Posted March 30, 2009 Report Share Posted March 30, 2009 Sounds like it was quite a disappointment. Looks friggin amazing though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Putney Posted March 30, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 30, 2009 Yes it was a 6 speed. I am unsure what the fuel economy was actually on the motorway because i had 20 mins of traffic before the motorway and then 15 mins of fast twisty stuff the other end... Mine was black.I am going to test drive the 250BHP V6 but I was told low teens for fuel consumption! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krieglupo Posted March 30, 2009 Report Share Posted March 30, 2009 Gorgeous car! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crusoe Posted March 31, 2009 Report Share Posted March 31, 2009 white with tan leather looks fantastic, the prodrive 3.2 fwd version is supposed to be the only one that is reasonable to drive though. holding their value quite well second hand (my dad is looking for one just now but trying to convince him not to). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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