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It's quite socially acceptable to castigate cars of yesteryear for their styling excesses, for form dominating function. The Yank tanks of the Fifties and Sixties - ho, ho, ho! What incredibly bad space utilisation - huge cars with no interior room. That, at the time, people were wowed by the styling has now been forgotten. But what of today's cars where proportions are dictated by the stylist? What happens when our current style-induced myopia wears off? And there's nothing surer than changing fashions will dictate that occurs - and then how we will view the Alfa 156 Sportwagon? For here we have a wagon where stylists have produced what many regard as a very good looking car indeed. So it's a shame that - in visibility and interior space - a 15-year-old Camira wagon is more advanced...
And it's hard to forgive such an approach in a vehicle whose raison d'etre is the carriage of goods. Sure, we don't expect an Alfa wagon to look like a commercial van, but we also don't expect a design so compromised that the rear side glass is just 25cm in depth, that the roof spoiler's flow functionality is blocked by a strip of stiff rubber, and that the load area - while much greater than that of the 156 sedan - is really quite small. In fact, the converging roof and waistlines means that the tailgate has had to be cut a long way forward into the roof, otherwise the opening would have been ridiculously tiny. In turn that has limited how far the roof rack bars can extend towards the rear of the car... The Alfa salesman summed it up to us. "People come in wanting to buy a 156, but they look at it and wonder aloud if it isn't a little small. Then we show them the wagon and they're happy!"
Think of the Sportwagon as a 156 sedan with a slightly larger boot and you can rest easily; think of it's a wagon per se and all you can do is shake your head....
But let's move away from the compromised area and look at the other end of the car. Under the bonnet is the same 114kW 2-litre variable valve timed twin cam four fitted to the sedan (the V6 is not available in the Sportswagon). A creamy smooth engine with a very flat torque curve, the Alfa is equally happy trickling around or having its engine sung to the redline. First-time drivers find themselves naturally short-shifting; they then wonder why they can still leave city traffic so far behind. The answer to that is torque: if you were told that ahead of you was a small capacity six cylinder, it'd be quite easy to believe it. Peak torque of 187Nm is achieved at 3500 rpm, but - more importantly from a driveability perspective - over 165Nm is available all the way from 2300 rpm to 6500 rpm. Put your foot down in any gear at any speed and there's positive response... not the startling push in the pack achievable by a turbo 2-litre, but still a respectable amount of go.
The only glitches we could find was that the engine always needed to be cranked for quite a long time before it would start, and - more seriously - there feels to be a strong 'dash-pot' function on the throttle release. Lift off, and the dropping of revs back to idle is quite slow. This causes jerkiness in on/off throttle movements, and some drivers found making smooth gearchanges difficult. We don't remember this being a problem in any of the other 2-litre Alfas we've driven; perhaps it was a characteristic confined to just this car.
But in general this is a superb engine, worthy of its marque's very long history of producing sophisticated and driveable machinery.
The handling of the Sportwagon depends very much on how you drive it. In dry conditions at 7-8 tenths it is brilliant. The very direct steering gives the car a nimble feel, heightened by the low amounts of body roll. You come up to the corner, turn the wheel, and - there! - you're around it. Up the ante to 9/10ths and you'll find that the combination of a front-wheel drive chassis and the high front roll stiffness conspire to cause inside wheelspin. You can't just tromp it on the exit and be pulled out of the corner; instead it's a case of feeding in power if you don't want to see it all lost as the inside wheel lights up. Start to really throw the Alfa around - 10/10ths for us, on public roads at least - and the Sportwagon can slide a long way. The power-on understeer can be translated into power off oversteer, and - even with no rear passengers or luggage - the back can really hang out. However, such is the chassis balance and throttle control available, the Alfa never feels ragged, even with lots of lateral movement. All that's in the dry - in wet conditions we were surprised with how early the front let go, that front roll stiffness not doing the 205/60 Michelins any favours.
The steering, controlled through a chunky leather wheel, possesses delightful feel, sensitivity and directness. In fact, in most conditions it is simply wonderful - communicative and with a total lack of tramlining. But corner hard over ripply bitumen and you'll find an unexpected trait - kickback. While not as bad as can be found in some cars, the sheer expectedness of having that silken wheel suddenly jerking in your hands is startling; certainly when in their publicity material Alfa make a great deal of the development that has gone into this steering system, it's something which simply shouldn't be there.
Braking comprises front 284mm ventilated discs and rear 251mm solid 'uns, all controlled by ABS. On paper, great. However, in this car the pedal travel was quite long, finishing in a grabbing application of the retarders. All those who drove the car commented on this trait; along with that jerky throttle release, it made for less than smooth driving in urban conditions. But - to be fair - we also don't remember this in the 156 sedan that we had previously (the brakes are identical in spec). Also noticeable under panic conditions was that the initial retardation was lacking - even a stomp on the brake pedal wouldn't get the ABS operating until the car was already slowing.
Trimmed on our test car in a light-coloured leather, the cabin looks and smells inviting. Both the steering wheel and gearknob are also covered in dead cow skin, a definite upgrade from the dead tree used on the previous 156 we drove. The steering is adjustable for both reach and height, and the seat is height-adjustable as well. Finding a comfortable driving position is easy - no traditional Italian long-arms-short-legs required - although some of our drivers found the seat lumbar support lacking. The white-faced main instruments - speedo and tach - are deeply recessed into separate binnacles, making the one-glance reading of both impossible. Coolant temp, the clock and fuel gauges are placed above the centre console, aimed at the driver from deep recesses - so deep that the front seat passenger cannot read any of them, including the analog clock. Lateral legroom for the front seat occupants is quite limited - the driver tends to bang his/her knee on the side of the wide centre console. However, there's plenty of space in other directions, and the back passengers have good head-, foot- and knee-room. Unfortunately the VDO single-CD AM/FM head unit is absurdly complex to use - if you can work out how to adjust the bass and treble without reading the book, you're doing bloody well. It's sound is competent.
The tailgate does not have any form of external opening handle - let alone one that is separately lockable. It can be released by the remote, an internal catch, or the use of the key. Once held in its raised position by twin gas struts, the load area is very accessible. In addition to a luggage cover blind, a separate net-type luggage restraint can be raised from the top of the back seat to the roof - a distance of less than 30cm (told you the rear dimensions were, er, snug!). A third luggage quelling device is also present - it's a small luggage net that can be attached in a variety of positions within the cargo area.
The spare wheel cover - effectively the floor of the load space - can be reversed, carpet being swapped for a hard plastic surface on which wet items can be temporarily stored. And of course the rear seat can be tilted forward, with a 60:40 split used. If you wish, you can also lift forward the rear seat squabs, with this procedure allowing the seat backs to sit flat. And it is only in this two-seater configuration that the Sportwagon has any pretence of wagon-type luggage space.
Look, if you're the sort of person who loves to drive, relishes the feel of the road transmitted through a firm but resilient suspension, enjoys direct steering and a responsive chassis - and, most of all - loves parking your car to just look at it, you'll think the Sportwagon superb. Because, in many ways it is. But if you have a young family and buy a wagon so that you can drop into antique shops and pick up bargains; or you like taking a few mates along when you go diving, or hang-gliding, or to play sport, think hard before shelling out the dough.
History has a habit of badly judging cars where form has so dramatically triumphed over function....
www.alfaromeo.com.au
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