Well i've got one of these as a hirecar at the minute while my VX220's being repaired.
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I've been dong my 40mile B/A road commute each day.
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Initially I thought the driving position was too van like, its like many modern cars in that its too tall all over due to pedestrian safty etc.
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I've got used to it a bit but it still feels un-natural, really as if your sat up above the chassis not in it so its a little disconnected.
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However it is a very nice place to be, it does go very well and is overall a very nice car.
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I've driven plenty of sub 2 litre modern direct injection turbo diesels and not seen what the fuss is about, small power band, the feeling of torque and not much else, the speedo still moves slowly.
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This thing however moves
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(once the turbo spinning hard 1.5bar above 1600rpm), pulling off in 1st i've now stalled it twice, its weak, realy weak below 1500rpm, dabing the throttle to get the revs up doesn't work, its as if you've not done it when you do.
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You have to rev it and slip the clutch to get off the mark at any speed and slip it to pull off normally else its verging on stalling.
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I scared myself pulling out of a junction into a small gap in the traffic as I had my foot flat to the floor, clutch out, the car was moving but at a crawl.
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Once your at 1700rpm though, right through to 4500 it really pulls like a train, dreadful torque steer and i bet in the wet it'd doing nothing but spin the wheels, dry though its fast.
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£30,300 it was, a lot of money.
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Driving it about I'd not prefer to be in the same age
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& value BMW, Audi or Merc though.
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The Alfa is very nice, it also sounds great, god knows how they've done it but the straight 5 sounds more like a V6 petol n/a.
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It also looks great.
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210bhp/295lbs respectable for a 2.4Diesel.
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![Image](http://www.steve-bowen.com/Random/alfa1592.4jtdm1.jpg)
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![Image](http://www.steve-bowen.com/Random/alfa1592.4jtdm.jpg)
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