Product Reviews > Alfa Romeo 147 (1.9 L, Diesel, Lusso)

"The Alfa 147TS is a little slice of Italian exotica that weaves its charm every time you climb in"

You don't expect much sense of occasion for £14,000. For this sort of money you're usually buying something workaday, something average, something that blends into the grey automotive background. The pricelists throw up dull but worthies aplenty. A Toyota Corolla 1.4 T Spirit, a Mazda3 1.6 or how about a Vauxhall Astra 1.4 Club? No, me neither. While the temptation to abandon the attempt ...

"Walk round the 147 and it's tough to spot one bad angle"

Facelifting cars is a minefield. All too often, the original stylists can't be persuaded to undertake a mid-life makeover and an in-house design team more often gainfully employed designing glove box hinges gets railroaded into drawing a whole new face for a model that probably didn't need it. That's the only explanation I can forward for some of the aberrations foisted on us in recent years by many manufacturers in a desperate a...

"The JTD diesel engine suits the 147's personality, feeling languid and nonchalant"

We are often reminded that style and practicality are mutually exclusive concepts. If you want something that looks good, chances are you'll need to make sacrifices. The most glamorous shoes will cripple you in a matter of metres. The most exotic cars have no luggage space and are possessed of a devastating appetite for fossil fuels. Rare indeed are the products that manage to broker a compromise deal be...

"It's well built, halfway affordable, quick, economical, environmentally clean and it even handles reasonably well. It's a car that leaves you looking for the catch"

It's a mark of how far we've come that 150bhp in a small hatchback rarely raises eyebrows these days. A solid 200bhp seems to be the entry point to the brigade of seriously sporting shopping trolleys, but the rules get a little skewed if you've got a diesel under your bonnet. Majoring on torque rather than power, a 150bhp d...

Though the original three-door Alfa Romeo 147 was showered with awards, it was only when the more versatile five-door version joined the range that UK sales really got into gear. With the bigger bodystyle came a wider choice of engine and transmission options and hence the mass-market appeal the Italians were seeking.

The Alfa 156 trick of hiding the rear door handles in the trailing edge of the rear window frames continues here, giving the five-door car a far less frumpy appearance tha...

Midlife facelifts can be tough things for car manufacturers to carry off, especially when the car in question has already established a reputation as one of the best-looking models in its class. Such a quandary confronted Alfa Romeo when tasked with giving their 147 hatchback range a wash and brush up in 2005. By modern standards of automotive product planning, five years was a long time for this car to have been on sale with no major amendments and few thought the revisions would add up to m...

Midlife facelifts can be tough things for car manufacturers to carry off, especially when the car in question has already established a reputation as one of the best-looking models in its class. Such a quandary confronted Alfa Romeo when tasked with giving their 147 hatchback range a wash and brush up in 2005. By modern standards of automotive product planning, five years was a long time for this car to have been on sale with no major amendments and few thought the revisions would add up to m...